Linlily....you will get both, tubers and lots of flowers this year...a lot depends of your green thumb and mother nature as far as how many but you will get both....you have the right idea, start the seeds and pot them up, then slowly introduce them out doors....start the process in early April so you can have the new plants ready to go into the ground after the last frost, usually around May 1st., the AA or Dinner plates will produce fewer flowers then your smaller types.... teddahlia is right...depending on the conditions around where the seeds were collected, you could get a wide assortment of different size and types of dahlis...kind of like Easter but once your plants are up they will be just as large as the ones from tubers, flower just as nicely and should have nice tubers

Karen, have you tried beer to help get the slugs? In past years I've used very shallow bowls, easy for slugs to climb into, put some cheap beer, cheapest I can find in the bowls, starting around 4-5 pm at night. Next morning the bowls are full of "drowned slugs" that had their "last drink" before their demise. They just can't resist the yeast that is in the beer. I've also had good luck with sluggo when the slug problem is really bad. We had a lot of rain earlier in the spring this year and the slugs where really bad in the back with all my WS seedlings. I put the sluggo out back and that was the end of them and put the beer out front around the hostas and other seedlings and presto they where gone there as well in about a week. Fran

Susan, I'm not Ron either or Emma or Eyes, but have a few thoughts on this bloom. I still think it is basically heavenly blue. BUT, I think it a heavenly blue that has a bit of mutation in it. Heavenly blue is a tri color morning glory and the following MG of the tricolor are all stable mutations of heavenly blue. flying saucer huge blooms with streaks of blue on whitish blue blooms blue star light blue with darker blue star and yellow throat, star similar to the pics you are showing pearly gates pure white large bloom wedding bells large lavender flower I personally think what you are looking at your bloom is a heavenly blue that has mutated back with some of the pronounced star of the blue star (what I call the "real blue star" as there are seeds being sold by a commercial seed company called blue star and they are not the "real blue star"), but your blooms has retained most of the color of the heavenly blue including the pronounced yellow throat and color of heavenly blue. Heres a picture of a true real star morning glory. notice the darker blue star in contrast to the light blue of the bloom, also see the yellow throat of the bloom but not the pronounced yellow throat of your pic or of the heavenly blue that I have posted. You may find that when your temps become more stable from day to night that your blooms return to a more normal heavenly blue that what you have. Or they may stay the same. Either way, I would mark the vines of the blooms you posted, collect seeds and grow them out next year. Will be interesting to see if they bloom the same next year. Fran

Hey Fran - The Flying Saucers (as most Ipomoea tricolor) usually have 5 ribs supporting the corolla,but if the bloom only produces 4 ribs,the blooms take on the square look...I think it's an interesting look,although I haven't seen any that will produce square blooms consistently...yet... The Ipomoea purpurea that you posted is what I have been calling a 'solid' flaked... http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/95591/ the background is mostly solid coloration with darker streaks in it... The Ipomoea tricolor Heavenly Blue can often show signs of impaired pigmentation along with some possible tissue damage to the delicate corolla membrane when the temperatures drop...the corolla can have difficulty opening and the bloom tips usually get the 'frostbite' an result in the usual blue pigmentation being replaced by the look of the 'frostbitten' fuchsia...the same color can appear if the tissue has the upper layer 'torn' during difficult openings or otherwise sustains any damage...I see it as part of the general color changes that Autumn brings... The Ipomoea purpurea in the last photo has hige genes...these can often show entire corollas with various degrees of extra corolla tissue becoming shredded to create the frills that spice up the rear of the bloom...the hige gene can also skip a generation... Thanks for sharing your blooms... Ron