I swore no more dahlias after I realized I no longer had a way to store them. (With the heat pump install last year, we now have to keep our back room’s door open to get heat in there. It used to just be the end of the line of our furnace circuit, which kept it in the 50s if we shut the door.) But I’d gotten a packet of mystery seeds with my preorder of Floret Farm’s Discovering Dahlias, so I decided to go for it. Three of those six seedlings made it outside, but only this one bloomed. (I feel in good company – Monty Don’s dahlia on Gardener’s World have also suffered with this year’s heat and drought.)
I may try to save this anyway. I’m thinking of packing the tubers in vermiculite and putting that in our large cooler out in the garage. If it gets really cold (like below the 20’s), I can bring them in for the night. I do like this dahlia, but it won’t break my heart if I lose it, so I figure, why not?