2025 Dahlia Year In Review
2025 was a good year for dahlias. Was it a perfect one? Nope! But overall it was a good year.
Let’s break it down:
Win #1-The Horse Field- We broke in 3 new dahlia fields this year. We call this one the horse field because it used to be a horse field (original huh?) but at least everyone knows what I’m talking about. Originally I tilled it fall of 2024 and then we made our rows Spring of 2025 - raised them way up to get good drainage b/c the area is very flat. Lined our pathways with landscape fabric to deal with the weeds and then we planted. We used about 80% rooted cuttings- really only one variety (Sylvia) was primarily tubers because we lost our stock of that variety in the hurricane the previous year.
I think this field was probably our most productive and definitely the most uniform and consistent. That’s one of the great things about rooted cuttings— you get really uniform growth which is really helpful for keeping your pest control and fertilization consistent.
We dug a few rows of this field but most of it will stay for some early dahlias next year. But I’m happy to report that we had excellent tuber growth from those rooted cuttings. Nice high quality clumps just waiting to be divided this winter.
In this field we grew: Coseytown Gale, 20th Ave Gwen, Cafe Au Lait, Rock Run Ashley, KA Mocha Katie, Sylvia, Sweet Fabienne, Blizzard and Sweet Nathalie. We dug Coseytown Gale, KA Mocha Katie and Blizzard.
Loss #1: Broad Mite Infestation- We lost the majority of a row of Linda’s Baby plants to a serious broad mite infection. Thankfully we had 2 rows but it definitely hurt our production since that is such a good heat tolerant variety and one we rely pretty heavily on. The infection got so bad and the plants were really struggling so I decided to cut the plants back hard. These plants had been grown from tubers so I knew there was a possibility they could resprout but I also knew I could lose them all. Unfortunately, that’s what happened. But they were so poorly that it was really the only option- we had sprayed several times but couldn’t get it under control. We cut back and put all the foliage in a trash bag so as not to add the mites to our compost pile! I had maybe 10% of the cut back plants that survived.
What’s the lesson learned: We’ve been getting mites in around the same time for a couple of years now so we will begin spraying preventively for them instead of waiting to see the first signs. Left unchecked they quickly get out of control. But I definitely know the timing (early June) for my farm.
Win #2- The Hurricane tubers rebounded! We had some severe rot in one field after Hurricane Helene last fall. We lost 2 whole rows from that field but 2 of the rows were on 2nd year growth so I let them be over the winter, hoping that there were large tuber clumps underground. I really began to doubt when last Spring, only a few plants had sprouted(first photo below taken on May 20). But I gave it time— and turns out that’s what it needed. It took until mid June for the row to fully resprout. The previous year, I was harvesting blooms off this row in mid June. The middle phots below is from July 31. Third photo is September 24. All they needed was a little time!
Loss #2- Tuber rot on my new varieties- This one was frustrating but it could have been sooo much worse. I always plant all my new varieties in the same row. That way everything is in the same place when I’m ready to take notes/photos. I planted the tubers at the front of the row (left photo) and the rooted cuttings (right photo) in the back half. We lost about 80% of the tubers. Fortunately we had taken rooted cuttings of the majority of them. So we were able to evaluate and those cuttings made good tubers. More and more I’m seeing a high percentage of rot when I order in new tubers — it’s hard to acclimate new dahlias to my hot climate. So we are protecting our investments by making cutting backups!
Win #3- Dahlia Days Field Tour! I think this was my favorite part of the whole season. We were able to open our field for tours twice this Fall! I had so much fun and I think you all did too! You wanna talk about dahlia geek out fest??? Absolutely! Last weekend after our Sale opened, I had several of you tell me how much the tour influenced the varieties you chose to add to your gardens next Spring. How much you enjoyed getting to see the varieties in person, how you loved things you didn’t expect! We will definitely be doing it again next year!
There’s no such thing as a perfect dahlia season but this one came as close as any ever has! Yes, it had it’s struggles but we reached so many milestones that I’ve been reaching towards for many years!!