Dahlia Tuber FAQ

“Hi, I’m Samantha!

I love dahlias, and I want you to love the dahlias you get from our farm.

All of the tubers for sale on our website are grown using organic methods on our small flower farm in Accord, NY.

If you have a question that isn’t answered below, please send me an email! I’m here to help.”

How long have you been growing dahlias?

I’ve been growing dahlias at Sea Change Farm & Flower since I first started the farm in 2018.

Sea Change is a cut flower farm, so the varieties we choose to grow are selected for their traits as cut flowers. I especially love soft colors, so you’ll see a lot of those in our tuber store: soft blush & pink, peaches, butter yellow, and the like. I’m also a sucker for unusual forms, like anemones!

We’ve sold dahlia tubers since 2020, so you can rest assured knowing we have experience under our belts.

When will the tuber store open?

Our tuber store will open some time in late winter 2024.

To be the first to know, join our mailing list! Email subscribers get a “head start” in our sale, before we make the opening fully public.

When will my tubers ship?

All dahlia tubers will ship in the spring, from March through May when the weather is warm enough that they will not freeze in-transit. We cannot accept requests to ship tubers at specific times.

If you opt for “Local Pickup”, we will be in touch about when in the spring you can stop by to pick up your tubers.

I had a dahlia tuber in my cart and then at checkout it said “sold out” 🙁

I’m so sorry!! The way the online store works, items in your cart are not reserved for you until you checkout. It’s entirely possible that the same item could be in multiple shoppers’ carts. This isn’t something we can change, unfortunately.

To ensure you can get the dahlias that you want, proceed to checkout quickly, and don’t leave tubers in your cart too long.

Will you combine shipping if I place multiple orders?

Yes, we will combine shipping! Please read the following carefully:

To avoid paying for shipping twice, please select “Local Pickup” for any subsequent orders after your first order. And, in the Order Notes at checkout, please write “Combine my shipping, please!” or send us an email at flowers@seachange.farm requesting that we ship everything with your first order.

If the shipping that you paid for in your first order isn’t sufficient to cover the tubers you add on in subsequent orders, for example if you pay for a USPS Small Flat Rate Box, but your combined order will only fit in a Medium or Large flat rate box, we will reach out in the spring and ask for you to pay an additional shipping cost.

If I order both zinnia seeds and dahlia tubers, can they ship together?

Yes! Zinnia seed orders can be packed with dahlia tuber orders. You can purchase these in the same order from our site, and they will ship together. Or, you can place them in separate orders, and follow the steps described in the “combining shipping” blurb above.

What is a dahlia tuber?

A tuber is like a bulb made by a dahlia plant as it grows.

The only way to grow the exact same dahlia variety as another grower is to plant a child tuber from the original plant. At Sea Change, we only sell dahlia tubers that we’ve grown ourselves, using organic growing methods in our no-till fields in upstate NY.

To learn more about dahlias, please visit our blog post, “How to Grow Great Dahlias.”

I’ve never grown dahlias before! Can I still buy tubers?

Absolutely! Dahlias are one of the most rewarding flowers you can grow, and we highly recommend that you give them a try if you are curious 🙂

We will send out a dahlia growing guide with every tuber order. You can also visit our blog post, “How to Grow Great Dahlias,” for an online guide for growing these beautiful flowers yourself.

What about dahlia virus & gall?

We do our best to ensure that you are receiving beautiful virus-free, gall-free tubers from our farm.

We strive to eliminate dahlia virus from our dahlia stock by aggressively following the “when it doubt, pull it out” rule. We cull any plants that are showing signs of disease in our field, or that are simply not thriving. We also sterilize all our cutting tools with bleach and/or dish soap whenever we use them on dahlia plants & tuber clumps. We do not currently employ tissue testing on our farm.

We don’t offer refunds for dahlia plants that contract a disease, because they can pick up a virus in your own growing environment as well as ours. The exception is if there are visible signs of gall on your tuber within 7 days of receiving it from us–which we really hope won’t happen!

If a tuber that you planted from us is showing signs of disease, please email us at flowers@seachange.farm, and we will do our best to help you troubleshoot. Please note that many environmental factors can cause leaf discoloration in dahlias besides disease, including: overwatering, underwatering, nutrition issues, spider mites, leaf hoppers, etc.

What if my dahlia tuber isn’t viable?

We work hard to ensure that every tuber we sell has at least one eye, which will allow it to grow in the spring.

If you think you’ve received a tuber without any eyes, or that is otherwise damaged and not viable, please email us a clear, in-focus photo of the questionable tuber at flowers@seachange.farm. We guarantee that all of our tubers have eyes, or we will issue you a refund! Note, we can only honor refund requests due to tuber quality / eyes if you contact us within 7 days of receiving your tubers.

What if my dahlia tuber doesn’t bloom true-to-variety?

We do our best to make sure you are receiving accurately-labeled tubers! But every once in a while we do make a mistake. Please email a clear photo of the bloom in question to flowers@seachange.farm. We will try to identify the questionable bloom for you, and if it’s not what you ordered, we will issue you a refund.

How much is shipping?

Orders of $35 or less will ship in a small USPS flat rate box costing $10.40
Orders over $35 will ship in a medium USPS flat rate box costing $18.40.

We can combine shipping if you place multiple orders–please see the above FAQ about that!

Can I pick up my tubers instead of paying for shipping?

Yep! You can. Tuber orders can be picked up at our farm at 340 Queens Highway, Accord NY 12404, by appointment in the spring. Simply select the “Local pickup” option at checkout, instead of selecting USPS shipping.

Local pickup in Accord is by appointment. We will reach out to schedule your pickup with you some time in April.

For farmer’s market folks: Hastings-on-Hudson farmer’s market pickup is TBD, but will likely be on 5/12. If you would like your tubers earlier than this, please select USPS shipping at checkout.

Can I choose between a refund and a substitution if what I ordered isn’t available?

We make every effort to only list dahlia tubers that we feel confident will store until the spring. However, storage failure does happen. Our default policy is to refund you any tubers in your order that we cannot fill. But, if you would prefer a substitution instead, you can write that in the “Order Notes” section at checkout, and we will do our best to honor your request.