NOID? What the heck is a Dahlia NOID? … In short, a NOID is a Dahlia who is well loved, grown and nurtured from year to year, but whose name has been lost, forgotten or never known. A NOID is never a Dahlia destined for the compost heap – NOID is a term only used for dahlias that we love and keep. NOID is simply a short reference to “NO IDentification”.
We give our NOIDs a number and a short description that helps us remember which bloom we’re working with during different times of the year when there are no blooms to see (like this time of year when we’re checking our tuber inventories in winter storage). The Dahlia pictured above is known to us only as “040 MM NOID Rocco mislabeled from source”. We’ve hung on to her because we love her qualities.
040 MM NOID is a beautiful dahlia that we see a lot of value in keeping. We acquired her by mistake when we ordered a dahlia named “Rocco” from a grower who sent us a tuber that was not actually “Rocco” but something else entirely… a happy accident 🙂 She’s in the category of very dark red, almost black dahlias – a very nice colour that works with blush pink bouquets – the light in the photo above shows the red in her bloom, but in real life, the bloom looks much darker (see photo below). Beautiful dark stems – an excellent cut flower for bouquets. A good bloomer and often an earlier bloomer for us.
We use these colour cards from the American Dahlia Society to help us narrow down the colour of Dahlia blooms… its super handy and also very interesting to see the blooms next to the cards. Sometimes its hard to get a good match because the colour variations are almost limitless!
“Dahlia 035 MM NOID – Boppa’s Tutie Fruity” is another favourite NOID. Definitely of sentimental value because it’s an oldie from the farm – my Nana and Boppa’s old Dogwood farm on Vancouver Island. But we love it because its got that gorgeous “flare” of yellow and red. Its a stunner in the garden and also is blessed with great stems for bouquets.
“Fire Magic” originally came to us as a gift from my sister Jacklin. But! She was given the name “Coral Nancy” because they didn’t know the real name and so she became known as “Coral” for her bloom’s beautiful coral colouring + “Nancy” for the woman who gave a friend a tuber awhile back… So for a few years we called this one “Dahlia 009 NOID Coral Nancy” until one summer we accidently stumbled across her real name! We ordered a dahlia called “Fire Magic” which turned out to be exactly the same bloom & tuber production as ol’ Coral Nancy… a little confusion in the garden…and then voila! That’s how we solved the mystery of “009 NOID” (an accurate and consistent naming and labelling system helped too!).
We try to solve all the mysteries! But sometimes it takes years. A search on the internet sometimes turns up an exact match but not always. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of dahlias and some are never named (like those for sale in mixed bags of tubers from big box stores and garden nurseries with packaging names like “Ball mix” or “Cactus mix” or “Waterlily mix” or “Decorative mix” or “Dinnerplate mix” or “Cut flower mix” etc. which are usually imported from large growers overseas). In order to make a match, you need to compare the bloom colour, form, and size. You also need to compare the plant’s growth habit and the size, shape, colour and style of tuber production. All these qualities can differ and provide clues to discover the real name of the well loved NOIDs.
More of our beautiful NOIDs!
If you think you know the real name – we’d LOVE to hear from you!
- Dahlia 016 MM NOID Meg’s fav orange (possibly Glorie Van Noordwijk)
- Dahlia 021 MM NOID Red Velvet
- Dahlia 109 MM NOID Red/Yellow Cactus
- Dahlia 139 MM NOID Dark Maroon Ball
- Dahlia 142 MM NOID JJ’s fav purple (gorgeous bright pinky magenta bloom on dramatic dark leaved plant) *Update 2024 we discovered the name is Engelhardt’s Matador*
- Dahlia 012 MM NOID JJ Bright Scarlet Red
- Dahlia 113 MM NOID White Waterlily
