My Rochester Dahlias are in the ground.
Our Minnesota soil is finally getting nice and warm mid to late May, so it's time to get dahlias in the ground. Most of my dahlias have been started indoors and are now sprouted up to 6+ inches tall. I just finished planting 8 dahlias in our Rochester front yard and have documented the process.
I'll be planting 76 dahlias at Lake Edward Memorial Weekend (plus my final seed-started annuals that love warm weather including sunflowers). My beds are already almost full of happy, growing annuals and perennials.
My soil in Rochester has a lot of clay in it, which makes it very hard and hold water almost too well. Before planting my dahlias, I dug down about 12 inches to loosen the soil well then mixed in some potting soil and a bit of fertilizer. I then put in my dahlia so that the tuber sits about 4 inches down from the soil line and filled in around it. On several plants I took off a couple lower leaves so that they were not under the soil. This does not bother the dahlias at all. By planting a full 4 inches down, the plants will have good stability.
At planting is a great time to add in plant support. I've made the mistake of waiting and then it's much more challenging to get the supports in place. In Rochester this year I am using square tomato cage style supports.
