Tubers vs Clumps

Single tubers are finger-size roots that were divided off the mother tuber. Single tubers are guaranteed to have one eye.

Tuber clumps are a set of small tubers attached to a neck that often holds multiple eyes. Tuber-clumps are grown from stem cuttings that were planted in greenhouses as plugs. The plugs grow into small clumps, or mini-clumps, over the course of one season.

Because of washing techniques required to comply with rigorous export rules, tubers may appear darker or can have some skin damage. Due to mechanical harvesting some tubers may have broken necks. But the stem, the base, and the tuber heads all host growing eyes, as well as the energy to start the growth. Your tubers will grow just fine, even if they appear to have slight damage.

You can plant the whole clump, no need to divide further. We recommend leaving the clump intact for the first growing season and don’t warrant divided clumps. Plant with the stem base facing upward, with the tubers pointing down or laying sideways. Plant just a few inches below the surface so the sun can warm the soil which allows the eyes to sprout. When the soil temperature is warm enough, your Dahlias should sprout through the soil within 3-5 weeks. If the soil is too cold, it will stunt the growth and the tuber may end up rotting.

Our dahlia clumps are imported from Holland, England or Poland, and stored in Vermont at 42F and 80% humidity. They are not processed overseas or packaged by machines. We handpick and label all tubers here because we want to see each product before it goes out to you. We make sure the tubers don’t dry out, freeze or get damaged during transportation.

Shipping tuber clumps is more expensive than shipping single tubers, because they are larger and heavier and take up more space and weight when shipping. We can fit about 10-12 tubers in a large USPS flat rate box, as opposed to 25-30 single tubers for the same size box.

All our tubers and bulbs are inspected twice a year by the VAAFM. Dahlias can be ordered from November through May, and will ship in the Spring.