New to Dahlias? Key Considerations for Choosing Good Starter Varieties

Choosing your first dahlia varieties to grow can feel both exciting and overwhelming. There are literally thousands of named cultivars out there and everyone has their favorites.

After growing hundreds of varieties between our Georgia farm and our current farm here in Cache Valley, Utah, I've learned that not all dahlias are created equal when it comes to what I'll call "beginner-friendliness." Some have blooms that are to die for, but don't produce a whole lot of them. Some are crappy tuber producers. Some have tubers that don't store well. And some of the rarer varieties are downright expensive to practice on.

What Do I Mean by "Beginner-Friendly?"

All dahlias are planted and cared for in the same way. There’s no list of dahlias that are inherently “easier” or “harder” to grow than others.

So then what makes a good starter dahlia? This list is not exhaustive, but here's what I've come up with so far:

Key Considerations for Choosing Good Starter Dahlia Varieties

• Inexpensive Tuber

  
  

  Just like trying anything new, caring for dahlias comes with a learning curve. You’ll make mistakes. I promise. And, it's important to remember that you have an uncontrollable dahlia co-parent (Mother Nature) who is sometimes on your side and other times...decidedly not.

  
  

In other words, you may lose a dahlia plant or two or a good handful along the way and if you've sunk your money into expensive tubers that are hard to get your hands on, well then you've just given yourself (and whoever else shares your bank account) a reason to call it. So practice with the inexpensive gals until you get your feet wet.

• Prolific Bloomer

  
  

  She's gotta pump out blooms. Why?

Because dahlias take time and work and you wanna be rewarded for your efforts and learning with a fistful of blooms!

Plus, if your new to dahlias and the varieties you've chosen aren't known to bloom a bunch, you'll start to question your ability to grow them rather than question whether or not you started with a good bloom producer in the first place.

• Good Tuber Producer

  
  

Perhaps aside from the fistful of blooms, you're also pumped about the fact that the one dahlia tuber you started with can multiply and give you even more tubers to grow next season (or share, of course if that's your thing). Choosing a variety that's known to produce a lot of tubers helps a new grower multiply their stock quickly from one season to the next. If you've unknowingly started with a variety that's a stingy-tuber producer, you might dig it up at the end of the season with high anticipation only to be left staring at a pitiful tuber "clump." Talk about taking the air out of your sails. Then there's the part where you've never divided dahlia tubers before and with practice will come learning moments (also known as "mistakes")—including dividing clumps into some individual tubers without eyes, or growth points which makes them...not grow. Better to have a lot of tubers to practice on and ones you do divide correctly be known to store well too.

• Tubers NOT from Big Box Stores
  

Hear me out on this because I speak not as a small farm selling dahlia tubers, but as a dahlia grower who has learned this mistake first-hand. When I first dove into dahlias, I was a little miffed at the small farm prices so I went online to a major retailer who had quite a few options at a much cheaper price point. I bought a bunch of varieties (10 to be exact) and patted myself on the back for saving money. Well wouldn't you know, out of those 10 varieties, I had issues with 4 of them?! When they bloomed, I noticed two of the varieties I ordered weren't true to variety at all. I ordered Shiloh Noelle and came out with Emory Paul (still beautiful but still...not what I ordered). My "Jowey Winnie" ended up being some no-name vibrant purple dahlia whose center blew open at the first opportunity. All that care and space went into tuber varieties I didn't choose.

The other two varieties seemed great until I dug them up at the end of the season to find some of them were infected with leafy gall (another post for another time on what that looks like and how to deal with the infected tuber clump and the soil it grew in. Spoiler alert: it's a pain).

Did I mention they all came in clumps with loads of broken necks? I threw away two clumps before I even began because there wasn't an intact neck to be seen. While the big box retailers are usually awesome at issuing refunds for mishaps such as these, I promise you when I say the money I saved wasn't worth the headache of it all. Especially as a new grower trying to figure everything out. Since then I've ordered from over 35 different small farms on my hunt for certain varieties and although there's been the occasional variety mix up (usually just one of the bunch, not the whole variety), I haven't had any other problems.

ALL that to say, set yourself up for success right from the beginning—ignore the call of those big retail store prices. Order instead from a farmer whose livelihood depends on keeping their customers happy by sending them what they ordered in great condition.

Now What Are the Good Starter Varieties?

This post is plenty long, so stay tuned because next up on the blog is a list of varieties we've found to tick all the boxes—prolific bloomers, good tuber producers and did I mention inexpensive (at least for dahlias)?!