03/06/2026
We planted a whopping 1,200 – no, that’s not a typo – dahlia tubers in the flower fields this past weekend, and that wasn’t even all of them! Which means we’ll have leftover tubers at the Ruby Moon farm stand this weekend (undivided clumps, 3-5 tubers per clump, will be $10 and five divided tubers are $20!), open Friday and Saturday 9am to 7pm, cash or Venmo only!
As for the tuber planting, you could be forgiven for thinking we’re planting a bit late – but as it happens, it’s absolutely NOT too late to plant your tubers! We like to wait a little bit longer to plant ours, ever since the year we planted ours in our still-wet fields and ended up losing every single tuber to rot. Consider that a (harsh) lesson learned.
You could absolutely pick up a stash of tubers this weekend, plant them in the following few days and be in plenty of time for an abundance of beautiful blooms come late summer and fall.
As for the how-to, we like to plant our tubers in an area that gets full sun. Dig a hole six inches deep and lay your tuber on its side, eye up, and cover loosely with soil. Then we wait for the first sprouts, and only then do we start to water! Once your dahlias hit six to eight inches in height (or have three sets of leaves), it’s time to pinch, cutting off the centre stalk down to the next set of leaves, in order to encourage your plant to grow out, rather than just up.
If you forget to pinch, or just don’t want to – it can be hard to take a clippers to your newly growing babies, we know! – that’s okay too, but your plants might need a little extra support in the form of stakes or netting, especially if they’re planted in an exposed area that gets a lot of wind.
Once they start to bloom, the key is to cut, cut, cut – the more blooms you cut, the more blooms you’ll get; if you leave the blooms on the plant, it’ll start to focus on developing seed, rather than growing more flowers. But cut your flowers to display in your home and your dahlia plant will keep producing, right up to the first frost!
Got any specific dahlia questions? Let us know in the comments, send us a message or email us [email protected] :)
