Hi Keri,
Yes, I started some of mine late last month. Others I started about 10 days ago ;-). A few of the earlier potted ones are already up!
Gail

Most of mine have been planted for a couple of weeks now, and some are over a foot tall already.

I planted some at the beginning of March and am potting up the rest now. My house is kind of chilly, so nothing is a foot high. Several are up, however.

Christine

I'm so jealous! But alas, I only have one window that is good for starting tubers and a 13 month old son who would surely end up covered in dirt immediately after I put up a pot.

Hi Keriann,

Do you pot them up in largish pots to start them? You must have a really big basement! I thought I should wait another month since I probably wont be planting them out until June 1st, but I see mytime in Alaska is already moving ahead. Isnt two months squeezed into pots to long to hold them?

We got more snow yesterday !! I feel like going out and building bonfires on my empty Dahlia bed to get the soil warming :)

I've started every tuber I have in pots but my largest supplier of new ones ignored my Mid March request and now tells me they are in the potting shed with thousands of others and they can not possibly do anything about it. Arrgh!

I don't squeeze mine in...I use pretty large pots. Since so many of them need to be potted, I just pot them all up...I don't think potting them really speeds up their growth, but rather makes the growth they produce healthier. I'd prefer to not pot so early, since I can't supply enough light for all of them. But at least it's warm enough that I can move them outside for a few hours each day for some natural light. By the time they're too large to be kept on my shelving unit, I should be able to move them into the greenhouse (theoretically May 1). The smaller variety will be blooming by the time I plant them out in late May, early June. If I'm remembering correctly, even some of the larger ones had buds then last year. With our short season before frost, I want as much bloom time as possible. Even though it is a PITA taking care of them in March and April. And even in May.

Ahh, having a greenhouse makes the difference. Its near the top of my list of dreams, but I dont see it happening for a while. My lighting is all dedicated to seedlings right now, and window space already overcrowded. I think I had better wait, but its hard. Buds in May ! I wish.

mytime...Where are you located in AK?

Chocolatemoose...I live in Wasilla. I see you're in North Pole. I lived in Fairbanks for 5 years, and my sister has lived there for more than 35 years. She's tougher than I am!

Hi everyone,
I started mine about 3 weeks ago and spoiled myself with a 5 ft by 2ft greenhouse on wheels from lowes and WOW does this save room. It was 35 dollers but I saw it at a farm store for 30. I also followed Poochellas advice and used plastic bags and it's working great, it's a BIG BIG space saver. Cindy

I just returned from a 9 day trip, so of course the first thing I did when I got home was check my dahlias...What to my wondering eyes did appear? Dahlia buds!

Dahlia buds in April in Alaska - I love it!!, you rock mytime! I'll start waking mine up next week.

About 1/2 of my dahlias are unnamed ones that I grew from seed. If I like them, I save the tubers in the fall. Theoretically, it should be easy to mark what color they are, but fall time is hectic and so usually they all get tossed in a bag (except for the named ones) and I plant them out not knowing what color any of them are. Advantage to potting them so early? Most have started blooming already, and I just started planting them out a couple of days ago. So if I so choose, some will actually be color coordinated with the plants they are near.