Rhode Island Dahlia Society

06/15/2026

How to Grow Prize Winning Dahlias: A Vintage Organic Guide

Originally published in "Organic Gardening and Farming" (May 1964) by Harry L. Dixon, this timeless advice holds up beautifully for today’s organic gardeners. Raised for their beauty, dahlias respond incredibly well to organic care. Here is Dixon’s classic guide to producing prize-winning blooms.

Unlock the timeless organic secrets to massive dahlia blooms. Discover the rare 1964 techniques that master growers use to win ribbons.

06/10/2026

If you see this bug in your garden, don’t squish it! This is a ladybug larva and even though it looks like a miniature dinosaur trying to eat your dahlias, it is actually a very beneficial insect.
They devour aphids, scale, mealybugs, thrips, spider mites and more!


05/28/2026

One of our members reached out with the first picture. She had concerns about the white bumps that she found when unwrapping her tubers.
Nothing to worry about here! These white bumps that can be found when digging up tubers or after storage are called lenticels. Lenticels are a tubers response to excess  moisture.  They help the tuber “breathe“ and get rid of extra moisture sort of like pores. They usually look white but they can also appear to be darker in color, especially after storage. They may even show up during storage if your tubers had a lot of moisture inside of them when they were dug.
The second picture here shows lenticels on a newly formed tuber grown from seed.  The seedling was kept on a heat mat and under grow lights which required heavy watering so that it wouldn’t dry out.  This is a great visual of what newly formed lenticels look like, small, white, and corky-in-texture bumps. Perfectly normal!

05/21/2026

Back in 2015, I couldn’t explain to a new dahlia grower why we plant a single tuber with a good eye, rather than a clump, as I had been taught at the dahlia society. It seems a bit counter-intuitive and I’m not a garden authority. So I emailed several RIDS members and asked for their input.

Then-President Bill Dykstra promptly replied by email:
“Plant a single tuber with a good eye. If a single tuber has two eyes, break off the weaker one. Do not plant a small clump with multiple eyes. Each tuber producing an eye will want to be a plant on its own with not enough room to do so. This results in crowding which results in smaller plot growth, smaller blooms, and a general mess.”

Cindy, another RIDS member replied:
“I’m voting for your method of planting a single tuber with a good eye. I used to plant clumps and celebrated with many flowers- BUT…The eyes yielded closely packed stems that competed for sunlight and a strong breeze caused them to chafe against each other. With less air circulation it seemed the plants had more blights and mildew. In the fall, the tubers I dug up were in huge, tangled snarls, almost impossible to separate. They stored rather poorly and seemed more prone to rot. I’ve found planting a single tuber with a good eye yields tons of blooms. With better air circulation the plants have fewer mildew problems, autumn digging is easier and there are more useable tubers too.”

-Caroleen Frey

05/10/2026

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there from RIDS! Here’s a virtual bouquet for you. 💐

05/08/2026

Tuber sale tomorrow, Saturday, May 9th. Only $7 for any variety of tuber! $15 grab bags! You never know what treasures you’ll find!

The varieties shown here are some of the varieties that may be available (as suggested by tuber donors).

5/9 10:00 am - 3:00 pm at Blithewold Manor, Gardens and Arboretum at 101 Ferry Road, Bristol, RI.