The Treasure Hunt in our Dahlia Field

October 16, 2025

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Dahlia Seedlings | Seeds

In 2025, we worked on a BIG dahlia seed experiment ! This was one of our favorite behind-the-scenes projects because it was consistently so interesting and so beautiful.

In Fall 2024, we kept track of the seed parent for most of the seeds we harvested. Almost all of our seeds are open pollinated, so we don’t always know both seed and pollen parents, but we can know which other dahlias had grown in the immediate vicinity of each dahlia variety and have a pretty good idea of where the pollen had come from. (Bees do roam far and wide, but if they have a veritable smorgasbord in front of them, they’ll usually choose the easiest source of food, which in this case was dahlia pollen.)

In spring 2025 we planted out SO MANY SEEDS on our U.S. farm, and not just seeds that we had saved, either! We planted out lots of seeds from Ken Greenway at AC Dahlias and from Steve and Sandy Boley at Birch Bay Dahlias.

After almost a year of waiting, we finally got to see what types of seedlings each dahlia variety would make and it was so fun! It felt like a treasure hunt every time we went out in our field! The photos sprinkled throughout this blog are just a little taste of all the dahlia seedlings we collected.

Here’s some video from KA’s® Cloud, Bloomquist Clear Delight, AC Twisp, Bloomquist Minty, Chimacum Troy, Sandia Ruthie, Tahoma Velvet, and Cornel Bronze. (Cornel Bronze especially surprised us with its wide variety of colors and forms!)

Collecting Dahlia Seeds in Your Garden

Have you ever grown dahlias from seed? If not, you should try! It’s always an adventure to see what will grow. 🌸 We’ve talked a lot about saving dahlia seeds over the years. At the bottom of this post you’ll find some helpful resources if you’d like to save seeds from your own dahlia garden!