A pretty face is no longer enough to make the dahlia cut

I feel bad for new dahlia growers. You were told you’d have gorgeous flowers from midsummer on. Your garden would be awash in color and you’d be filling your house with bouquets of stunning flowers.

And, if you’re like a lot of gardeners in the area, that didn’t happen this year. It was, by all accounts, a bad dahlia year. It took what seemed like forever for plants to flower, pushing mid-summer to very late summer and fall. Some may not have bloomed at all.

All of which has left more than one new dahlia grower to wonder what all the fuss is about and swear off growing dahlias.

I get it. Dahlias are high maintenance plants that need staking, deadheading and other tending, and that’s before you get to the part where you have to dig them up and store them over winter. The payout has to be pretty good to bother with all that.

Here’s what I’d say to disillusioned new dahlia growers: Don’t give up. Just rethink what makes a good dahlia.

I’ve been an enthusiastic dahlia grower for well over a decade, and I don’t remember a year as disappointing as this one. Perhaps it was the cold spring that dragged on far too long that put plants behind, but there’s no way to know for certain. 

Rather than ditching dahlias all together, my criteria for making the list of the varieties I’ll make space for in the garden is changing. A bold, beautiful flower makes a great photo but not necessarily a good plant, so it’s time to take a tough stance on what varieties earn a spot in the garden. 

I’ve always prioritized varieties that need minimal staking, which usually means that they grow to a moderate height. I also prefer varieties with more interesting dark foliage so they offer something until they are flowering.

But now I’m adding an important criteria to my list: bloom time. Early bloomers get priority. This new grading scale for dahlias means a few varieties will receive priority placement. 

Single forms, and particularly those in the “Happy Single” series, which sport dark foliage and need light staking, have always been early starters that keep blooming with persistent deadheading. 

This year, a new-to-me deep red to copper colored variety with dark foliage called ‘Danica’ was the first to bloom on stems so thick they didn’t even lean over, much less need staking.

‘Crichton Honey’ is one of a handful of ball-shaped dahlias that is a consistently early bloomer, even in lousy years. There are other, shorter-growing varieties that are specifically bred to be good garden plants, and what they may lack in terms of mind-blowing flowers, they make up for in months and months of blooms.

I’ll be taking a tough stance on other varieties though. There are good performers out there, and a pretty face alone is no longer enough to make the cut, especially if that pretty face doesn’t show up until October.

I hope new dahlia growers don’t throw in the towel after what was a remarkably disappointing year. There are dahlias that can perform great even in lousy years, it’s just a matter of finding them.