Tubers on Ice?

The weather has continued to hover at below-freezing temperatures for the last week or so. A few days ago, sisters Debbie and Vicki went over to the Russell Street garden, with the goal of digging all the tubers with the prefix "Cascade". We wanted to make sure that even if we lose everything else in the garden, that we are able to save these very rare tubers from dahlias developed by Dad. They were able to dig a couple Cascade Erin, Cascade Tony and one Cascade Myrt. They also dug some that had lost their tags, just on the chance that they may also be something special. Since preparations for Thanksgiving were underway on the day they dug, we delayed the washing and cutting, and instead, stored the unwashed tuber clumps in the crawlspace, nestled in pine shavings in closed boxes. The temperature in the crawlspace stays at between 42 and 46 degrees, with a humidity of around 50-55%, so tubers generally winter well there, even when the temperatures outdoors drop into the single digits. Today, Debbie and I were finally able to schedule some time to wash and divide the clumps. I thought I might be able to rinse off the heavy, rich black soil in the same way I had cleaned the tubers from my home garden. However, when I turned on the water at the outside faucet, I discovered that the hose was frozen - totally clogged with ice! No choice but to come up with Plan B, one that I was fairly sure would not thrill my husband.....But as I've mentioned in earlier posts, he is actually coming around, and getting used to me bringing seed pods, tuber clumps, dirt and earthworms into the house. I was relieved when he didn't protest, as I filled the tub in the laundry room with gritty, muddy bunches of tubers. I won't go into the care I had to take to make sure that all the little bits of gravel, grass, roots and sand didn't swirl down the small drainhole when I emptied the water - suffice to say it was a challenge! I was just finishing the washing when Deb came in - I had her start lopping off all but about 2 inches of the stalks, and then we hauled everything down to the storage room, which I had earlier transformed into the Tuber Dividing Workshop. As we carefully worked to divide some of the lumpiest, most ambiguous bunches of tubers that I have ever seen, I noticed with chagrin that several of the tubers had apparently already frozen - the opaque appearance of the white membrane was a dead give-away. Rats! Tossing these into the garbage, we continued to work until we had labeled and stored the remaining tubers, hoping the ones that had not frozen would be able to survive what promises to be one of our coldest winters in years. Tomorrow, we plan to finish up digging at Russell Street, and hope that we are able to salvage a future for the dahlias still remaining. Wish us luck!