FAQs

Dahlia Growing Tips

Dahlias purchased from Mayfield Farm will be shipped out in mid-April. The deadline for ordering tubers to be shipped has passed. If you want to pick up your dahlias on the farm, there will be two dates available.

Once they arrive, store them in a cool, dry place until you are ready to plant. A basement or a garage works well. They will store well in the material that you receive them in.

All tubers sold are checked to make sure they are not “blind tubers,” or tubers without a growing eye. This does not guarantee that they will ultimately grow a plant, but it’s a good start! Each tuber variety is labeled, too.

Dahlias should be planted out after all danger of frost is past, just like other tender annuals. Dig a hole about 4-6 inches deep and plant with the tuber lying on its side, and the growing eye facing up, if you can tell. At this point, the dahlia tuber does not need to be watered. Until they are established and growing, dahlias get everything they need from the body of the tuber itself. Too much water can rot your tuber in the ground. Amend your bed with compost, fertilizer, and mulch.

Once the dahlias are growing, they are hungry and thirsty plants, and do need lots of water and fertilizer. They can grow up to 5 feet tall, so they also will need to be staked. Depending on the variety, dahlias start blooming in late July-early August and will bloom right through first frost. The more you cut your dahlias, the more flowers they produce!

After first frost, the dahlias will die back. In warm climates, dahlias are perennials and can be cut down to the ground and mulched. Here in West Virginia zone 6a/b, our winters are a bit too cold. We dig our dahlias and store the clumps in cedar chips in our garage, never letting it get below freezing. Come late winter, we pull them out and divide them, and the process starts all over again!

Happy planting!