In my very tiny flower farm I grow approximately 300 dahlia plants each year of about 50 varieties. I’ve been working on narrowing down the varieties I grow over the last couple of years, firstly because I have such a small amount of space I really only have room for useful and productive blooms and secondly so that I have a little room each year to try some new varieties out!
But there are some blooms that have become my absolute must grows and that have managed to find their way to a very permanent place in my patch:
Glenmarc Margaret: The most productive dahlia I grow. Healthy, tall, strong straight stems. A gorgeous useful colour. A lovely size to work with. I don’t have a single negative thing to say about this bloom. She’s perfect.
Bracken Palomino: Again, super productive and just the right shade of orange (and IM not really an orange gal!). A lovely medium size bloom and strong healthy stems.
Carlos Watermelon: This one stops people in their tracks for the wavy petals and colour alone. I dont grow many larger flowers anymore as they are shorter lived and harder to work with in hand held bouquets but this one is a keeper for its form and colour alone, and she happens to be pretty productive too.
West Coast: For the colour alone. I wish she was a smidge more productive but some blooms are worth it. She also has a lovely medium to large bloom but is fairly robust still.
Boundary snowflake: The productive white dahlia you need. A nice clear white, with tight centres, masses of flowers, and really long strong stems.
West Coast