Medeek Meadows is a Canadian Dahlia Farm operating in Terrace BC, Canada. We take great joy and pride in hybridizing new dahlia cultivars and growing dahlias on our small farm to supply tubers to the Canadian community of gardeners, growers and florists.
How long can you hang out watching bees roll around in poppies? Days and days over here! When the poppies are in bloom, the sound of the buzzing bees is at full volume. The bees just love the poppies! They pay no mind to anyone around watching. They are far too focused on collecting pollen!
Dahlias might have a bit of competition when it comes to poppies and pollen. While poppies absolutely pop with early and easy access pollen, dahlias take a little longer to produce. Poppy pollen is low hanging fruit for the bees in early summer, while dahlias don’t start providing lots of pollen until late summer into the early fall.
The cupped shape of the poppy flower makes it easy for the bees to collect the pollen. They crawl around on the stamens, knocking a lot of the pollen off to settle at the base of the petals where the bees can easily scoop it up.
Poppy flowers themselves do not make good cut flowers…but! The poppy seed heads are fabulous for textural interest in fresh of dried flower arrangements. You can have fresh poppy seed heads all summer long if you reseed them every couple weeks. Crowded poppies produce smaller seed heads, whereas poppies that have a bit of room to grow (say 8 inches between plants) will produce larger seed heads.
Remember! Poppies readily reseed! If you do not want them to reseed you must remove all the seed heads before they ripen and dry on the stem. They are however easy to plants to remove by weeding if you have them popping up in your garden in places you don’t want them. They don’t like to be transplanted.
… is in full swing for dahlia gardeners and growers across Canada. Depending where you are, you might be just starting, right in the middle, nearly done or done! We’re in the nearly done camp… and that always feels good when you can stand straight up for awhile. Along with planting season, it’s also “still a risk of frost season” in many places across Canada.
Our frost-free date in Terrace BC is usually around mid-May. We started planting out the dahlias on May 10th. The 2 week forecast looked pretty mild with a low risk of any frosty mornings so in my excitement some of the first varieties I put in the ground were some of my favourites that I started early indoors. They already had a fair bit of beautiful green growth exposed above the soil line. Risky! Because those weather forecasts? They change a bit sometimes and ours did! The forecast for the morning of May 31st, after a relatively warm day on the 30th, showed temps going down to 1 degree celsius with clear skies. A recipe for frost…Eek!
What to do?
We’re worried about the cuttings and early starts that we’ve planted. If cuttings get frosted, they are lost. If an early started tuber’s growth is frosted, the green foliage will wilt when it thaws and die off, but if the tuber is in good shape it will likely send up new growth albeit set back a couple weeks. We’re not at all worried about the tubers that have been planted that haven’t broken thru the soil yet. That is one of the reasons we prefer planting eyed up tubers as opposed to cuttings.
Learning about how frost forms is really interesting and its really useful knowledge to have if you’re a gardener or a farmer. I haven’t found a really reliable weather forecast for frost in our area. So in lieu of that I rely on my own observations. If we have a very warm or hot sunny day, followed by clear skies over night and early morning temperatures above zero but less than 5 degrees celsius, there is a high likelihood that frost will occur in exposed areas.
There are a few things you can do!
Do nothing! Pay your money, take your chances. But give it some thought! If you’ve got cuttings planted and you get a frost, you will most likely lose those plants.
Don’t plant your early starts or cuttings out in the field until all risk of frost has passed! i.e. if you’ve got space to keep them going in a greenhouse, do that.
Cover up all the dahlias that have growth above the soil line. Frost cloth is nice to have on hand. It’s extra work to get out there and cover everything up… but it might be in your best interests. If you just have a few plants, you can cover them up with big pots. Covering plants traps the radiant energy (like cloud cover does too) from escaping that causes surface temperatures to cool rapidly creating frost.
move your plants to a sheltered area – only really feasible if you’ve got a few in pots
Get the sprinklers out! That’s right! It works. Adding water to the equation can help protect your plants from a frost.
What did we do?
On the evening of May 30th, we used overhead sprinklers to ensure all the dahlia beds were well watered. We did not put out any frost cloth. We did not move any plants that had been set out to harden off if they were in relatively sheltered spots (i.e. alongside a greenhouse, under the canopy of a tree etc.). Your risk tolerance for loss along with experience will help guide you. We want to minimize both loss and the amount of extra work we have to do. Sometimes that means having a loss here and there for those “I won’t do that again” lessons.
The results?
On the morning of May 31st I did a walk around and observed that we did indeed have a light frost! The leaves of our strawberry plants were frosty, there was visible frost on the grass in exposed areas. How bout the dahlias? They were all ok! Not a single plant was lost. Yay!
During my walk around, I noticed one very interesting anomaly! The lid of a big rubbermaid tub full of baling twine had collected water from the overhead sprinklers. There was a skim of ice on top! ICE!!! On top of the tub I had set out a dahlia that I had been growing in its own container for the past month. The water was frozen, but the dahlia was not! The leaves just had a heavy dew on them. Neat! Puzzling! Science is cool and the dahlias are alive and well!
Ice formed on the top of the rubbermaid container full of baling twine even though the air temperature was just above zero.
The dahlia growing in the plastic tub set on top of the rubbermaid container had heavy dew on its leaves, but did not get frosted!
Oh man, growing up on Oldfield road near Victoria BC was amazing! Everyone who knows that road knows! The old Dogwood Farm in the bottom of the little valley next to Bear Hill was a bulb farm way back before I was born and before it became my grandparents farm (I think in the early 50’s). To this day, spring still sings out loud with cheerful clumps of bright yellow daffodils blooming in a couple of the fields along the road. There’d often be a photographer crouching in the grass by the fence waiting for the “money shot” of the woolies with new lambs grazing in the daffodil dotted pasture. It was picturesque.
Freshly shorn North Country Cheviot sheep at Patrick B. Hoole’s Dogwood Farm on Oldfield Road near Victoria, BC. Photo taken by Jeff Barber. The photo was featured in the 1993 edition of the Beautiful British Columbia calendar
Ginger Beer & Strawberry Shortcake
Summer time brought hayfields and sweet fresh fruit. Strawberries and raspberries, blueberries and even kiwi fruit, peaches and cherries, and those wild tart huckleberries and sweet sun ripened blackberries! Ginger beer and strawberry shortcake with whipped cream (the real stuff) – those were the refreshments of the day for the haying crews. Classic! Still my favourites! Those thorny blackberries would never give up their sweet berries without a bit of a fight. Scratched up arms and legs were part of the bargain if you went into the patch wearing shorts and tank tops in the heat of the summer. The blackberry pies were worth it!
Nana’s (Margery Hoole) ginger beer recipe. It could pack a punch! Refreshing and burpy! Give it a go!
Farm Stands
Oldfield road had it all (and still does)! A 6km long, straight & narrow road with no shoulders, a few hills in both directions to challenge the cyclists and small farms of all kinds all the way along. Many orchards and Ponchet’s nursery, fields of vegetable and berry crops, fruit trees, flowers, chickens, sheep, goats, cows, horses, lamas, honey bees! Farm gate stands all along the way. Seasonal delights and daily staples on offer and something a little different at every stand. You could even get bags of beautiful well rotted horse or sheep manure! Feed bags from Buckerfield’s farm and garden store repurposed to be filled with manure and sold by entrepreneurial farm kids for something like $2.50/bag on the honour system. Babe’s Honey Farm without a doubt was the best smelling farm in the area! Back then they were located just off of Oldfield Road on Walton Place. If you ever get a chance to tour the processing facility of a honey farm, the “sense”ible thing would be to do it! In Terrace we’re lucky to have lots of honey options thanks to folks like Rushing River Apiaries who have built a great business producing honey while also inspiring and educating folks to be beekeepers.
Did you know? Recycled cardboard beer flats are awesome for picking blueberries!
u-Pick
Along with the bounties sold at the farm stands, there were u-pick opportunities where folks could pick their own berries straight from the field! I still love picking berries and made sure to plant my favourites, blueberry bushes and raspberry canes near the dahlia patch here at Medeek Meadows. Raspberries are a July treat for a few weeks for us in Terrace, while blueberries keep us snacking and picking from July into September! They are such a forgiving fruit in that regard. A nice long picking window. Snacking on sweet berries while working in the dahlia patch is my kind of delightful! Be sure to plant some of those bushes & canes! Spotted Horse Farm and Nursery in Terrace can hook you up with some great varieties.
Some flower farms now even offer u-pick! For those farms, it can be a great way to offer an amazingly fun flower “experience” to customers, while earning income for the farm. Some farms are able to take it a step further, inspiring creativity & learning by offering flower arranging & educational workshops. We regret we are not open to the public, do not offer tours or workshops, and do not offer any dahlia u-picks. Sorry!
Why don’t all flower farms offer these options? Insurance costs can be prohibitive & resources scarce. It has to make sense on the business end of things. It has to be a good fit for the farm. While those options haven’t been in the cards for us, do know, we’d happily partake if we stumbled upon a dahlia tour or u-pick! There is so much magic to be enjoyed wandering thru a patch of dahlias, especially for folks who can’t grow their own. Tours, u-pick and a dahlia show garden have been on our list for possible future endeavours, but execution has so far eluded our capacity. Kudos to the gardens and farms across North America who make it work! We’re still over here dreaming and happy to be living a healthy spoonful of our dahlia dreams.
I love to listen to blues! I love to listen to music when I’m working and I’m 100% sure I’m in good company in that regard! We’re not talking about Chris Stapleton’s cool bluesy tune Them Stems in this post. This is not that, because this is the Dahlia Dish. We’re sharing our thoughts about flower stems. Them dahlia stems.
Great Dahlia Stems
Great stems can be stiff or wirey, thick or thin, hollow or solid, long or short, shades of green or dark shades of red and purple tones. While there is a lot of variety in dahlia stems qualities, when we say a variety has “great stems for bouquets” it generally means that we like using it in bouquets. Great dahlias for cut flowers have stems that we can use easily in bouquets. Some qualities matter more for bouquets, while some matter more for gardens.
After quite a number of years growing dahlias (since 2006) we have never been more thrilled with the stems of varieties in our current collection including our new Skeena varieties. They are almost all double duty dahlias! Great in the garden and great in the vase.
Dahlia Stem Colour
Dark stems! Those reddish purple or purplish red stems! We love them in the garden! While the colour of the stems may tend to get lost in bouquets, out in the garden those dahlias with colourful stems are extra gorgeous. Especially when we get a light coloured bloom that is just set off so beautifully by its contrasting dark stems. Gah! Stem colour doesn’t matter so much for bouquets, but it can add interest in the garden.
Dahlia Stem Strength
Stem Strength is important for both bouquets and gardens. Stems should always be strong enough to hold the bloom up under normal conditions and also capable of withstanding cutting, handling, transporting and arranging. Weak stems and weak flower to stem attachments aren’t useful in bouquets or gardens if stems break or flowers break off easily. For some varieties, late season stems can be thinner and not as strong as they were earlier in the season. In our experience we find this to be true for some especially taller and floriferous varieties. Cutting plants like this on the “deeper” side (one or two nodes below where you’d cut for a decent stems length) during the first flush of blooms early in the season can help to keep these plants at a more manageable height over the season and with stronger stems.
Dahlia 2023-038 This is an example of a stem that we did not disbud. It has grown 2 lateral stems about 8 inches below the central bloom. We normally remove these 2 as small buds prior to the stems developing. Often we’d cut the stem at the point where its held in the photo (just above the 2nd node). But here, we intentionally cut the stem “deeper” to keep the plant shorter and bushier.
Dahlia Stem Length
Stem length is most important for bouquets and less so for the garden. For bouquets our favourite bucket/vase/jar/vessel to use for holding after cutting and for arranging bouquets will dictate how long the stems need to be. The buckets we use for holding after cutting are 10.5″ tall. The vessels we prefer for bouquets are 7″ to 9″ tall jars or vases. When we cut blooms, the flower heads need to be proud of the bucket thus guaranteeing that we’ve cut stems that will be long enough and then some for using in bouquets. The top height of our bouquets is usually around 16″ to 18″. This is a good length for wrapped market style cut flower bundles too. When we think of varieties with great stems we like stems to be a minimum of approximately 12″ to 16″ long from the base of the bloom. Cutting the stem for this length may come before, but is often after the first “node” below the bloom. The first node is where lateral buds start growing. This is where the need for dis-budding comes in.
Dis-budding for Stem Length
Most dahlias benefit from a bit of dis-budding, especially when their destination is the vase. Dahlias will have a central bud and at least 1 or more lateral buds that start growing just below the central bud. Initially they look like a bit of a cluster, but as the buds develop their respective stems lengthen and the lateral stems may grow past the central bloom leaving that bloom somewhat hidden “in the plant” with a very short stem. Removing the first one or pair of lateral buds when they are large enough to handle without breaking off the central bud will help achieve a longer stem for the central bloom. Some varieties need more dis-budding than others to achieve better results. We’ll remove just the first bud or pair of lateral buds on some varieties, while on others we may remove up to 5. You’ll soon get to know which varieties are a little less demanding in this regard.
P.S. don’t let those short stems go to waste. Short stems can still be used in small posy style bouquets , single blooms in bud vases, and we frequently use them along the edge of the jar or vase for larger bouquets.
Dahlia Stem Thickness
Thick stems and stiff stems can be challenging to use in bouquets, but we can use them especially if they have a nice 45 degree “chin up” bloom angle. We just don’t want them all to be super thick or super stiff all the time. They are what they are and demand their space in the vase. They can add great structure, while the thinner, wirey stems are more forgiving and can add some whimsey and be easier to work with in arrangements. Thinner wirey stems can be tucked into the vase here and there with ease, whereas chunky stiff stems are better placed in the vase first where they can be happily in place and “worked around”.
The bloom angle and attachment to the stem contributes to the utility of the stems in bouquets. Clock faced blooms (they look straight ahead like a clock on the wall) and navel gazers (blooms that face downward) are harder to use in bouquets, less appealing in the garden, and unlikely to be winners on the show table.
The beautiful blooms of chunky, stiff, short stemmed dahlias are best left in the garden to be enjoyed in our humble opinion! Our favourite dahlias for bouquets always tend to be those that give us great stems for the least amount of work. Not too much dis-budding for good stem length, not too stiff, not too chunky, and always strong enough to hold those beautiful blooms up and also stand up to all the handling between field and final destination.
How can one narrow down the best dahlias for cut flowers to a list of 10 or 20 or 30 or more when there are thousands of varieties to choose from? When you’re growing dahlias for cut flowers, you need to grow quite a few varieties to ensure your bouquets are always beautiful and that they differ from week to week. Having multiple varieties in each colour group or colour palette is important. Having multiple varieties to choose from is important. Having different styles of blooms is important. Having blooms all season is important.
Warning! This is a highly subjective topic, but we hope to give you some ideas that will help you choose the best dahlias to grow for cut flowers.
Our list of favourite dahlias for building bouquets may change over time as we develop and or grow new varieties. And it may also change due to our personal tastes and styles changes. One year we were all about the waterlily blooms, then it was the cactus dahlias that struck our fancy, now its the balls and decorative styles.
We specifically source, select for and grow dahlias that are best for cut flowers. If we can’t use it often in a bouquet, then we’re not likely to grow very many of them and we’re not likely to grow them year after year. The best dahlias for cut flowers must have great stems that are easily used for bouquets and flower arrangements. And they must be floriferous, producing a good amount of blooms over the season.
The vast majority of the dahlias we favour for cut flowers are in the 3-6″ bloom size range and we like a few in the 2″ size range for bouquet accents. We have developed a large collection of varieties that are excellent for cutting, so for the most part we’ll break down our favourites for cut flowers by colour group.
We like to grow a number of “accent blooms” for bouquets because they add a great deal of interest and texture to arrangements. Typically pompons, miniature ball & decorative style blooms that are approximately 2″ in size work beautifully as accent flowers.
These are favourites blooms for bouquets that tend to have a white base and blush soft pink or pinky lavender. Odyssey, Tahoma Odyssey, and Daddy’s Girl are excellent too!
Blooms with blends of multiple colours are fabulous for tying in solid colour flowers of the same colour palette in bouquets. Some blooms like Skeena Harmonies have an outline of a complementary colour along the petal edges called picotee! Its super pretty.
Always bright! Always a delight! There are many hues and tones of yellow. The buttery and the lemony tones are on trend for us. The buttery tones pair well with pinks, whites and burgundies. The lemony tones are fun to pair with whites, oranges and lavenders.
The colour of Joy! We. Love. Orange. The thing about orange dahlias is that its such a versatile colour for use in bouquets. Early summer thru to the fall, customers love orange in bouquets all season. When we roll into September, the leaves on the trees start to turn colour and the cooler nights whisper of fall, orange is still a star.
Pink is forever! Give us all the pink all the time! Again, as with other colour groups there are so many tones and hues of pink. Pastel, barbie, bubblegum, peachy. The list is infinite. Picking a colour palette may help you settle on the varieties that work best for your own preferences.
We love the soft pastel lavenders. Gorgeous in bouquets with whites and soft yellows.
Some lavenders have a pink tone, and some pinks have a lavender tone. Those subtleties can make a big difference when choosing the best blooms for your bouquets. Sometimes you just won’t know if a dahlia will go well with others until you grow it and use it in bouquets. We take photos of our blooms alongside colour cards to give a sense of the tone and size of dahlias. The colour cards are available for purchase from the American Dahlia Society.
The shades of corals can be softer or darker and depending on the variety lean more into pink, red, or orange tones. We love corals blended in bouquets with whites and yellows. They are also striking when arranged with mauves and lavenders.
Those dramatic, not quite black, red dahlias are drop dead gorgeous! They go so well with pinks and other tones of red. We love to grow a number of brighter red dahlias to use in our rainbow bouquets.
Productive purple people pleasers – these favourites are all of that! From incredible colour (Twilight Boy) to exquisite gold tips (Mojo), these dahlias are great choices for cut flowers
Subtle undertones of pink and orange. The bronze colour palette is warm and well suited for exceptional fall themed bouquets.
Cornel Bronze
That’s already quite a few dahlias that make excellent cut flowers. There are so many to enjoy. Discovering which dahlias you find best for cut flowers while building your own stunning collection will keep you, your friends and family in beautiful bouquets for years to come.
Vase life of dahlia blooms varies and is influenced by a number of factors:
1. Number of stems in a vase – A bouquet of 5 dahlia stems can outlast a bouquet with 25 dahlia stems.
2. Maturity of blooms at harvest – Blooms cut when they are approx 1/2 to 3/4 open will last longer in a vase than a bloom cut when fully mature.
Fresh Bouquet featuring dahlias: WD Jady, Cornel, Carl Chilson, Skeena 23-074, Skeena 23-047, Dana Iris, & Skeena Rosie.
3. Hydration level of blooms at harvest – Hydration levels of plants are highest in the cool mornings and cloudy cool days. Avoid cutting blooms in the heat of the day. Very hot weather combined with inadequate watering will reduce hydration levels. Strip foliage from stems to ensure it doesn’t rob the blooms of precious hydration.
4. Weather – Bloom quality can deteriorate in cool wet weather – you may notice browning on the tips of petals after a couple days in the vase. Most noticeable on white blooms.
5. Room temperature – Bouquets displayed in cool rooms out of direct sunlight will last longer.
Dahlia Bouquet featuring: Megan Dean, Lyn’s Louise, Cream Diane, Skeena Chic, Skeena Pluto, Robann Regal, Barbarry Forum, and Carl Chilson.
6. Water in the vase – make sure to give your dahlia bouquet fresh water especially for the first 3 days when the water uptake is greatest. Fresh water also looks a lot nicer in a glass vase!
7. Style of bloom – Pompon and Ball style blooms last well, especially if they have very firm textured petals like Cornel Bronze. Varieties with softer textured petals tend to have a bit shorter vase life.
8. Size of bloom – Smaller blooms tend to last longer than large blooms.
Dahlias Small World (white pompon), Cornel Bronze (bronze orange ball), and Hamari Rose (pink ball)
We use many dahlia bloom styles to create stunning bouquets. We don’t limit it to the Pompon and Ball style blooms just because they can last a little bit longer. They are very round and formal to the eye. Variation in petal and bloom shapes adds much beauty, whimsy and interest to bouquets.
Average vase life for dahlias is 4-5 days + or – by simply ensuring they have their feet in fresh water. You can fuss over them, sear stems, trim stems, add flower food, sing to them, dance for them and you may just squeeze more time.
Dahlia bouquet: BQ Compare & Carl Chilson with Skeena Yve, Skeena Jimi, & Skeena Nana. Cosmo and Dusty Miller greens along for the ride.
The bouquet pictured here is created in our classic style! The blooms in this one are from dahlias Cream Diane, Skeena Posh, Hamari Rose, Skeena Hope, Small World, Carl Chilson, Silver Years and Skeena Harmonies.
With so many choices, which varieties and styles should you grow? What qualities should you consider?
Our five main considerations for choosing a dahlia variety suitable for bouquets are Stem Length, Style of Bloom, Colour of Bloom, Size of Bloom, and Floriferosity.
1. Stem Length – nice long stems are preferred – it can mean less time spent disbudding.
The variety pictured here is Skeena Easy Breezy with her very long stems!
2. Style of bloom – we prefer a blend of styles. Balls, poms, decorative, waterlily, cactus… Using a blend of bloom styles can add lovely variety and texture to bouquets.
An example of a bouquet including Pompon accent blooms (Small World), Formal Decorative Blooms (Lupin Chris and Jowey Veronique), Stellar style blooms (purple Skeena seedling 23-037 and Sandy Couzens an imperfect stellar form with lovely purple picotee edging on its white petals).
3. Colour of bloom – blending colours in bouquets is a bit of an art. One of the reasons we grow so many varieties is that it affords us an extensive array of colours to choose from for building our dahlia bouquets. If you’re limited on space, or just getting started growing dahlias for bouquets, give some thought to the colour palettes that you and your customers are looking for.
A fall colour toned bouquet with gorgeous warm and golden yellow, orange and burgundy tones. Dahlias in this bouquet include Day Dreamer (waterlily style), WD Aunty Dor (Stellar style), Skeena Shan (Formal Decorative style), Skeena Sugar Pie (Formal Decorative), Skeena Gem (Formal Decorative), and Hy Suntan (Ball).
4. Size of bloom – we like a range of blooms sizes. From the pompons under 2 inches in size up to about 5 or 6 inches max. Using a mix of bloom sizes in bouquets adds interest, variation and visual appeal.
This bouquet shows a range of bloom sizes from about 2″ up to about 5″. We’ve also included some dahlia bud stems that haven’t quite opened yet (a great way to use stems in the fall that won’t have enough time to fully bloom before frost).
5. Floriferosity – growing varieties that have lots of blooms over the season are favoured. Remember to pinch plants to encourage lateral branching and more stems. And remember to disbud to get more usable stems per plant.
6. Space – if you’re limited in growing space, you may just want to pay a bit more attention to size of bloom and floriferostiy. It takes more small blooms to fill out a bouquet than larger blooms. A garden of pompons would be delightful, but also much harder to fill out a bouquet with such tiny blooms.
One of the things that fascinates us about dahlia blooms is that there are so many beautiful varieties that haven’t or never seem to “make it big”. They take their time to catch on. They sit a little longer on the shelves, they wait like wallflowers for an invite to dance, they might be the last players to get picked to play on the team…Why?
Dahlia Bargaly Blush
The visual appeal of a flower might be a combination of preference for just two qualities: colour and form. The functional appeal of a flower is how well it serves the needs of the grower in the garden and the vase: think stem length, bloom time, “floriferosity”, vase life, tubers and also colour and form.
If a bloom meets both visual and functional appeal is it guaranteed to be a winner? Is it going to hit the big times? Is it going to be the next Hollywood star in your bouquets and gardens? Maybe! Much more likely if it gets airtime! And much much more likely if the hype is not an empty promise that eventually sends the bloom down the road of ambiguity.
The volume of street chatter needs to get loud enough for dahlia growers to hear the call of a dahlia name more than once or twice and in a favourable tone. Often this chatter starts from a dahlia society or from a dahlia show where top prizes are coveted. Word of mouth is powerful! Remember that fabulous Faberge Organics Shampoo TV commercial starring actress Heather Locklear? “…I liked it so much I told 2 friends about it, and they told 2 friends, and so on, and so on, and so on”… that very same phenomenon happens with dahlias…
Dahlia Cherish
Dahlias that are on either side of the limelight are excellent choices for the vase and garden because they can usually be found at reasonable and in some cases low prices whereas those unicorns directly under the bright lights of stardom can cost a pretty penny, an arm or leg, maybe even your firstborn! Varieties on the bleeding edge of limelight are usually lesser known or new to the scene, while classic varieties that were once in the limelight have been around for awhile, are well known, readily available and have great qualities. Classics are a fantastic choice for new growers and seasoned growers too if they’ve never graced your garden.
2023-036 Medeek Meadows
A few varieties that we think are on the bleeding edge of limelight because of their visual and functional appeal, relative scarcity or obscurity and incredible qualities include: Bargaly Blush, Island View Moon, Cherish, Clearview Peachy, Aurora’s Kiss, Daddy’s Girl, After Dusk, Jabberbox and Ferncliff Classy.
A few solid classics that we adore and love to grow include: Carl Chilson, Ivanetti, Cornel, Robin Hood, Jowey Paula, Nijinsky, Just Peachy, and Snoho Sonia.
Dahlia Jowey Paula
Remember! The beautiful dahlias on both sides of the limelight are often just as incredible as the current “stars” and “unicorns”! Tell a friend!!!
Our Boppa grew dahlias in the gardens by the house at the farm on Oldfield road and I wonder if he didn’t grow them would I be growing them today? As a kid, I remember being particularly enamoured with the huge yellow blooms of Kelvin Floodlight. They made a huge impact! So much so that when I bought my first house 30 years later and finally had my own gardens, I planted my first dahlias along with green arrow shelling peas (because they are AMAZING too and great snacks if you like snacking straight off the vine)! There was no internet back in the early 80s so exposure to beautiful dahlias was limited to seeing them in the gardens of friends and family, via a visit to the dahlia display at the Butchart Gardens, via local Dahlia Society events, or the exhibition hall at a fall fair (our closest was the Saanich Fall Fair). Since that first house, my gardens have never been without dahlias! But… unlike my Boppa who seemed to grow the same varieties year after year, I find myself continuously enamoured by new varieties with their fabulous forms and colours.
I did grow Kelvin Floodlight for the sake of sentiment and nostalgia in my early gardens. But new factors influenced my decision to stop growing it. Its a show stopper to be sure due to its magnificent size and bright yellow colour but its too big for the average bouquet and is also a later bloomer so not the best choice for me with the shorter growing season where we live in Terrace in Northwest BC vs the Victoria area on Vancouver Island…. so KF had to go! Tough choices when you have limited space and certain requirements (i.e. must be able to use in a bouquet)!
Availability and access to new varieties ramped up exponentially since the internet became a thing… and then even more so in the last 20 years +or- as smart phones and social media on the internet became things… Thinking back to around the year 2005 I was working for a well-loved airline called Hawkair. I remember Captain Lopes showing us this new “app” called Facebook where you could sign up for an account and connect with friends and family no matter where they were in the world so long as they had accounts too “for free”! Wild! Smartphones with cameras enabled the ability to connect to the internet and share photos of beautiful dahlias in just seconds!!! Internet + Social Media + Smartphones = Dahlia Awareness to the nth degree! You might also call this influence…
Ever wonder how many photos of beautiful dahlias have been shared via social media?! Sooooo many! We can admire seemingly limitless photos of dahlias 24/7/365! Anytime, any day, all year long! We are under the influence!!!
Over the years I find that my preferences for colours and forms of dahlia flowers changes… but the 1 thing that stays constant is my appetite for new varieties. The thrill of watching a new variety bloom for the first time! Its so exciting to see it bloom in the garden for the first time! When I see these new blooms, I can’t help but start to compare them to varieties I’ve grown before. Which do I prefer and why? Practicality and the attributes of the variety itself are ultimately what influences me the most when it comes time to decide if I will continue to grow it or not.
What influences your decision to grow a new variety? Is it the colour? Is it the form? Is it the growth habit? Is it because “everybody” wants it? Is it sentimental? Is it the name of the variety? Is it because it blooms earlier? Is it because its a blooming powerhouse? Is it the size of the bloom? Is it the tubers? Is it the stem length? Is it practicality? Is it show worthiness?
When there are so many beautiful flowers in the world , you might wonder why choose the dahlia? Why is the dahlia so wonderful for bouquets? We think we know the answers! There are A LOT of reasons!!!
Firstly, dahlias are available in almost every shade and every hue of every colour unlike many flowers that are available in just a handful of standard colours. There are sooooo many colours! So many! You’ll find dahlias in the colour groups of White, Yellow, Pink, Orange, Red, Purple, and Bronze. No Blue… and I don’t think we’ve ever seen a Green or a Brown dahlia bloom, but genetically these may be possibly whereas Blue is not.
Additionally, unlike most other flowers, dahlias are available in multiple magical forms and styles! Forms are defined by the general shape of the bloom, the shape of its petals, the number of rows of petals, the arrangement of the petals, open centred (like a sunflower showing off its central disc), or closed centre (the central disc is not visible until the flower is fully matured and spent). Its true that some dahlias can look quite a bit like other flowers such as Asters, Peonies, Daisies or Waterlilies!
The shapes! The general shape of the flower can be round like a ball (Ball and Pompon), flatter like a plate (Decorative), cupped like a saucer (Waterlily). The shape of the petals in each bloom are another source of incredible variation in form! Petals can be pointy, rounded, incurved, recurved, reflexed, wavy, curly, flat, elongated, tubular… The shape of a dahlia bloom’s petals further define forms of Cactus, Semi-Cactus, Informal Decorative, Formal Decorative, Novelty, Anenome, Peony…
The petals! The number of petals in a bloom further contribute to the appeal of dahlias. Some are Singles… open centred having a single row of petals around a central disc. Others are Doubles… multiple rows of petals around the central disc, some with a closed centre, some with an open centre.
The size of the blooms! As tiny as 1″ across (Pompons) these are perfect for bouquet accents… to larger than 10″ across (multiple forms such as Decorative and Semi-Cactus often referred to as Dinner Plate sizes) that are spectacular to use for focal flowers in event or bridal bouquets. There is a dahlia bloom available in every single size you desire for a bouquet! We favour those that are up to 6″ in size for daily bouquets.
The stems! Dahlia stems can differ by variety too! Some are super stiff and straight up, while others are more wiry or bendy and perfect for whimsy. We like the full range of stems for use in bouquets so long as they are long enough to use!
The bloom window! Dahlias offer blooms for a long period during the summer! Bloom time varies by variety. Some will bloom earlier in the season and some will bloom later. We favour the earlier to mid season blooming varieties because we want them for bouquets as early as possible in the season. We do love to have a few later blooming dahlias in the queue to contribute to the ever changing variation that adds interest to our bouquets all season long. And remember! Dahlias are known to be cut and come again flowers! The more blooms you cut for bouquets, the more blooms you’ll get!
The possibilities of creating beautiful bouquets using dahlia blooms are endless! The colours, the forms and styles, the sizes, the stems, the bloom window! Dahlias make it fun and easy to create beautiful bouquets enabling the spread joy and happiness!
Tips for beautiful bouquets:
Choose colours that work well together! If the tone or shade of a particular variety isn’t quite right, save it for another bouquet. Sometimes when we grow a new variety, we find that the colour might be gorgeous but also awkward because we don’t have any other dahlia blooms that go well with it. If we really love the colour, we’ll use these as focal flowers in bouquets using other flower types and greens as filler. And if we really really love the colour, we’ll start trying to source more dahlia varieties to complement it and we will often grow more of that variety.
Threes work well! 3 varieties with colours that complement, 3 stems of each bloom… or multiples thereof.
Bridges and blenders! Many dahlias are bicolour or have a blush or a kiss of a secondary colour. These are perfect for tying in colours in a bouquet! Cherish is a pale yellow with a pinky purple burgundy kiss that is incredible for using in bouquets to tie in with other blooms of pink, purple, or burgundy. Bowser Denyse is a beautiful pink bloom with white petal tips that help to tie in white blooms or other pink blooms….
Fillers! While we are quite partial to a vase full of just dahlias, filler flowers and greens are always handy and afford variety, texture and interest to bouquets. Some of our favourites are zinnias, cosmos, honeywort, bouquet dill, peony foliage, marigold gem, feverfew, borage, statice, asters, strawflowers, phlox, euphorbia, eucalyptus and in mid-late September we love to use dahlia foliage for greens in bouquets!
Freshness! Fresh flower bouquets are not meant to last forever. Dahlias typically last about 5 good days in a vase. Cut blooms before they are fully mature ~1/2 to 3/4 open. They may open up a wee bit after blooming but generally not much and hardly at all if cut at the 1/2 to 3/4 open stage. Cut blooms in the cool of the morning and place directly into cool clean water. Keep the water in the vase fresh – change it daily if possibly (most importantly in the first few days while the stems are still taking up water). Bouquets displayed in a cool area will last longer than bouquets displayed in a warm area.
