We’ve been working on a BIG dahlia seed experiment over the last year and we are so excited to share some of the results with you! This has been one of our favorite behind-the-scenes projects because it has been 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.) We also sold seeds from specific varieties of dahlias for the first time, which we’re planning to do again this year! (We’ll talk more about that in a little bit.)
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 this year.
Here’s some video from Bloomquist Minty, Chimacum Troy, Sandia Ruthie, and Cornel Bronze. (Cornel Bronze especially surprised us with its wide variety of colors and forms!) We’ll continue to share more about this project over on Instagram, so make sure to follow along over there too!
We had so much fun that we’re planning to do this again next year and we want to be able to share the fun with you! We’ll be having a Seed Sale at the end of January 2026 and once again we’ll be offering seeds from specific varieties. We’ll also have our Antique Zinnia Seeds again!
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. Here are some helpful resources if you’d like to save seeds from your own dahlia garden.
- The Difference Between Dahlia Seeds and Dahlia Tubers
- The Seed-Making Parts of a Dahlia
- How to Save Dahlia Seeds
- When Should You Let Dahlias Go to Seed
- The Art of Saving Dahlia Seed
- Tips for Saving Seeds from Fully Double Dahlias
- Our Instagram Highlight Bubble all about our 2025 Dahlia Seedlings
- Our Instagram Highlight Bubble About Dahlia Seeds
