Potting Up Melina Fleur Dahlia Tubers - May 2024

Back in December, I ordered some Dahlia Tubers from Longfield Gardens and planned to try to both grow them this year AND (importantly) treat them as something that I'll pull out of the ground before the season ends and attempt to over-Winter in my garage.  I bought two varieties - Melina Fleur and Cornel Bronze Dahlias.  They recently arrived and I decided to start some of them indoors.  The Melina Fleur tubers come two-to-a-pack, so I grabbed six one-gallon nursery containers that I had laying around and filled them with a sandy homebrewed potting mix.  It is a mix of sand + potting mix that I normally use for succulents.  Here, below, is a photo of the Longfield Gardens dahlia tuber packaging that lists some specs (18" apart, 32" tall).

After potting them up, I brought them down to the basement in the window well.  This is south-facing and while it *is* the basement, they get good light down there.  I put them on some trays that I had laying around and watered them in.  

After the threat of frost passes - right around May 10th - I'm hoping that I'll see some good foliage growth on the tubers and I can transplant them outside. 

I'm now starting to think about *where* to put these Melina Fleur Dahlias - along with the Cornel Bronze Dahlias and the Orange Nugget Dahlias that I bought on a whim.  I also need to think about how to plant the Cut-and-Come-Again Zinnia seeds, too.  All are best with Full Sun and some attention, so finding some spots will be a challenge.  

The first spot that I'm considering is the sideyard on the southside.  That's where the three first Disneyland Roses are planted (along the foundation).  I recently had JULIE (the utility locate place in Illinois) come out and mark the location of my cable line.  See below for the sideyard - orange arrows point to the coaxial cable buried not-too-deep in the yard.  The green box is where I think I'd like to excavate the turf and turn into a bed.  

I could see some of the dahlias along this sideyard, but also IB2DWS - where they'd get full sun.  

But, before I get to that, I need to see if these first six react to being potted-up.  Then...get the rest of my tubers in containers to jump-start them ahead of planting in-the-ground.