The dahlias are blooming
- Shea Flower Farm
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
It's my favorite time of the year, dahlia season! Thanks to the recent rain and cooler temperatures our dahlias are finally blooming. Dahlias need consistent water, so mine are on drip irrigation, but even though I run it several times a week when we are not getting much rain, nothing is as good for them as a nice, steady rain. Dahlias are like me: they like daytime temperatures of 70-80 degrees, but they like cooler night time temperatures of 60-70 degrees. Temperatures above 85 degrees result in unhappy dahlias (and unhappy, sweaty gardeners).
Dahlias are short day facultative plants meaning that their foliage grows best during the long days of summer, but the shorter days trigger blooming and the development of tubers. On the longest day of the year, June 21st, we get about 15 and a half hours of daylight. Our daylength is currently about 13 and a half hours now, but by September 26th, we'll be getting less than 12 hours per day. Tubers store water, starch, and nutrients to allow the dahlia to survive cold and dry winters and be able to regenerate foliage quickly in spring before developing an extensive root system. Tubers produce an exact genetic copy of the parent plant. But they can't survive winters as cold as ours without some help from us gardeners.
I grow about 60 different varieties of dahlias. You can check them out on our Dahlia Gallery page. I like to add a few new varieties every year, and sometimes if a type doesn't grow well or doesn't bloom well enough for me, I stop growing it and compost the tubers (I'm looking at you Nijinsky, Beep Beep and Striped Ambition). Some new varieties I'm growing this year are Caitlyn's Joy, Great Silence, Peaches and Cream, Terracotta, Clearview Peachy, Lynn's Slight, Purple Fox, Bistro, Bloomquist Tropic, Blizzard, and Crazy Legs. Wow, that's more new ones then I thought. I guess I'm growing about 70 different varieties. They're so hard to resist. After the end of the season, I'll let you know how they did and which varieties were the most productive (and the most beautiful).
The best thing about dahlias is their amazing variety of colors and forms. There are so many variations because dahlias are octoploids, meaning they have eight sets of chromosomes where most plants have only two, resulting in tremendous genetic diversity. Dahlias easily mutate during the growing season due to genetic shifts in all those chromosomes producing new colors and petal shapes called sports. Environmental factors can also change the way dahlias appear with cooler temperatures resulting in deeper tones. More light intensity like at this time of year results in more petals, and later in the season when light intensity is lower, double petal forms might have fewer petals and revert to single petal forms.
The second best thing about dahlias is that the more you cut them for bouquets, the more flowers they produce. Pinching them early in the season when they are 8 to 12 inches tall by snipping off the central growing stem above a pair of leaves causes dahlias to produce more side shoots, and more branches means more flowers. Cutting flowers with long stems has the same affect causing the plant to produce more side shoots with more flowers.
Dahlias don't have the longest vase life, but they are so stunning while they last. To get the longest possible vase life, be sure to keep your bouquet out of sunlight, away from drafts, and away from ripening fruit which releases ethylene gas causing dahlias to drop their petals prematurely. As with most cut flowers, they will last longer if you keep your vase clean, replenish the water using flower food, and recut the stems every few days trimming off 1/2 to 1 inch revealing fresh xylem to improve water and nutrient uptake. Be sure to make the cuts at a 45 degree angle so that the stems don't sit flat on the bottom of the vase blocking the water flow.
Dahlia bouquets are available at our flower stand until frost, but they get snapped up pretty quickly. Don't worry, more are coming. Stop by and check out our bouquets. I hope you enjoy them.
