Tag: Grow Dahlias

Dahlia planting season…

… 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!

Enjoy the Dahlia!!!

Dahlia

I told a friend…The Dahlia Dish, March 25, 2024

March 25, 2024September 14, 2025 Medeek Meadows Dahlia Farm

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?

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…

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.

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.

Remember! The beautiful dahlias on both sides of the limelight are often just as incredible as the current “stars” and “unicorns”! Tell a friend!!!

Grow Beautiful Dahlias!

Enjoy the Dahlia!

Dahlia

Dahlia Bouquets… The Dahlia Dish March 13, 2024

March 13, 2024September 14, 2025 Medeek Meadows Dahlia Farm

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.

Grow Beautiful Dahlias!
Make Beautiful Bouquets!
Enjoy the Dahlia!!!

Dahlia

The Dahlia Dish… February 26, 2023

February 26, 2023September 13, 2025 Medeek Meadows Dahlia Farm

Dahlia 040 NOID Rocco mislabled from — Dahlia 040 NOID

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

Dahlia

The Dahlia Dish… February 21, 2023

February 21, 2023 Medeek Meadows Dahlia Farm

Glorious Dahlia Tubers … a tuber is a tuber is a tuber as long as it has a viable eye from which a new plant will grow. If a tuber does not have a viable eye, it’s known as a blind tuber, and although it may grow roots, it will never produce a new plant. Tubers can be tiny (like the size of your thumb or even smaller) or huge (like the size of your forearm). They can be skinny or fat. They can be long or short. They can have some colour pigmentation or not! They can have thin necks or no necks. They can be “ugly” or “beautiful” and still both produce the same gorgeous blooms that are true to the parent dahlia that produced the tubers. They are even edible! Perhaps a good way to use up blind tubers in a nice “zucchini” style loaf made with peeled and grated dahlia tubers?

Growing dahlias from tubers is the most common and arguably the easiest way to grow dahlias. You may find them available as single tubers, or small clumps (pot tubers – commonly found with imported products in nurseries), or even as large clumps (less commonly found for sale, but often friends or family might offer them this way!). A tuber will carry the same genetics as its parent dahlia – unlike seeds from the same plant, where the genetic variation is so high that a plant grown from seed will usually look substantially different than its parents.

Dahlia tubers are extremely sensitive to freezing and the plants are not hardy – they can’t tolerate a frost. So in Canada, tubers are harvested in the fall, stored over the winter in cool & dark conditions, and then planted again in the spring when the risk of frost has passed (usually mid-May in Terrace, BC, Canada). Some folks in the milder climes of Canada have success overwintering dahlias in the grounds – but there is always the risk of losing them to a freeze.

A freshly washed clump of tubers getting ready to be split and divided into individual tubers, then stored away for the winter.

Dahlia

The Dahlia Dish… February 20, 2023

February 20, 2023September 13, 2025 Medeek Meadows Dahlia Farm

Dahlia seedlings – what are they exactly? They are magical. They are exciting. They have both the capacity to surprise and disappoint. They are fun. They are so much more than just a plant started from a tiny seed!

What are they NOT? Dahlia seedlings will not grow true to their parents! They may have similar traits, but rarely look the same as the seed or pollen parent. Seedlings can vary from the seed and pollen parents in colour, form, height, tuber production, seed production, pollen production, foliage colour…

The 2022 growing season saw us grow approximately 500 dahlia plants from seed. Of those 500, we kept less than 80 to overwinter in storage and possibly grow out again in 2023. I spent a ton of my summer time in the seedling patch admiring, observing, recording and documenting the new blooms. And all the while I enjoyed the sweetly intoxicating scent of sweet peas wafting across from their trellis (planting sweet peas next to the dahlia seedling patch was an excellent idea!).

Skeena Darling was the first dahlia seedling that we kept back in 2020 (from 2019 seed)! Her own seeds have produced some stunners including the 2022-065 dahlia pictured above.

Dahlia

The Dahlia Dish…February 20, 2023

February 20, 2023February 20, 2023 Medeek Meadows Dahlia Farm

This was the beginning…where dahlia infatuation and straight up delirium started – thank you Boppa (RIP)! This is my one and only photo of some of the dahlias he grew (taken by a real film loaded camera – way before digital cameras and smart phone cameras were a thing)! It would have been taken in the summer 1995 + or – a few years.

By the look of the brown grass in the field behind the dahlias, it must’ve been a hot dry summer at “Dogwood” farm just outside Victoria on Vancouver Island, BC. The dahlias look like they’re “busting out”, well watered with a healthy dose of “black gold” well-rotted & aged sheep manure applied (ohhhh I’d love to have a big pile of that now!)

I remember once in a while snipping a big bloom to put in a vase in the house for him – but in hindsight I think he actually preferred them to stay in the garden! Good memories of deadheading spent blooms and helping Boppa lift the dahlias in the fall to store them away in the basement. He had great success storing them in whole clumps, in cardboard boxes in an unheated basement. Find more info about digging and storing dahlia tubers on our Dahlia Tips & Care page.