TLDR: is it better to plant my 75 tubers in my large raised beds now, when the highs are in the 90s and our hot July/August/September reach the 100s (central Texas) or wait until our normal planting season starting late February/early March since our ground doesn’t usually freeze (if the tubers survive in storage)? Or plant in our hot September for a super short season (we don’t usually get freezes until late December/early January)?

Longer explanation:

Central Texas 9a. Hot already (low to mid 90s highs). I planted my first three dahlia tubers in early April and now have gorgeous blooms. So, I got overly excited/ambitious and took advantage of the end of season sales. I bought about 75 tubers that just got to my house. I intended to store them and wait until our normal planting season in very early spring (our ground doesn’t freeze, although we almost always get a few twenties-teens days in February), just like I do when I order end-of-season ranunculus and anemone corms.

Then I started reading. People were saying you can’t store dahlia tubers that long (it’s June, I intended to plant late February/early March)—they’ll dry out or rot or won’t have enough energy stored. I have too many to put them in pots or move them inside with grow lights so I can protect them from the heat.

So my dilemma is: plant them now and just water/shade cloth/mulch a ton and hope for the best? They’d get morning sun and late afternoon shade. Plant them in September even though it’s still in the 90s then and hope they bloom before first frost (usually late December/early January)? Or wait until the early spring growing season (could probably plant them February since our ground doesn’t freeze)?

Dahlia tuber timing