Gardening in Alaska presents big challenges, whether it's the extra effort in finding plants tough enough to survive our Zone 2-4 climate, communicating with like-minded Alaska gardeners, or keeping up with the latest trends, issues and solutions. We'll try to help with that. We'll also tour gardens from Homer to Anchorage to Wasilla to Willow whenever we get the chance, and post the best garden photos around. Presenting a forum about cold-weather gardening and for cold-weather gardeners is what we are all about. We hope you'll join us on the Talk Dirt garden blog.
Photographer and gardener Fran Durner (fdurner@adn.com) writes the blog.
A member of the Garden Writers Hall of Fame, Jeff writes a weekly column on gardening in Alaska.
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Posted: December 2, 2008 - 9:53 am
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One of Amelia Walsh's dahlias. Photo by Fran Durner
If you love dahlias, like I do, you've probably tried a million ways to keep them through the winter.
I've tried storing tubers buried in moss or in bags of wood shavings, wrapped in sheets of newspaper, even tucked naked into baggies. I've tried every recommended way I can think of only to find a stem with rotted tubers attached or a mostly dessicated brown lump harder than a piece of driftwood come spring.
So this year I decided to try Amelia Walsh's method. Amelia is known for her beautiful dahlias that line the side of the house during the summer and have their own plot in the Walsh's sizable garden.
Amelia digs her tubers in the fall and doesn't wash off a speck of soil. Her philosophy is that they are just going back into dirt so why bother? Makes sense. Meanwhile the tubers sit in large tubs. She'll split the tubers and replant them in pots as soon as she can get to them. With hundreds of dahlias in her collection, that can take a bit of time. Last year Amelia had 900 pots of dahlias stored between her garage and the unattached heated greenhouse. Talk about a collection!
With hundreds of pots of dahlias, Amelia Walsh lines the driveway next to the heated greenhouse. Photo by Fran Durner. Besides repotting the tubers in dirt, the other trick seems to be keeping the storage space barely heated, not more than around 42 degrees, and keeping them as dark as possible through the winter so they don't break dormancy and begin growing too early. Amelia will check them occasionally and break off any stems that have begun to show above the soil. When it's time to start growing, they will put out more.
The other thing is to plant in slightly moistened soil - not too damp or the tubers will rot. Amelia also adds a little steer manure to the soil mix.
VIDEO: Splitting dahlias with Amelia Walsh
I visited Amelia recently and watched as she potted up a few tubers. You might find this video instructive - she makes it look so easy!
A garden gnome watches over pots of plants inside the greenhouse. Photo by Fran Durner Amelia also stores pots of geraniums, primroses, sedums and cactus in the greenhouse - many of them still in bloom just before Thanksgiving! But that's a subject for another time....
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