Dahlias have been on my mind lately. Every fall I end up with dahlia thoughts and it's triggered by my desire to have cut flowers in the house. Deep down I'm probably a dahlia person, few flowers give such a ravishing show in the latter part of the growing season. October is always the month that I start buying cut flowers, it's an irrepressible urge that lasts until I feel guilty about the amount of money I'm spending. If there were dahlias to cut, I could save money and have those gorgeous, big fat blossoms.

Technically dahlias are tubers. Originally from the mountains of Mexico and Guatemala, they are not hardy, the tubers must be lifted each fall and stored in a frost free environment. The Dahlia Society now supports a new way to store the tubers and it's much easier than the old way of digging and layering each tuber between peat moss or dampened wood chips. Now you simply dig them in fall, divide if necessary, just make sure you have an eye for each tuber. Wash the dirt off and allow them to dry. Mix eight quarts of vermiculite to one cup of powdered sulfur in a plastic bag and shake your tubers in the mix, kind of like a shake-and-bake exercise, until each one is thoroughly covered. Lay the tubers aside for a night until dry and then wrap them up in plastic wrap (like Saran Wrap). Seal the wrap with masking tape and write the name of the cultivar right on the tape. This wonderful new method allows the gardener to store lots of tubers in a small space, nicely stacked in their plastic covering. The ideal temperature for storage is 40 degrees, not always possible, but certainly a goal to aim for. The success rate for this new storage is so far superior to the old method that most commercial growers have switched.

The Dahlia Society itself is interesting. I recall a Washington Post article about a local chapter, many, many years ago, but they seem to have disbanded. There are 12 Dahlia Societies in Washington State, which makes me wonder how well they do in our southern heat. Of some encouragement is the presence of a Dahlia Society in South Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama. The Washington Post article mentioned that the local chapter was 90 percent men. I can't find any statistics on current membership for the American Dahlia Society.

I just want nice flowers to cut into October. I understand they flower well from July to October. Now the cutting types are a little different from regular garden types. Dahlias are split by size, form and use. The Dahlia Society also recognizes 15 colors which really means that these are all ways to divide them for the show bench. The series that starts with 'Karma' is considered tops for cutting. The cutting types produce longer stems and generally need to be staked, given some support for their long necks. They flower better when cut often, supposedly the more you cut the more they produce.

So it all comes down to spring planting and staking, summer and fall cutting followed by fall digging and storage. Maybe I'll just try five. Five glorious colors, just five really good ones. Experts agree that the single best variety for cutting is 'Kelvin's Floodlight', a bright yellow with flowers that are twelve inches across. The 'Karma' series offers 8 varieties, already 4 more than I need. There must be a few ugly ones. I'll need extra vases too. Care to go in on an order with me, just for five, or maybe eight - make that nine?

Karen Rexrode is owner of Windy Hill Plant Farm (703) 327-4211