Delighting in Dahlias: Dreaming of My Garden in the Depths of February
Over the last couple of weeks, our snow slowly melted. Two weeks of predicted snowstorms never materialized. What was left was nearly gone and then this week we were hit with snow, sleet, freezing rain and more snow. Now everything is white again.
Of course, it’s February, so it’s not surprising. And to be honest, right now I don’t mind.
But yes, I’m also dreaming of my garden. My seeds have arrived and their packets sparkle with possibility. I'm imagining what I’ll plant where, planning when I’ll need to begin starting some seeds.
I’m also dreaming of dahlias.
a handful of various dahlias, mostly grown from seed
Garden planning warms me in winter. And when the view out my window is white, looking at photos of past years’ gardens adds color to my days.
Want to look back at dahlias with me?
large, pink Otto’s Thrill with various colors of seed-grown Bishop’s Children dahlias
Dahlias are such beautiful flowers (I’ve shared how dahlias inspire me on my blog before). They’re so diverse. In color, shape, size. And they’re easy to grow. Over the years I’ve done everything wrong with them and still been rewarded with flowers. I first grew them from seed in college, before I even knew what dahlias were (the packet was cheap and the picture on it looked pretty).
I’ve fallen more and more in love with them each year. And, of course, they show up in my watercolor paintings, too.
It’s hard for me to choose which varieties to grow, although one favorite is Bishop’s Children, a seed-grown variety with dark leaves and single flowers in reds, pinks and oranges.
pink and red Bishop’s Children dahlias
The bees and butterflies love them and they’re very productive.
orange Bishop’s Children dahlias
Saving just a few flowers once they’ve dried,
will give you copious seeds for next year’s garden (or to share!).
Dahlia seeds need to be started indoors 6-8 weeks before your last frost. In my experience Bishop’s Children dahlia seeds sprout quickly with a good germination rate.
You can save seeds from any dahlia, but you never know just what you’ll get. When I bought Floret’s book Discovering Dahlias, it came with a packet of seeds saved on their farm.
This was one of the surprises from that packet:
I wish I’d been able to save the tubers from that plant.
I’ve never been successful at overwintering dahlia tubers. I’ve had them rot, mold, shrivel. Some years I don’t even try. But last year I grew some nice varieties and I didn’t want to give up on them.
Yesterday I went to the basement to check. The ideal temperature for overwintering dahlia tubers is between 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit and our basement, even the coldest corner, is just on the edge of being too warm. Yesterday the thermometer in the cabinet with them read 50.
I opened my box of plastic-wrapped tubers with hesitation, certain they’d look terrible. I was amazed to see they didn’t. In about a month I’ll check again and if they’re still ok I’ll pot them up and see if they grow. (I don’t want to wait and plant them directly in the garden in case they don’t sprout).
The four varieties of dahlia I saved last fall were lovely.
Andy’s Legacy
Huge flowers with many petals of swirling yellows, peach and pinks.
Diva
Deep, dark purple flowers.
Lavender Perfection
Huge flowers in cool pink. They reminded me a bit of Otto’s Thrill (in the second photo from the top). This one was a gift from my mom (thanks, Mom! And come to think of it, so was Otto’s thrill!).
Cheers
Small, coral-pink flowers produced in abundance.
All of them grew well and ended up taller than described. I interplanted them with other plants and flowers and it was hard to get to them. I don’t have any good photos to give you an idea of what the bed looked like as a whole, but here’s one angle showing just how tall Diva ended up (the description in the catalog said 4 1/2 feet. Mine was definitely over my head!).
Next year I’ll be planting my dahlias in different area of my garden.
I hope my stored tubers survive the winter, but I’ve also ordered some others, just in case. I bought them (and last year’s) from Swan Island Dahlias. I was really happy with the quality.
If storing dahlia tubers turns you off, you can treat them as annuals. I’ve grown beautiful plants from cheap tubers bought at big box stores. A bit of a splurge, but not much more expensive than other potted annuals (and cheaper when grown from seed).
There are more varieties of dahlia than you could ever imagine, making it so hard to choose which to grow.
A few years ago I grew Creme de Cassis. Such stunning flowers! The tops of the petals were a pale, ice pink and the backs a deep wine.
I couldn’t resist painting it.
If you’re buying cheap tubers in bags, as long as they feel plump (and if you can see them, look healthy), even the cheapest tubers will give you beautiful flowers. Once I ended up with flowers that didn’t quite match what was on the package. But I didn’t mind because the flowers were beautiful.
a dahlia mislabeled as Cha Ching
Dahlias are perfect cut flowers. And they keep blooming through fall till the killing frost, long after many other flowers have stopped.
Andy’s Legacy and Lavender Perfection together as cut flowers
I’m looking forward to cutting armloads of them again this year.
In case the view is white out your window, here are a few more dahlia-themed delights to bring a little color to your day:
Walk through a garden filled with Bishop’s Children dahlias with Sarah Raven. Oh, to hear bees and birds in the garden again. And to eat colorful, just-picked salads!
Enjoy Claus Dalby’s dahlias growing in pots (I loved seeing his garden helper!). You’ll probably enjoy the photos of his garden rooms on his website, too and his book Containers in the Garden which I just picked up from the library.
Learn all about growing dahlias in Floret’s Discovering Dahlias. Such a gorgeous and informative book (it’s where I learned about overwintering dahlia tubers in plastic wrap). Be sure to watch the video about it on their site.
Scroll through Erin (The Impatient Gardener)’s post about dahlias. She also has lots of dahlia videos on YouTube.