February 2026 Newsletter

See the full original newsletter pdf with photos here: February 2026 Newsletter

NEXT MEETING:

FEBRUARY 10 at 7:30 at 9th and Lincoln. Parking at 10th and Lincoln in back lot. Program: Kicking off our 100th year ofThe Dahlias being the Official Flower of San Francisco, Erik will stroll us through the history of our DSC. He will also delight us with the 2026 New Introductions. We will talk about reliable vendors and the more problematic ones. We will share “waking up” solutions. Deborah will review her milk carton strategy for starting tubers. Who will bring Valentine’s treats?

FLOWER OF THE YEARSSSSS

What is Flower of the Year? It’s a variety we ALL agree to grow and bring to competition. Deborah once saw 76 April Dawns on one table! Amazing! It demonstrated how one set of genes responded to differences in soil, fertilizer, sun exposure, water, latitude, grooming, and even transport to the show. For the 100th anniversary of the Dahlia being the Official Flower of San Francisco, $100 in prize money will reward the finest example of Skip to My Lou. Be on the lookout for Skip to My Lou tubers! We know Levi must have it since he won Best Junior Bloom with it last August. Let the trades and deals commence. This is a colorful Lou Paradise introduction, red and white BB formal decorative, which would happily dance in any garden. This is one way all of you can contribute to our 100th year of planting diversity! Please grow AND SHOW Skip to My Lou this year.

DAHLIA CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS?

Fifteen year old Alexandra thrilled her auntie Jenna with felt and beaded dahlia Christmas ornaments. Obviously crafting runs in the family. Maybe she’ll show us how to fabricate them in a later newsletter, please, Alexandra???

CAVALCADE OF BEAUTIES

Here’s a few dahlias to delight your eyes during these dormant months.

DIVIDED TUBERS

In response to January’s 6 steps AFTER dividing tubers, there were several good questions.

After I divide the tubers, wash them, soak them in the 10% bleach, do I immediately dab the cut edges in cinnamon? Won't that trap moisture and cause rotting?

I often wait half an hour for the tubers to drip dry on a black flat before covering the exposed portions in sulfur or cinnamon. Then I leave them out for at least 24 hours. This should not trap moisture. You need to determine that sweet spot between adequately dry and verging on desiccation and shriveling.

Why are some tubers covered in darker bumpy skin while others barely have only a thin layer of pale yellow skin?

So many factors contribute to producing good tubers. What was the interval between when you chopped down to 5 notches and when you dug up? Usually the longer this interval, the tougher the skin will become. Clumps hacked down, dug and divided the same day often have thin pale yellow skin. Genetics also play a role. Some tubers that go dormant in wet ground develop venticles, like little raised warts, as a result of making more surface area. Venticles are harmless. Sometimes minerals in your soil will create discolorations, but these should not affect the quality of next year’s blooms.

How vigorously should I scrub the tubers? Does it matter to get all the dirt off?

These days we are all trying to maintain a higher level of contamination control, thus, the cleaner the tubers are before they go into the bleach solution, the more surface area that will be saturated. Also, the cleaner your Clorox solution will remain. I use a toothbrush to gently scrub my tubers. You quickly learn how much pressure is too much! Be very gentle around the crown and the eyes.

My vermiculite seems dry, even straight out of the package. Do I add water to it?

It depends. Really a frustrating answer, I know. It depends on your ambient humidity. San Francisco, surrounded by sea on 300 degrees, laves us in luscious viscous air. Sometimes we have to add special drying kitty litter to our vermiculite because it isn’t dry enough! This is one of those situations where you need to experiment until you find what YOUR location requires. Generally, I would say DO NOT ADD WATER! But do make sure you cover your tubers completely.

I'm storing my tubers in plastic bins. Do I need to pop air holes in the bins to let the tubers breathe?

No. I store mine in plastic bags and put a bunch of the bags in a big cardboard box. I leave my plastic bags open. If you choose to close your boxes and stack them, you need to check them once a week. Open the box and run your finger over the inside lid. If your finger detects moisture, leave the box open for a couple days to “breathe” out the excess damp. Too much moisture will rot your tubers.

Can I reuse the mother tuber?

It depends. Grrr. Such a frustrating answer. If I’ve paid a lot of money, I want to save every single expensive viable tuber. As long as it has a good eye, it will produce a plant. Once the sprout is established, it doesn’t really need the tuber any more. However, if the clump yields 15-20 tubers, why bother with the Mother Tuber???

Thank you for your good questions.

DAHLIA CALENDER

Pacific Southwest Conference Feb. 28 CPDES Portuguese Hall Register NOW Santa Cruz

C. Coast DS Tuber Sale April 12 United Meth. Church 1-4 PM 1515 Frederick St. SLO

DSC TUBER SALE April 25 9th and Lincoln GG Park SF Flower of the Year Skip to My Lou $100!

San Leandro Tuber Sale April 25 Judging Seminar July 25 East Bay TBA

Central Coast Show Aug. 8-9 United Methodist Church 1515 Frederick St. SLO

Flowers of the Year Misfit Kaleidoscope Reann’s Tiger’s Eye

SLDC Show Sept 5-6

DSC Floribunda! Aug. 15-16 9th and Lincoln GG Park SF

DSC Anniversary Picnic Sept. 13 Dahlia Dell

National Show Aug. 27-30 Grand Rapids, Michigan

PSW CPDES Portuguese Hall in Santa Cruz Doors open at 8:15 am, and the meeting is from 9 am to 4 pm Tickets are $60. Open now, tickets CLOSE on Feb 9th, NO REFUNDS after Feb 14.

CAGE WRESTLING

Deborah set up 3 work stations on her sunny Bernal deck complete with sifter screens, water pools and bleach baths. Tara, Lucy and Brigid wrestled Warden’s clumps out of their very snug gopher cages and commenced to divide gnarly masses. Steve popped some of the germinated tubers into milk cartons destined for the Maus Haus loft. Brigid stashed some of the sprouts in 1x1x3” or 4x4” containers destined for the greenhouse. Afterwards, they all sat down to hot sweet potato chowder, bread, cheese, sausage, salad, cherries and another of Lucy’s amazingly gorgeous (and delicious) cakes. These onerous tasks are so much more fun with good company.

PARADE OF BEAUTIES FROM 2025

Foxy Lady Glenmar Devive Grenidor Pastelle Hapet Pastel Hillier Tanuda Hilltop Mimi

SUCCESSFUL CUTTINGS

Julia reports that her young sprigs thrive under a little light by her window. Excellent!

OVER HILL AND DELL

Sue has dug and trucked out all her clumps from the east side of the Hillside. Antoinette, Steve and Deborah have begun pulling out a few clumps each visit. So far the report is that the tubers look very promising. Deborah reports one thriving double white tree dahlia still available for sale. Let her know your interest. Lou will put most of his tubers on the cutting bench so ALL OF US will benefit at our Tuber Sale. Yay!

FECUND FEBRUARY

Wow! We lucked into some amazingly warm days towards the end of January. Weeds are EVERYWHERE! You can consider these a free cover crop or the beginning of an exponential problem. Moreover, the last 3 clumps I’ve lifted at the Dell had wee white sprouts. It could be a really early season for those of you who left dahlias in the ground. If you are inclined, like Phil, to add bags of commercial chicken manure, now is the time. You have at least 6 weeks before burgeoning roots would be burned by the heavy urea. You could also crawl around your stock and scratch in some balanced fertilizer—where all the numbers are the same 8-8-8 or 12-12-12 for example. I like Dr. Earth Flower Girl because it contains mycorrhizi, microbiota and trace elements. If you have left a clump in, there will be more tubers vying for less nutrients the second time around. Refill the larder. To coddle a couple of my favorites, I’ve turned 5-gallon buckets over the top of them in the garden. This both warms the soil a bit when the sun shines, acting like a mini greenhouse and also keeps the snails, slugs and earwigs out.

Supper Sluggo—(imagine heroic music in the background)

The MOMENT you see long awaited green tips, you MUST guard against marauders. Everything loves newly emerging dahlia sprigs. Super Sluggo gets not only the slugs and snails but also the earwigs. Dastardly earwigs can gnaw a new dahlia to oblivion in a single dark night. Grrrrr!

Wake Up, Little Tuber

First: how to keep your tubers dormant. They will slumber on in a cool—40-50 degrees—- dark, dry but not arid environment. Under a house. The very back lower corner of your garage. Your wine cellar? Covered outside in the shade. These ideas will keep your tubers hibernating. But what will wake them up? Each gardener learns where this miraculous spot is for them. Dahlias need heat, humidity and darkness to emerge from their slumber. For me, this is up in my loft, the highest spot in the Maus Haus and thus the warmest. I put my tubers in milk cartons covered with rich potting soil and NO WATER. Luckily, I am close to the Bay so our general air is humid but not WET. I keep the milk cartons closed with no light stimulation. Once a week I check the cartons for newly sprouted dahlias. Then I open the flap and expose the new growth to indirect light from my loft window. Erik makes Tuber Lasagna. He puts a damp hand towel over a black flat filled with tubers. He can stack these layers quite high in his extra shower stall. This gets warm and holds the moisture. Again, he checks germination periodically. My brother Mike used to pot his tubers in gallon containers and stack them in his greenhouse. Baker Bill would save giant pizza boxes lined with vermiculite and lay his tubers in that cozy nest. He’d stack his pizza boxes on top of his water heater. Obviously there are lots of ways to wake up your treasures; you just have to find the perfect way for YOU.

Simple Gopher Cages

An easy way to make gopher cages is to take 3-4 gallon pots and screw bunches of holes in the bottom 2/3’s. Make sure that the holes are so small that even young gophers cannot squeeze their hungry selves through.

Sign up for PSW Conference NOW. You’ll meet up with bloomerati from all over California and hear some illuminating talks. The raffle will be full of wonderful tubers and cuttings from the Monterey area and beyond. Try to car pool with fellow addicts.

Yours in dirt,
Deborah

Photo credits: Chilton, Debrie, Dietz, Evans, Harms, K&B, Kaiser, Kenyon, Kowaguchi, Rodway, Roethle, Scofield, Trew, Tiff

Punctilious Proofreader: Steve

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