If you have experience growing a cutting flower garden, adding dahlias will be a piece of cake for you. But new dahlia growers often wonder WHICH ones to grow. How do you choose when there is such amazing variety?!
All the dahlias in our Online Store are selected to be extremely productive and to have strong stems. You really can’t go wrong when making a decision about which to grow!
If you were looking to plant dahlias in a vivid color palette, as well as in a medium height, I would say you simply have to grow Cornel Bronze, Golden Scepter, Uchuu, Gerrie Hoek, and Jowey Nina. This combination will be a riot of color by mid summer, and with a variety of forms as well as color, you can mix and match the rainbow for beautiful flowers from at least July-October.
If you want a soft, romantic, fluffy collection, I would choose Cafe au Lait, Chilson’s Pride, Snow Cap, Appleblossom, and Strawberry Ice for a light pastel palette. For a warmer, but still romantic and soft look, I would grow Penhill Watermelon, Nicholas, Totally Tangerine, Linda’s Baby, A la Mode, and Amber Queen.
For a white “moon” dahlia cutting garden, I’d choose White Swan, Small World, Orsett Beauty, Bistro, and Sweet Nathalie. These varieties are all about the same height, which might work well for you, but if you wanted a tiered garden, you could plant taller selections in the back of your bed, medium-height varieties in front of those, and shorter cultivars in the front. We plant on a fairly tight spacing in our production rows, but if you plant tubers 18″-24″ apart, the plants (given adequate watering and good fertility) will fill in nicely by mid-season and give you a profusion of blooms.
When planting your dahlias, (which should be done as close to your last frost as possible – the earlier you plant, the earlier you’ll have blooms!) we recommend staking them right away so that the structure is ready for your plant when it’s tall enough to need it. We also high recommend pinching your dahlias (see the whole process here) when they are about 8″-12″ tall in order to keep the plants from becoming “leggy” and to encourage more blooms throughout the season.
Curl up by the fire this Thanksgiving weekend, and let these inspirational ideas give you a jumping off point for where to start when choosing the dahlia cutting garden of your dreams. I hope you enjoy your family and a much-needed personal quiet break this weekend! And there’s no rush during the Black Friday frenzy: our dahlia store will be fully stocked and re-open on Saturday, December 1, 2018, at 8AM Pacific Time.
Do you ever winter over dahlias for local customers who dig up their own (and hope to add/buy more of your tubers come 12/1)?
Hello,
No, we aren’t able to offer that service. Thanks for asking!