I bought a dahlia tuber, now what?

 If you are waking up your tuber from storage, you will need to put them through a waking up phase. Here is a link to a great video from Santa Cruz dahlias explaining the waking up process. 

Your dahlia tuber from Hillside Home Dahlias is going to arrive to you already in the waking up phase. Read our Dahlia Care page to see when a good time to plant your dahlia tuber is. If it is your time to plant, you can plant up your dahlia right away! Instructions for planting are also on the Dahlia Care page. If there is still a little time until you can plant your dahlia tuber outside, you can either leave it in it's bag in 65-70 degree temperatures (out of direct sunlight). You may want to sprinkle the slightest bit of water on the packaging material to make sure the tuber doesn't dry out. You can also pre- pot up your tuber to give it a quicker start outside. Pot it up in slightly damp potting mix. You don't want it to be very wet, just slightly damp.  Put the tuber in the pot vertically with the crown (the top of the tuber where there is a larger area attached to a thinner neck area) just under the soil. Place in a sunny window and watch the sprouts grow! When it is time to plant a pre-potted tuber, you will want to plant it vertically rather than horizontally.