Dahlia Disaster

Last year’s was definitely one of my favorite and probably the prettiest gardening seasons I’ve had so far. I have always loved the big beautiful dahlias I’ve seen online but couldn’t justify spending all the money on tubers that it would cost… Until last year. I purchased a handful of tubers and had some amazing, beautiful blooms throughout my garden. This morning I went down and checked my storage bins that I’ve been over wintering my tubers in and to say the least… I’m crushed. Every last tuber I saved & stored is either completely dried up or has rotted out. I had them stored in a dark room in my basement which stays consistently around 45F and all placed in vermiculite. This seemed like the best method after researching and asking different dahlia groups. I’m not sure what I did wrong or what I could’ve done better and I’m trying to just chalk it up to I’ll know how to do it better next time.

Unfortunately at the moment replacing my tubers isn’t really an option financially. I’m not sure if it’ll happen but honestly I guess I’m just hoping to put this out there and ask. Does anyone have any dahlia tubers that maybe multiplied or might not end up getting planted that they would be willing to spare? I’m in Maryland (Frederick/Hagerstown areas) and could meet wherever needed if so.. If so I can’t tell you how much I’d appreciate it but regardless please everyone at least take my advice from this and spare yourself the sadness… MAKE SURE YOU STORE THEM 100% CORRECTLY!! Just don’t take my advice as to how you should store them…