We’re still in mid-spring, and while pressure from social media can make you feel like the garden-planting ship has sailed, we have good new for you: there’s still time to plant dahlias and other cut flowers.
It’s Time to Direct Sow Seeds
Now is the perfect time to direct sow some summer-blooming annuals, especially cut-and-come-again treasures like zinnias, cosmos, and marigolds, as well as sunflowers. We have a Days to Bloom guide that you can download to help you plan the timing of your cut flower garden. Just check your seed packet and feel free to plant as late as the number of days to flower noted for your variety (usually 70-90 days) before your first fall frost date. You can find out your first frost date here.
It’s also a great time to direct sow dahlia seeds if you haven’t already. We have lots of information about dahlia seeds if this is your first time trying your hand at growing dahlias from seed, including information about hybridizing your own dahlias.
It’s Time to Plant Bulbs and Tubers
It’s also the perfect time to plant summer and fall-blooming bulbs like dahlias, gladiolus, callas, begonias, and more. If you want to experiment with dahlias this summer, we’ve got you covered. We are officially planting our dahlia field for summer 2023, and weāre finding as we go that we have more extra tubers than we expected, so weāre trickling them into our online store daily! If youāre still looking for a few treasures for your garden, this is your chance to snag some last minute tubers. We’re planting in big sections of color this year, so watch for tubers to post in waves of color (there are lots of pink sliding into the sale later this afternoon!)
Here are a couple behind the scenes photos of our crew planting today.
All photos by Dani Winters.