| How to Take Cuttings by Ted & Margaret Kennedy |
How to Take Dahlia Cuttings
by Ted & Margaret Kennedy
Hollyhill Dahlias
Revised 02-10-09
Introduction: There are probably as many ways to propagate dahlia cuttings, as there are dahlia growers. We grow Dahlias for cut
flowers and we need flowers early in the season. We have found that dahlias grown from cuttings serve our needs very well. We have
been taking cuttings for many years now and wish to share some of our methods with you.
Why not just grow dahlias from tubers? Why go to the bother of taking cuttings?
Advantages to cuttings:
(1) Economy: One tuber can produce 3, 4 or as many as 5 to 10 plants from cuttings. If you only were able to save one tuber or paid
lots of money for a new variety, taking cuttings is very cost effective.
(2) Early flowers: Cuttings taken in February and March and grown in the green house can be planted outside at the same date you
plant tubers. They will flower weeks ahead of your dahlias grown from tubers.
(3) Disease detection: Cuttings that show signs of virus or other disease can easily be discarded. A tuber will have been in the
ground for as much as a month before you can see the leaves. By that time it may be too late to replant with another tuber (if you have
one).
Disadvantages:
(1) Not as many tubers: Dahlias grown from cuttings do not produce as many tubers as those grown from tubers. However a good
tuber making dahlia variety will have lots of viable tubers from cuttings. Ironically, the varieties that are poor tuber makers are the ones
that many expert growers propagate from cuttings. Probably the best way to grow these varieties is to grow them from cuttings and
save some of the cuttings for pot tubers which are used the next year to produce cuttings.
(2) Pot bound tubers. The tubers that do develop will quite probably be contorted and difficult to divide because of the "pot
bound"effect of growing roots while in the pot. If you are good at dividing clumps this may not be a problem for you.
(3) Time and equipment: You need some lights and shelves and perhaps a green house or cold frame, and lots of pots and flats. It
does take time to tend to your plants.
Outline of the Cutting Process
(1) Tubers or pot tubers that will be used for cutting stock, need to be potted in a soil medium in sterile 4-inch pots or laid horizontally
in flats.
(2) The watered pots or flats are placed on a shelf or bench about 6 inches from a florescent light source.
(3) The temperature should be room temperature 68 to 72 degrees.
(4) In about 2 to 3 weeks the tubers will have 2 to 3 inch shoots.
(5) Cuttings are taken from the tubers.
(6) Cuttings are inserted into 2.5" pots filled with sterile germination soil mix.
(7) The pots are watered and placed into a sterile flat.
(8) The flat, full of cuttings, is inserted into a 13 gallon kitchen bag and tied shut.
(9) The flat is placed on the shelf or bench 4 to 6 inches under the florescent lights.
(10) After 9-11 days, open the bag and check the pots for roots.
(11) Remove the plastic bag from the cuttings and leave the flat under the lights for 3 to 7 days.
(12) Water cuttings as necessary; do not fertilize yet.
(13) Move cuttings to the green house or cold flat or lighted window.
(14) When watering use 20-20-20 greenhouse fertilizer diluted to one-third strength.
(15) Optional: After two weeks or so, replant into four inch pots using a good soil mix.
(16) Optional: After two to three weeks re-plant in gallon pots or plant in garden.
(17) Plant in garden and bury plants deeper than they were in the pots.
(18) Control for slugs or other pests as needed.
(19) Grow as you would a dahlia grown from a tuber.
(20) Enjoy the wonderful flowers, weeks earlier than plants grown from tubers.
Materials and Equipment List
Pots and flats: Lots of 2.5 inch, 4 inch pots and flats to match. A box of about 1000 2.5 " pots costs about $40.00. The 4 inch pots are a
bit more expensive. Plastic flats come in different quality levels and can be purchased for as little as 60 cents but the heavier ones are
better and cost closer to $1- or so. Four-inch pots can be purchased in a case with matching flats included.
Shelf Unit: A plastic shelf unit that is about 6 feet tall, 40 inches wide and about 16 inches deep, with five shelves. Cost is about
$40.00 at Home Depot. .
Florescent Light Fixtures: The cheapest 4-foot shop lights that sell for as little as $10.00 are just fine and are sold at Home Depot. .
Electric Strip to plug in Lights: A cheap grounded strip with 5 plug in slots is fine. Nice to have a switch to turn all of the lights at once.
Florescent Tubes: The cheapest ones work just as well as the expensive ones. We use 40-watt tubes. 25-watt tubes will probably
work fine also. "Grow Lights" are a waste of money.
Scalpel or knife: A small stainless steel scalpel can be purchased at a farm supply store for less than $2-. Or use any sharp knife.
Plastic 30-Gallon Garbage Can: Used to soak the pots and flats in bleach solution to sterilize them. The kind with wheels is better.
Plastic Kitchen Bags: The cheapest clear or white 13-gallon bags work great. The white ones let through all the light that is needed for
cuttings, so don't spend much time looking for clear bags.
Bleach: Chlorine laundry bleach. Use a half a gallon in the 30 gallon can to sterilize pots and flats.
Pot Labels: We use 5 inch nursery pot labels and only use the white labels as the colored ones get too brittle in the sunlight. Cost
about $17- per thousand.
Sharpie Marking Pens: Black Sharpie marking pens work fine. The Iindustrial Sharpie is better and is available at an office supply
store like Office Max.
Germination Soil Mix: We use Growers Gold (Used to be Black Gold?) Germination Mix by Sun Grow Horticulture. It comes in 2.8 cubic
foot bags and costs about $12.00-. We have used Sunshine Mix numbers 3 or 4 with success also, but it is more expensive. Others
use
Whitney Farms products. All are based on peat moss with vermiculite and/or perlite and lime and most importantly a wetting agent so
it will absorb water quickly. All are also sterile so that the cuttings will not suffer from diseases such as damping off. Germination mix
is a much higher-grade product than a standard potting mix, which is too coarse for cuttings.
Green House Fertilizer: We use 20-20-20 green house fertilizer with trace elements. Numerous brands are available including
Plantex, Fusion, Peters. Cost is about $28- for 20 pounds.
Instructions
Before you start: It is imperative that all pots and flats need to be clean and sterile. We soak the pots and flats in a bleach solution for a
day or so. We use 30-gallon plastic garbage cans that have about a half of gallon of laundry bleach added to the 30 gallons of water.
New pots or flats do not have to be sterilized (but it never hurts). Knives and scalpels can be soaked in a bleach solution but
remember that if they are left in the bleach solution for longer than a few hours, the bleach will corrode stainless steel. The key to
success in successfully growing cuttings is using sterile pots and flats, and sterile potting mix.
(1) Tubers or pot tubers need to be potted in a soil medium in sterile 4-inch pots. It is not necessary to use expensive potting soil for
the pots but the soil mix must be sterile. The tubers should be placed in the pot with the neck slightly above the soil level. All should be
labeled. It is handy to have some larger pots for large tubers. Some people place the tubers horizontally in flats but we find that it is
harder to label the tubers and also harder to water them. Also if you desire to plant the tuber in the garden after taking cuttings it is
more difficult to do so when using flats. There may be some controversy about whether a tuber that has produced cuttings should be
planted in the garden. We have done so with few problems.
(2) The watered pots are placed on a shelf or bench about 6 inches from a florescent light source. We grow the cuttings in our
unheated basement. We use plastic shelf units on which we have attached the florescent lights. The pots need to be watered
regularly and most of them will sprout in 2 to 3 weeks at 70 degrees or so.
(4) In about 2 to 3 weeks the tubers will have 2 to 3 inch shoots. We like to take cuttings when the sprouts are about 2.5 inches long
but longer or shorter will work too. We have accidentally broken off a 1-inch sprout and were successful in getting it to grow roots.
Sprouts as long as 6 inches or so can also be rooted but they do not fit easily into the plastic bags that we use to keep the cuttings
moist. Another type of cutting material is the so-called "white cutting" which is a cutting taken off a tuber that sprouted in storage. They
will work if they are not too long and
convoluted. They seem to take longer to form roots. This is probably because they do not have any chlorophyll to produce energy for
the development of roots.
Another type of cutting is a leaf cutting, which is taken from a long sprout that has leaves or from an adult plant. The stalk is split
carefully and the portion of the stalk where the leaf attaches to it is placed into the potting medium. Leaf cuttings take longer to root
and longer to develop into a full size plant. The plant that develops is very small it takes weeks longer to grow than a regular cutting.
(5) Cuttings are taken from the tubers. We use a small disposable surgical scalpel to cut
the sprout of the tuber. You should cut as close as possible to the tuber but not cut into the tuber. This is because the next sprouts will
appear from the site where you removed the cutting. Usually two sprouts grow from that spot.
(6) Cuttings are inserted into 2.5" pots filled with sterile germination soil mix .We prepare an entire flat of 2.5 inch pots and fill them
with moistened germination mix. The cutting is planted into the pot by first inserting your finger into the soil to make a small hole and
the cutting is placed into the hole.
(7) The pots are watered and placed into a sterile flat. We then water each of the pots with an additional tablespoon of water. Be sure
that the plastic flat is clean and sterile. Our flats hold 36 pots. Don't forget to label each cutting with a 5" pot label.
(8) The flat, full of cuttings, is inserted into a 13-gallon kitchen bag and tied shut. A regular plastic 13-gallon bag fits the flat just right.
Even though the bag may be white, plenty of light gets through to the cuttings. The plastic bag keeps the cuttings moist. This replaces
the method of misting the plants many times per day. Since everything in the bag is sterile there is little chance that the cuttings will rot
or get fungus.
(9) The flat is placed on the shelf or bench 4 to 6 inches under the florescent lights. The lights are left on 24 hours a day. I have been
told that 12 hours is sufficient but I know that 24 hours works really well. Again, the temperature should be 68 to 72 degrees. We use a
sharpie pen to mark the plastic bag with the date we took the cuttings.
(10) After 9-11 days, open the bag and check the pots for roots. At our house nearly all of the cuttings have roots at 11 days. You can
determine if they have roots by looking at the weep hole on the bottom of the pot. A white root can be seen. If there is none, carefully
remove the plant and soil from the pot by putting the pot upside down in one hand with the cutting between your fingers and tap the
bottom of the pot with your other hand. The soil and plant will fall into your hand and the pot can be removed to inspect the soil for
evidence of roots. We remove the flats from the plastic bags at about 11 to 15 days.
(11) Remove the plastic bag from the cuttings and leave the flat under the lights for 3 to 7 days. This step allows the plants to get used
to being in the open but still in the even temperatures of the house. After this period, they are ready to go to the green house.
(12) Water cuttings as necessary; do not fertilize yet. There is a small amount of fertilizer in the germination mix and the plants really
cannot handle fertilizer yet.
(13) Move cuttings to the green house or cold flat or lighted window. Our green house is not really well heated. I have one 8-foot long
heat pad that works really well to give cuttings some bottom heat.
(14) When watering use 20-20-20 greenhouse fertilizer diluted to one-third strength. We have used different brands of green house
fertilizer including Peters, Fusion and Plantex. It comes in 20-pound bags. We use the 20-20-20 formula that has trace elements. It
turns the water blue when you mix it. We find that is easy enough to water the cuttings with a one third concentration every time you
water. The plants love the continuous availability of nutrients and they grow very evenly.
(15) Optional: After two weeks or so, replant to four inch pots using a good soil mix.
16) Optional: After two to three weeks replant in gallon pots or plant in garden. Plants grown in gallon pots can get very large in the
green house. I have had some of them bloom there.
(17) Plant in garden and bury plants deeper than they were in the pots. Dahlias are like tomatoes in that they will produce roots from
any stem that is buried. You may get more tubers if they form on the buried stem. Also the plant will be less likely to fall over in the
wind. Be sure to water in the plants very well. The dilute greenhouse fertilizer can be used to water them in.
(18) Control for slugs or other pests as needed. A wise gardener will check for slug damage right away. Newly planted dahlias will
start growing again after a week or so. During this first week, you need to watch your plants carefully and control any damage from
pests.
(19) Grow as you would a dahlia grown from a tuber. Once the cutting is planted in the garden, it grows pretty much like a plant grown
from a tuber. Some varieties seem to grow more vigorously from cuttings. Some plants seem to send up more stalks than those
grown from tubers. We believe that plants grown from cuttings produce more flowers.
20) Enjoy the wonderful flowers, weeks earlier than plants grown from tubers. This is part that we like. We can count on having
enough flowers to sell by about July 15th. Customers begin knocking on our doors in June wanting bouquets. We have had our sign
out as early as the first week in July. And we nearly always have a few flowers for our table in June.
I
Another article with pictures can be seen at:
http://www.scdahlias.org/
by Ted & Margaret Kennedy
Hollyhill Dahlias
Revised 02-10-09
Introduction: There are probably as many ways to propagate dahlia cuttings, as there are dahlia growers. We grow Dahlias for cut
flowers and we need flowers early in the season. We have found that dahlias grown from cuttings serve our needs very well. We have
been taking cuttings for many years now and wish to share some of our methods with you.
Why not just grow dahlias from tubers? Why go to the bother of taking cuttings?
Advantages to cuttings:
(1) Economy: One tuber can produce 3, 4 or as many as 5 to 10 plants from cuttings. If you only were able to save one tuber or paid
lots of money for a new variety, taking cuttings is very cost effective.
(2) Early flowers: Cuttings taken in February and March and grown in the green house can be planted outside at the same date you
plant tubers. They will flower weeks ahead of your dahlias grown from tubers.
(3) Disease detection: Cuttings that show signs of virus or other disease can easily be discarded. A tuber will have been in the
ground for as much as a month before you can see the leaves. By that time it may be too late to replant with another tuber (if you have
one).
Disadvantages:
(1) Not as many tubers: Dahlias grown from cuttings do not produce as many tubers as those grown from tubers. However a good
tuber making dahlia variety will have lots of viable tubers from cuttings. Ironically, the varieties that are poor tuber makers are the ones
that many expert growers propagate from cuttings. Probably the best way to grow these varieties is to grow them from cuttings and
save some of the cuttings for pot tubers which are used the next year to produce cuttings.
(2) Pot bound tubers. The tubers that do develop will quite probably be contorted and difficult to divide because of the "pot
bound"effect of growing roots while in the pot. If you are good at dividing clumps this may not be a problem for you.
(3) Time and equipment: You need some lights and shelves and perhaps a green house or cold frame, and lots of pots and flats. It
does take time to tend to your plants.
Outline of the Cutting Process
(1) Tubers or pot tubers that will be used for cutting stock, need to be potted in a soil medium in sterile 4-inch pots or laid horizontally
in flats.
(2) The watered pots or flats are placed on a shelf or bench about 6 inches from a florescent light source.
(3) The temperature should be room temperature 68 to 72 degrees.
(4) In about 2 to 3 weeks the tubers will have 2 to 3 inch shoots.
(5) Cuttings are taken from the tubers.
(6) Cuttings are inserted into 2.5" pots filled with sterile germination soil mix.
(7) The pots are watered and placed into a sterile flat.
(8) The flat, full of cuttings, is inserted into a 13 gallon kitchen bag and tied shut.
(9) The flat is placed on the shelf or bench 4 to 6 inches under the florescent lights.
(10) After 9-11 days, open the bag and check the pots for roots.
(11) Remove the plastic bag from the cuttings and leave the flat under the lights for 3 to 7 days.
(12) Water cuttings as necessary; do not fertilize yet.
(13) Move cuttings to the green house or cold flat or lighted window.
(14) When watering use 20-20-20 greenhouse fertilizer diluted to one-third strength.
(15) Optional: After two weeks or so, replant into four inch pots using a good soil mix.
(16) Optional: After two to three weeks re-plant in gallon pots or plant in garden.
(17) Plant in garden and bury plants deeper than they were in the pots.
(18) Control for slugs or other pests as needed.
(19) Grow as you would a dahlia grown from a tuber.
(20) Enjoy the wonderful flowers, weeks earlier than plants grown from tubers.
Materials and Equipment List
Pots and flats: Lots of 2.5 inch, 4 inch pots and flats to match. A box of about 1000 2.5 " pots costs about $40.00. The 4 inch pots are a
bit more expensive. Plastic flats come in different quality levels and can be purchased for as little as 60 cents but the heavier ones are
better and cost closer to $1- or so. Four-inch pots can be purchased in a case with matching flats included.
Shelf Unit: A plastic shelf unit that is about 6 feet tall, 40 inches wide and about 16 inches deep, with five shelves. Cost is about
$40.00 at Home Depot. .
Florescent Light Fixtures: The cheapest 4-foot shop lights that sell for as little as $10.00 are just fine and are sold at Home Depot. .
Electric Strip to plug in Lights: A cheap grounded strip with 5 plug in slots is fine. Nice to have a switch to turn all of the lights at once.
Florescent Tubes: The cheapest ones work just as well as the expensive ones. We use 40-watt tubes. 25-watt tubes will probably
work fine also. "Grow Lights" are a waste of money.
Scalpel or knife: A small stainless steel scalpel can be purchased at a farm supply store for less than $2-. Or use any sharp knife.
Plastic 30-Gallon Garbage Can: Used to soak the pots and flats in bleach solution to sterilize them. The kind with wheels is better.
Plastic Kitchen Bags: The cheapest clear or white 13-gallon bags work great. The white ones let through all the light that is needed for
cuttings, so don't spend much time looking for clear bags.
Bleach: Chlorine laundry bleach. Use a half a gallon in the 30 gallon can to sterilize pots and flats.
Pot Labels: We use 5 inch nursery pot labels and only use the white labels as the colored ones get too brittle in the sunlight. Cost
about $17- per thousand.
Sharpie Marking Pens: Black Sharpie marking pens work fine. The Iindustrial Sharpie is better and is available at an office supply
store like Office Max.
Germination Soil Mix: We use Growers Gold (Used to be Black Gold?) Germination Mix by Sun Grow Horticulture. It comes in 2.8 cubic
foot bags and costs about $12.00-. We have used Sunshine Mix numbers 3 or 4 with success also, but it is more expensive. Others
use
Whitney Farms products. All are based on peat moss with vermiculite and/or perlite and lime and most importantly a wetting agent so
it will absorb water quickly. All are also sterile so that the cuttings will not suffer from diseases such as damping off. Germination mix
is a much higher-grade product than a standard potting mix, which is too coarse for cuttings.
Green House Fertilizer: We use 20-20-20 green house fertilizer with trace elements. Numerous brands are available including
Plantex, Fusion, Peters. Cost is about $28- for 20 pounds.
Instructions
Before you start: It is imperative that all pots and flats need to be clean and sterile. We soak the pots and flats in a bleach solution for a
day or so. We use 30-gallon plastic garbage cans that have about a half of gallon of laundry bleach added to the 30 gallons of water.
New pots or flats do not have to be sterilized (but it never hurts). Knives and scalpels can be soaked in a bleach solution but
remember that if they are left in the bleach solution for longer than a few hours, the bleach will corrode stainless steel. The key to
success in successfully growing cuttings is using sterile pots and flats, and sterile potting mix.
(1) Tubers or pot tubers need to be potted in a soil medium in sterile 4-inch pots. It is not necessary to use expensive potting soil for
the pots but the soil mix must be sterile. The tubers should be placed in the pot with the neck slightly above the soil level. All should be
labeled. It is handy to have some larger pots for large tubers. Some people place the tubers horizontally in flats but we find that it is
harder to label the tubers and also harder to water them. Also if you desire to plant the tuber in the garden after taking cuttings it is
more difficult to do so when using flats. There may be some controversy about whether a tuber that has produced cuttings should be
planted in the garden. We have done so with few problems.
(2) The watered pots are placed on a shelf or bench about 6 inches from a florescent light source. We grow the cuttings in our
unheated basement. We use plastic shelf units on which we have attached the florescent lights. The pots need to be watered
regularly and most of them will sprout in 2 to 3 weeks at 70 degrees or so.
(4) In about 2 to 3 weeks the tubers will have 2 to 3 inch shoots. We like to take cuttings when the sprouts are about 2.5 inches long
but longer or shorter will work too. We have accidentally broken off a 1-inch sprout and were successful in getting it to grow roots.
Sprouts as long as 6 inches or so can also be rooted but they do not fit easily into the plastic bags that we use to keep the cuttings
moist. Another type of cutting material is the so-called "white cutting" which is a cutting taken off a tuber that sprouted in storage. They
will work if they are not too long and
convoluted. They seem to take longer to form roots. This is probably because they do not have any chlorophyll to produce energy for
the development of roots.
Another type of cutting is a leaf cutting, which is taken from a long sprout that has leaves or from an adult plant. The stalk is split
carefully and the portion of the stalk where the leaf attaches to it is placed into the potting medium. Leaf cuttings take longer to root
and longer to develop into a full size plant. The plant that develops is very small it takes weeks longer to grow than a regular cutting.
(5) Cuttings are taken from the tubers. We use a small disposable surgical scalpel to cut
the sprout of the tuber. You should cut as close as possible to the tuber but not cut into the tuber. This is because the next sprouts will
appear from the site where you removed the cutting. Usually two sprouts grow from that spot.
(6) Cuttings are inserted into 2.5" pots filled with sterile germination soil mix .We prepare an entire flat of 2.5 inch pots and fill them
with moistened germination mix. The cutting is planted into the pot by first inserting your finger into the soil to make a small hole and
the cutting is placed into the hole.
(7) The pots are watered and placed into a sterile flat. We then water each of the pots with an additional tablespoon of water. Be sure
that the plastic flat is clean and sterile. Our flats hold 36 pots. Don't forget to label each cutting with a 5" pot label.
(8) The flat, full of cuttings, is inserted into a 13-gallon kitchen bag and tied shut. A regular plastic 13-gallon bag fits the flat just right.
Even though the bag may be white, plenty of light gets through to the cuttings. The plastic bag keeps the cuttings moist. This replaces
the method of misting the plants many times per day. Since everything in the bag is sterile there is little chance that the cuttings will rot
or get fungus.
(9) The flat is placed on the shelf or bench 4 to 6 inches under the florescent lights. The lights are left on 24 hours a day. I have been
told that 12 hours is sufficient but I know that 24 hours works really well. Again, the temperature should be 68 to 72 degrees. We use a
sharpie pen to mark the plastic bag with the date we took the cuttings.
(10) After 9-11 days, open the bag and check the pots for roots. At our house nearly all of the cuttings have roots at 11 days. You can
determine if they have roots by looking at the weep hole on the bottom of the pot. A white root can be seen. If there is none, carefully
remove the plant and soil from the pot by putting the pot upside down in one hand with the cutting between your fingers and tap the
bottom of the pot with your other hand. The soil and plant will fall into your hand and the pot can be removed to inspect the soil for
evidence of roots. We remove the flats from the plastic bags at about 11 to 15 days.
(11) Remove the plastic bag from the cuttings and leave the flat under the lights for 3 to 7 days. This step allows the plants to get used
to being in the open but still in the even temperatures of the house. After this period, they are ready to go to the green house.
(12) Water cuttings as necessary; do not fertilize yet. There is a small amount of fertilizer in the germination mix and the plants really
cannot handle fertilizer yet.
(13) Move cuttings to the green house or cold flat or lighted window. Our green house is not really well heated. I have one 8-foot long
heat pad that works really well to give cuttings some bottom heat.
(14) When watering use 20-20-20 greenhouse fertilizer diluted to one-third strength. We have used different brands of green house
fertilizer including Peters, Fusion and Plantex. It comes in 20-pound bags. We use the 20-20-20 formula that has trace elements. It
turns the water blue when you mix it. We find that is easy enough to water the cuttings with a one third concentration every time you
water. The plants love the continuous availability of nutrients and they grow very evenly.
(15) Optional: After two weeks or so, replant to four inch pots using a good soil mix.
16) Optional: After two to three weeks replant in gallon pots or plant in garden. Plants grown in gallon pots can get very large in the
green house. I have had some of them bloom there.
(17) Plant in garden and bury plants deeper than they were in the pots. Dahlias are like tomatoes in that they will produce roots from
any stem that is buried. You may get more tubers if they form on the buried stem. Also the plant will be less likely to fall over in the
wind. Be sure to water in the plants very well. The dilute greenhouse fertilizer can be used to water them in.
(18) Control for slugs or other pests as needed. A wise gardener will check for slug damage right away. Newly planted dahlias will
start growing again after a week or so. During this first week, you need to watch your plants carefully and control any damage from
pests.
(19) Grow as you would a dahlia grown from a tuber. Once the cutting is planted in the garden, it grows pretty much like a plant grown
from a tuber. Some varieties seem to grow more vigorously from cuttings. Some plants seem to send up more stalks than those
grown from tubers. We believe that plants grown from cuttings produce more flowers.
20) Enjoy the wonderful flowers, weeks earlier than plants grown from tubers. This is part that we like. We can count on having
enough flowers to sell by about July 15th. Customers begin knocking on our doors in June wanting bouquets. We have had our sign
out as early as the first week in July. And we nearly always have a few flowers for our table in June.
I
Another article with pictures can be seen at:
http://www.scdahlias.org/
Handley Seedling