Sorry, but one dahlia tuber looks virtually identical to another. You will have to wait until they bloom.

Ah, oh well. Maybe it works out anyways. This year I was thinking of using large raised planters instead of directly in the ground anyways, so that I could easily improve soil quality and make it easier to dig up in spring.

at least if there in planters when they start to grow I can gently remove the dinner plate ones to their own planter (they tend to cover up the small ones). :)

Can only tell the two groups apart by tuber size.

the tuber size is mainly due to general genetics and very little correlates to flower size or plant hight.

and all features like height, flower shape, flower size or color or tuber quality can be theoratically combined freely in any plant

I had a short semi-cactus (2 foot hight) that had far bigger clumps than much taller water lily types.

if the breeder of a line or cultivar did not pay attention to tuber size they an be very small.

Swan Island cultivars for example tend to be good tuber makers as they would cull new seedlings with iffy or few tubers

if you had dwarf Dahlias they probably produce somewhat smaller tubers, but not if your other Dahlias just had smaller flower heads

Thanks linaria!

Unfortunately I didn’t pay great attention when I bought the tubers from a big box store, my thought process was “oh look pretty flowers, and on sale!” Haha. I have a large pink dinner plate variety, and some smaller ones that get about 3 ft tall, one is white and red in this beautiful tapered fashion, he other is a deep burgundy. I’ll pay more attention next year :)

thanks for your input it’s good information for me to know

Would anyone be able to tell me the names of these 3 dahlias? I got them at a big box store and couldn’t remember what I bought.

this pink one is a dinner plate variety that was about 4-4.5 ft tall