My Mother’s Dahlias

My Mother’s Dahlias, planted along the fence, greeted me as I returned home yesterday and smiled at me again this morning.  I’m not quite sure how long it has been since I brought my Mother’s Dahlias from New Jersey to Maryland.  My guess is that it was about 35 years ago.  

Each fall I gently lift the dahlia tubers from the soil and store them over winter.  A few years ago, I tried to store them in the shed, but it was too cold for the tubers there and I lost a good number.  Fortunately, my brother in New Jersey also preserves our Mother’s Dahlias and replenished my supply.  A friend now stores the tubers for me in a garage over the winter months.

The dahlia tubers begin to sprout in mid-May and I normally get the 30 or so tubers planted by Memorial Day weekend or shortly thereafter.  Little care is needed as the plant pops out of the soil and begins to grow.  Because the plants grow to almost 6 feet tall, it is necessary to tie them against the fence to prevent them from being damaged by wind and rain.  By late July the buds appear and soon burst into full bloom by mid-August.  The blossoms continue through mid-September.  After the first frost, the tubers are again lifted from the soil and stored over winter. 

Once my Mother’s Dahlias were a wide array of colorful blooms, but over the years they have become just one color.  Each fall, when the time comes to lift the tubers again and store them away for another winter, I question whether or not I should continue to plant dahlias. The digging up, the storing away, the planting again each spring gets old sometimes. That question always fades away, however, when the dahlias stand tall and produce their magnificent blossoms that  greet me and smile my Mother’s smile each morning.