Why I hate the term “Low Maintenance Gardening?”

This might be a bit controversial but stay with me. I promise this does have to do with Dahlias. Some of you may disagree and I'm totally fine with that because we're talking about gardening. This is not a life or death issue. So agreeing to disagree is okay here. But I hope that you'll hear me out on this one. 

“Low maintenance” in your garden or landscape has become the biggest buzzword over the past decade. And I understand because unfortunately we don't have a lot of discretionary time in our lives. There are so many things that demand our time, our minimal resources, and even our wallets. But I think we're missing something when we demand that our gardens require little or no effort from us 

Low maintenance inspires a plant it and forget it type of mindset. Like selecting plants for your landscape is something to be done, to be checked off the to-do list. Things that you might happen to notice as you rush outside to your car to all the other many pressing things in your life 

But what if the plants on your way to the front door stopped you in your tracks?

What if the smell of the tea olive made you slow down just so you could relish it a little bit longer?  

What if the bright green tomato calls from your kitchen window leading you into the garden to admire it? Imagining how amazing it’s going to taste when fully ripe.

Gardens aren't meant to be planted and forgotten. They are places to wander, to reflect, to inspire us. We go to sit with our grief and the garden consoles. We meet with our friends and the garden celebrates. We yank and pull weeds and the garden soothes frustrations. We sow seeds and plant new flowers and the garden hopes with us.

The idea of low maintenance gardening signals a desire for the natural world around us to be ordered and unchaotic. Low maintenance encourages a disengagement with the natural world and supports the idea that we can live in our world without being an integral part of it. Maybe instead of advertising that you can have a beautiful garden without having to spend much time in it, we should be putting forth the view that says you can have a beautiful garden and the time you spend in it will be worthwhile. 

Please don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that I dislike low maintenance plants. In fact, I think they're an absolute necessity in any style of garden. Some gardens may have more than others. I think you have to have low maintenance plants in order to take care of the needy ones. My main point here is what if we started spreading the view that a garden is a necessary part of your life. I think the landscape industry got it wrong when it tried to get people into gardening by introducing this idea of low maintenance. They left out one of the biggest benefits of gardening.
The way it makes you feel.
A garden can create a huge sense of accomplishment, it can sooth in a time of sadness, rejoice in good times. Getting our hands in the dirt has been proven to boost immunity, increase serotonin levels, and lower stress. Maybe we need the marketing engine behind the health and wellness industry to take on gardening ( I’m kidding!)

A garden can be a beautiful place to build community. Look at the community that has sprung up around dahlias (told you I’d get there!) Dahlias as a genus are a plant that can really encourage participation. You can't plant a dahlia and just walk away from it. It won't perform. It'll get attacked by bugs. Too much rain will rot it out. Too much heat/sunshine will burn it up. You have to pay attention to it. You have to engage with it. So, in order to be successful, you'll have to spend some time in your garden.
In this time, you're going to learn to observe. You're going to learn to solve problems. You'll understand how weather affects plants. And at the end of it all when that bud begins to open, you have the most beautiful reward. Dahlias are gorgeous! There's a reason that they call them ‘divas’. They really do steal the show.

If you can invite a person into the garden and encourage their interest in just one type of plant, it often spreads to many others and soon a gardener is born. Dahlias have been this gateway for so many of you. And nothing about them is low maintenance! So my thought is that the more people we encourage to grow dahlias, the more gardeners we create.

Trial Patch 2026

We grow a trial patch every year with around 400 plants. That’s not 400 varieties. We usually grow anywhere from 1- 20 of a variety to see how they perform. The purpose of these trials is to find varieties that perform well in our hot Southern climate. Not every dahlia does- but more than you think will grow here well.

We then take the varieties that work well and incorporate them into our wholesale production over time. A variety usually grows in our trial patch for 3 years before moving to larger scale production. Some varieties take longer and occasionally I’ll move one to production after 2 years. But I like to see the variety grow through different weather patterns and 3 years gives enough information in that regard.

I usually begin with 1-3 plants of a variety and if it grows well the first year, we will multiply it out to 10-20 plants and see how it grows as a group. If the variety is good for our wholesale production, then we will multiply as much as possible on year 3 with the goal of having enough tubers/cuttings for large scale production year 4. If the variety is better for home garden growing, then we will multiply but not at the same scale as for wholesale production. I’m a lot stricter and pickier on varieties for wholesale than what I would put in a home garden.

So let’s take a look at a few varieties.

La Belle Epoque: This one did beautifully last year. It’s done reasonably well this year too even through all the heat. It’s growing slower and has only just begun to bloom from a late May planting. It was earlier last year but it was also cooler last year too. This one holds well on the plant. Making it an excellent garden variety. You can enjoy it in your garden for a long time before it gets trashed looking. I’m considering it for wholesale production but will probably wait until after year 3— need some more data on stem counts for it first.

Next up is Cheers. This one was great last year and was a variety so many of you commented on during the Dahlia Days tour. So much so that it convinced me to multiply it more than I usually would. In doing so, we realized it propagates well from cuttings. So we planted out and it grew well until the deer got to it. Then the heat came and took out 90% of the plants. So thankfully we still have a few but all that will probably set back it’s release for sale another year.

Cantaloupe- this variety never bloomed last year. This does happen sometimes on new varieties. However it’s blooming it’s head off this year- early too! It’s a cute waterlily. It does have the typical waterlily growth habit that I hate for wholesale production where it wants to bloom low on the stem in between two taller side buds. So it may get cut from wholesale production because of that. Definitely needs another year. But that growth habit that I hate does make for a great garden plant because it gives lots of blooms!

KA’s Aloha ® - This has a lot of things I look for in a wholesale production dahlia— great color, early bloomer, sturdy stem, good size. It’s first year for us so time will tell. But definitely moving to a second year.

Madeline- Me and my whole crew love the color and form on this one. The centers need to close up a bit so we will have to see how she does in high heat going forward. But this isn’t half bad with how hot it’s been recently. Definitely getting a third year trial.

The picture below shows a few other varieties: Some I still need to confirm ID’s which is why they have a question mark.

Overall our second year tests are fairing pretty well. Not much to say about the first years because we are still waiting a large percentage of them to bloom.

It’s not You, It’s just August

I don’t think gardens are supposed to look good in August. It’s too hot to be in them anyways. That’s my rationale and I’m sticking to it.

Last week I walked around the flower field and every weed jumped out at me, taunting and laughing in my face. But the jokes on them because I know their names and will trash talk them as I pull! The compost heap grows ever bigger this time of year.

All the dahlias seemed the same exact size as the week before. I kept looking and looking for buds and they kept alluding me until this morning. Finally found some sweet baby buds.

The rain came pouring down a lot and often last week. At first it was welcome but then it became too much.

But also last week, I cut the first blooms of a new variety- KA® Honeycomb. They’ve been holding beautifully in the vase even after being harvested in extreme heat.

We decided to become grateful for the rain because it has been keeping our pest pressure low and the powdery mildew away.

We embraced the hot temperatures as a chance to work inside and pot up the beautiful columbine seedlings that we started in June.

So even though it feels like you want to just walk away, it’s important to remember that it will change. August is hard but it’s hard for us all.

It’s not you, it’s just August.

Spraying Your Dahlias

I’ve been noticing some confusion recently about how, when and what to use if you need to spray your dahlias. So let’s see if we can clarify some things.

How do you know your dahlias need spraying? Observation is the biggest clue- this is why your morning coffee walk through your dahlias is not just for enjoying the beauty. Take some time each week to look closely at your plants- the blooms, the leaves, the stem—the whole thing! Take your camera out and snap some pictures. This is the easiest way for me to remember from week to week what I need to focus on during our spray regimen.
Once you begin to see anything besides solid green leaves, then it’s probably time to consider some form of pest control or disease control. Yes, there are other ways besides spraying but the focus of this article is spraying so I’ll keep on this route and address the others later.
What to Spray:
The most common pests seen on dahlias are thrips, spider mites, leafhoppers, broad mites, and cucumber beetles. This of course varies a little by your geographic location but unfortunately I think most of us get thrips and some form of mite. A lot of these can be controlled by the same spray. A Spinosad based spray will take care of thrips, spider mites, leaf hoppers and several other pests. Capt’n Jacks is the popular brand— but here’s where I see some of the confusion. Capt’n Jacks is a brand. They make lots of sprays. I’ve seen several people say they sprayed their pests with Capt’n Jacks Copper- this is a fungicide not a pesticide. Pesticides control bugs. Fungicides control fungal diseases. Capt’n Jacks Dead Brew Bug is the spinosad based spray that will kill spider mites, thrips and other beasties. Conserve is the commercial grade brand name if you are covering a lot of ground.
You want to alternate your sprays. Don’t use the same thing twice in a row unless you are beating back an infestation. When it comes to maintenance sprays, always alternate. Avid (or generic Fervid) are great for mite control but they also take care of thrips. Bioceres WP and Botanigard Maxx also work well as alternates. It is very important to read the label thoroughly to see if your chosen spray is actually killing what you desire.
Fungicides control fungal diseases. It’s not always possible to eradicate the disease completely but you can often keep it controlled so it doesn’t spread or take out your whole crop. Copper fungicide, Milstop (super strength baking soda) and Cease (Bacillus subtilis) are my range of products that we alternate. I prefer to stick to organic sprays as much as possible. Everything I’ve listed here is organic except the Avid/Fervid.
You are looking to control things like powdery mildew, botrytis blight and verticillium wilt when it comes to dahlia fungal diseases.

Pics 1&2- Extreme Spider Mite Damage, Pic 3- Powdery Mildew

When to spray (timing):
1. Time of day- early morning or evening. Never in the middle of the day because you risk burning your leaves on your plants.
2. Check your forecast. Some sprays are rain fast very quickly because you don’t want to wash off what you just sprayed.
3. When does your plant need the spray? Maintenance sprays can be done weekly. But sometimes you miss something and you need to spray as an intervention. Then you’ll spray more often. But the exact intervals will depend on what you are spraying. Every label will tell you how often you can spray the product to fix an outbreak.
4. Observation is also a key in timing. Observe your plants and see what really needs to be sprayed. I do believe in preventative spraying because after so many years of growing in the same spot, I know when certain pests are going to hit. But also pay attention to the growth of your plants. For example, we often get rainy periods in my area. (It’s either dry forever or wet forever- no average of both around here). When I see we are going into a rainy period, I will spray before it begins but then usually don’t need to spray until it finishes. Theses periods often last 2-3 weeks. So this is a significant time saving method. I’ve just found that when we have a lot of rain, the pest pressure is so much lower. I do watch for fungal onset very carefully. But usually our pesticide load is significantly reduced during these rainy periods.
How to spray:
We use a backpack sprayer (my4sons brand). A handheld works well too. Even a spray bottle if you only have a few plants. Make sure you are spraying on top of the leaves and under them as well. Sprayers with a misting nozzle are great- that finer mist gets in among your plants better! Also read on the label about the REI (Return Entry Interval). This tells you how long to until you can re-enter your field or garden.
Often you can mix products in your sprayer so you don’t have to spray all individually. You can find this out by reading the label or even a quick web search.

Spraying is probably my least favorite part of growing dahlias so I’m always trying to find ways to limit the time we spend doing it. But I have noticed that since we got on a regular spray regimen many years ago, my dahlias are so much healthier and I have higher quality blooms.

Mid Season Dahlia Cuts

So this post is probably a bit more for the commercial farmers in the group, but if you enjoy psychology and figuring out why people make decisions and think certain ways you may like it too.

I deleted a dahlia from our wholesale crop line up mid season this year. In early July we dug a whole row of Marionberry Milkshake plants. We then sold them off as tuber clumps b/c this variety makes great tubers and had even within the 3.5 months it had been planted made some nice clumps.

So why did I do it?
1. It was beautiful and in demand as far as color, shape, and size go but it wasn’t producing a decent number of stems for the amount of row space it was occupying.
2. A large percentage of the flowers had petals that were burning and not holding up to early summer heat well. Thus contributing to a high cull rate on a variety that was already being stingy with the blooms.
3. Organza bags seemed to make the above problem worse. 99% of the dahlias I’ve ever grown are just fine in bags but every now and then I find one like this that just doesn’t seem to like it. Organza bags are a must for our early season bug pressure.
4. The flowers were slow to open in the heat which made predicting bloom time hard. This is important when you sell to florists because you need to know how many stems you are going to have for each week.
5. The blooms came a bit later in our Spring dahlia season than I wanted them too. The more I grow Spring dahlias, the more I find that I need early blooming varieties. In order to have time to get at least 5 weeks of blooms before we have to cut back for our Fall flush, the dahlia needs to bloom in the 65-80 day range. If it’s much longer than this, it doesn’t get going until mid- June and my midsummer prune date is early July.

Now, you may be thinking- wouldn’t the cooler fall weather fix some of these problems. Yes, it would fix some but I’m also a farmer and my goal in growing flowers is to make money so I can pay my bills, pay my employees well and run a financially stable farm. With this is mind, I began running some numbers. I tallied up the number of blooms I thought I would get off those dahlias and multiplied it by my per stem price. Then I began running some other scenarios- How much would a row of zinnias or cosmos make me? Or how much would a different dahlia variety gross?

Lastly I calculated the mental factor- how annoyed was I going to be with keeping this variety? And this answer was — A LOT!

So out it came. Now- will I still grow this variety? Yes, I’ll still keep it in my collection. We grow around 35 varieties in high quantity for wholesale floral sales but keep at least 2x that for other reasons— evaluating new wholesale varieties, tuber sales, etc. Marionberry milkshake will hang around for awhile because I think she’s a great backyard garden variety. She has super strong stems and holds herself up with minimal support. Has a nice busy growth habit- perfect for a good garden specimen plant. So I’d highly recommend if you need a nice lavender for your backyard cutting garden but if you are looking for larger scale production, she’s a skip in my book.

Would you yank a dahlia midseason? What do you think- was this crazy or smart?

PS- I chose zinnias to replace with-I haven’t grown them a lot in recent years so I was kinda’ missing them!