Orange Nugget Dahlia Tubers - March 2024

2024 is the year when I need to continue to remind myself to get more comfortable with flowers.  By that, I mean...I'm a gardener.  But, I'm a foliage gardener.  Because of my full-shade backyard, I've opted for focusing on foliage gardens - ferns, astilbes, shrubs, trees.  

Last Fall, I bought a couple of late-season flowering perennials and decided that I needed to do more - specifically in the new IB2DWs (extended) bed that is a conifer garden.  At the end of last growing season (2023), I ran through my normal 'to-do list' grades, but I also wrote up some 'lessons learned' that included 10 things that I wanted to keep in mind including #6:  

6. Flowers continue to be a little bit outside my comfort zone. Change that. I started this Fall, but plenty more room to grow/go. Countertop arrangements need flowers. Try some dahlias, too.

I've started down that path - at least in theory.  

Back in December, I ordered some Dahlia tubers from Longfield Gardens - that are supposed to ship in early April.  I also bought a few packets of Cut-and-Come-Again Zinnia seeds that I should start soon indoors.  

I've now added my third variety of Dahlia for the year - with this three-pack of Orange Nugget Decorative Dahlia tubers:

These are smaller-sized blooms on shorter plants.  From DutchGrown:

A fairly short Dahlia, the Orange Nugget can grow between 25 and 30 inches tall. This variety stands out with its super bright orange blooms and dark stems. The flowers grow to about 4 inches in diameter, and the petals tend to roll inwards, giving them a rounded appearance.

I'm going to try to start these in containers indoors later this month and then move them outside sometime in May.  The goal of starting indoors is to get a little bit of a headstart on them, get more blooms and (hopefully) avoid them from drying out too much.

I've grown similar dahlia tubers in the past with some success - including these Night Queen dahlias.  But, I've also grown packaged dahlia tubers before that were mismarked.  I *thought* I was planting orange dahlias, but ended up with YELLOW blooms.  Here's hoping that these are, indeed, Orange Nugget tubers.