Dahlia Trial Results 2020
It’s finally time— here are the 2020 dahlia trial results!
Throughout the 2020 season I grew 17 varieties in my trial beds. Some were 2nd year trials, some were 1st. To be a second year trial means I wasn’t sure about it the first year, but it had enough good qualities to give it a second try.
I am evaluating dahlias for cut flower production so bear that in mind as you read. During the trials I test things like vase life, stem strength, and average bloom size. I also evaluate the growth habit of the plants- things like height, does the plant bloom in the leaf canopy or above it, strong stems or floppy, etc. You will see I recommend some varieties as “garden only”. This means it didn’t meet my standards for cut flower production. But note that any variety that meets the cut flower production standards will also work as a garden variety. I’ll have some of these varieties for sale in our tuber sale mid-winter, but it will mostly be the garden only varieties that I won’t be keeping for cut flower production. There is also a chart at the bottom that makes it easy to see all the qualities at once.
I tried a lot of yellow/gold varieties this year hoping to get some winners so let’s start there:
Lucky
This dahlia showed great promise at the beginning of the season. It bloomed a more copper/yellow during the hot temperatures and more golden like you see here in cooler weather. However, it only gets 2 days vase life so it’s a definite no for me. Would make a great garden dahlia though as it is reasonably prolific and the flowers stayed pretty nice looking on the plant for a decent amount of time before they needed to be deadheaded. Blooms were right at the top of the leaf canopy which is also a nice quality for garden dahlias.
Mary Jo
This is a multi- year trial. I started growing it years ago but yellow wasn’t popular then so I phased it out. I decided to bring it back this year. It’s color is great, very warm yellow with no neon qualities to it. It’s fairly large and unfortunately gets a bit top heavy for it’s stem sometimes. The stem strength is really it’s only issue. Good vase life, reasonably prolific for a large dahlia, good strong firm tubers too. To me, it’s almost like sunflower in dahlia form. I’ll keep it for awhile - at least until I find a variety with the same warm color and a stronger stem.
Sunkissed
Aptly named but not a keeper as a cut flower. This waterlily type gets great vase life but has poor form. It doesn’t have enough petals and therefore tends to open and show it’s center. It’s also a more neon yellow in color. Waterlily shapes like this make great garden dahlias so off it goes. Strong tuber maker- firm and prolific.
Moonstruck
Moonstruck is the top dahlia in the picture (Lucky is the copper one on the bottom). Great color- cream with a touch of yellow. It would be nice if it were a bit larger. But I’ll keep it for one more year- kind of a nice accent type dahlia. It threw a nice flush of blooms early in the season but haven’t seen much from it later on in season so I wouldn’t say it’s very prolific.
Gabrielle Marie
I originally grew this dahlia years ago in the search for a good peach bloom. It’s when I first began to realize that a lot of “peach” dahlias turn out orange or yellow in our hot climate. I acquired it this year as a freebie with my Swan Island order so I just decided to try it again. Now that yellow is becoming more popular, it’s a viable option. Definitely keeping it for a second year.
Andrew Charles
I was a bit disappointed when this first bloomed. The pictures I saw indicated a greater color depth with some variegation to it. Mine came out pretty solid gold. But the more I cut it, the more I began to like it. Good long stems, blooms well above the plant canopy and pushed a good number of stems per plant. It’ll get a second trial year for sure.
Karamel Korn
Beautiful variegated copper tones, laminated petals— this dahlia is just fun! Tall plant habit so you have to give it good support. Blooms very regular, best when cut tight like the picture here. Continues to open in the vase, good vase life 5+ days. Definite keeper but I wouldn’t grow loads of it because it’s more of an accent/specialty type- can be a bit of a scene stealer.
Tapioca
Cute name, great flower. Blooms cream in hot temps and more white as it cools. Nice plant habit, not super prolific but I’ll keep it for a second year trial. Nice bloom size that stayed steady throughout the season too.
Silver Years
Second year trial on this one. Only got one bloom last year b/c the plant ended up in an area that was overtaken by weeds. But second year is much better- beautiful blush color, great vase life, nice bloom shape and perfect size for wedding work. I’ll keep this one and probably start propagating it via tuber divisions and cuttings.
Innocence
This is probably one of my favorite finds this year- great color, nice bloom size, strong stem. I hope this one made a lot of tubers. It’s beautiful in the vase too- fades to more white as it ages. Definite keeper!
Chilson’s Pride
Great color and plant habit- not quite sure about the lacinated petals. I usually love those but they aren’t winning me over on this one. I know a lot of southern growers have this so I’ll probably give it a second year but not sold on it yet.
Foxy Lady
I wanted so badly to like this one but it just doesn’t hold up in the vase. It’s color is beautiful as it ages though- goes to a nice mauve. Definitely a garden variety.
Mingus Toni
Mingus Toni- well kinda. Mingus Toni is supposed to be dark pink with darker pink speckles. Instead this beauty bloomed. I quite like it- ages beautifully in the vase with a solid vase life. I won’t be sad if it blooms this way again next year.
Mr Jimmy
This one is more dark purple than the picture shows. Purples/Burgundies/Reds are impossible to photograph well. Second year trial here, still not sure. Good growth habit but vase life trials were a bit inconclusive- sometimes it would get 2 days, sometimes 4-5. I’m looking for some good medium sized purples but not sure if this is it.
Karma Naomi
I originally grew this variety as part of my winter dahlia trials last year. Well I must have missed some tubers when ripping them out. It was actually really interesting to observe it during the summer. Almost a different color- very plum in cold weather, very purple based burgundy in hot weather. Unfortunately it only got 2 days vase life in the summer, was better in cooler weather. Also this variety shows every blemish more than other dark dahlias. There are better dark dahlias out there.
Baron Katie
Second year trial here. Great bloomer, nice vase life but very bold color. Little bolder than I like. I’ll probably sell off these tubers, just not quite what I’m looking for but still a good quality dahlia.
Crazy Legs
Prolific bloomer and nice color but just not enough petals on the flower to have a nice form. Stems can be floppy sometimes too. Vase life is minimum 3 days, sometimes longer. There are lots of dahlias in this color combination so I’ll keep looking.
Mirella
Second year trial that I almost didn’t replant but I had some extra room. I’m glad I did- it’s growing on me. Petal habit can be a bit messy at times but I like the color combo. It’s yellow and orange without being too bold which is hard to find. I’ll keep it around for a while.
So overall who are my favorites? Innocence and Karamel Korn! Those two have the best plant habit, decent number of sellable stems, awesome color. I’ll propagate those via cuttings and tuber divisions this winter to get enough for production. I’ll continue evaluating some other varieties and I’ve got plans for a much larger trial next year.
Here’s the cheat sheet chart:
Dahlia Tuber Pre-Sale going on now- check it out!
How to Grow Sweet Peas in the South
**Note- This post is geared towards the home gardener growing sweetpeas in a backyard type of setting.
Sweet peas- once you get a whiff, you’ll never be without them in your garden again. Sweet peas in the South aren’t super common. However with the rise of cut flower gardens over the past few years, they are getting more popular. But it’s not all sweet smelling purfume. Growing them in the South requires a few tricks that are different from the common sweet pea knowledge you’ll find on the interwebs.
Let’s start from the beginning: Seeding
Sweet pea seeds look like brown or occasionally white dried peas. They are in the legume family but all parts of the plant are poisonous. Smells only on these! ( They’ve always been fine to grow around my animals- I think you have to ingest quite a quantity to be dangerous but always a helpful thing to know about any plant. )
A lot of sweet pea seed is bred in England and New Zealand. You can import the seeds in small quantities fairly easily or you can buy it from some new breeders that are popping up in the US. Ardelia Farm in Vermont and Sweet Pea Gardens in California are two sources I’ve used with good success. Fresh high quality seed is the most important factor in getting good germination. You’ll see recommendations for soaking or nicking seeds but it’s not necessary. Store your seeds in the freezer once you received them until you are ready to plant.
There are early and late flowering sweet peas. Look for varieties that say they are a spencer type as these are the late types and are better for growing outside. The early types are bred for greenhouse growing and are not as cold tolerant. Some of my favorites are Nimbus, Oban Bay, Mollie Rilstone, Charlie’s Angel, and Strawberry Fields.
It’s best to start sweet pea seeds in containers and plant out a transplant versus direct sowing. Sweet pea seed is not cheap (around 50 cents a seed) and I’ve often seen seed rot or get eaten by rodents when direct seeded. You’ll want to wait until the temps are just right before sowing- daytime temps of average 60’s and nights at 45-55 degrees. So don’t fret if you haven’t started yet, you’ve got plenty of time.
Sow into containers around 2” deep and around 1” in diameter. You don’t need a super big or deep container. NOW—- any northern grower who just read that is saying- “You’re wrong!” Here's one of the instances that Southern growing is different: in the South, we get a small window where we get the correct temps to sow sweet peas. Sow too early and you get leggy plants due to the heat, too late and they don’t get established well before the cold. So the goal is to get the seed started in a controlled environment and have it ready to plant within 3 weeks from sowing. Northern growers will plant into deep pots with lots of room for the transplants to develop as they grow in a very cold environment and then get planted in early spring. I’ve used the sow it and transplant it quickly method for years and it works really well in the South. Fall planting seedlings in the South will give the same slow growth and root development in the ground that Northern growers get in a pot.
Growing out and Planting your seedlings:
Once your seeds have sprouted, keep them in a cool place with bright light. Usually our temps towards the end of October are perfect. I don’t recommend starting sweet peas inside under grow lights because most houses are too warm. Sweet peas like it cool! This is counterintuitive to how most seeds are started but if you keep them too hot, they get too tall too fast and they fall over and break.
Once the seedlings are 4ish inches tall, they should be ready for transplant. You want to make sure they have at least once set of true leaves on them.
Plant into a well composted bed, preferably with the soil raked up to raise it a bit for good drainage. You don’t want to rot them out. Sweet peas are hungry little plants so make sure your bed is well amended with a good organic fertilizer and lots of compost. Space them 6-9” apart. 9” is preferable if you have the room because it will make it easier to harvest come Spring.
Keep the plants watered until established. During the winter, water if the soil becomes dry. Over the winter the plants will begin to branch out from the center and each branch will be around 8-12” long laying on the ground. This is fine for now— Don’t put up your trellis until late February/early March. When you see the plants start to turn upwards and try to climb, then it’s trellis time.
During the winter when it warms a little, 60+ degree days, you can apply a water soluble fertilizer such as fish emulsion.
Sweet peas are very cold hardy. They can take temps down to low 20’s before they need cover. I cover mine once or twice a season and I’m usually playing it safe rather than sorry.
Trellising and Harvesting:
I use a netting called Hortanova Tenax netting. It comes in different widths and the 6’ wide is really good for sweet peas. The vines will grow pretty tall but I never put up a trellis taller than 8’ because I know I couldn’t reach any higher and I don’t want to get out a ladder. Once they start getting tall, you just have to cut harder to control the growth. Use a t-post about every 6’ if growing in a row. Stretch your netting very tight and secure it with zip ties to the t-posts. You can also make a tripod style trellis from bamboo canes or other tough supports. To encourage the sweet peas to grow upwards and not out, I take bailing twine and run it laterally about 3” off the ground and use it to scoop the sweet peas up. Then I add a row about every 6” for the first 2 feet, then 1’ apart after that. I usually stop around 4-5’ because if you add too much after that, it gets hard to harvest.
Sweet peas will begin to grow stems with buds in April usually. They will look droopy at first but will straighten out as they grow. The correct harvest stage is when 2/3 of the buds on a the stem are open. You can cut at the base of the flowering stem or you can cut down the vine if you need a longer stem. To ensure you are getting fresh stems, cut 2-3X per week. The more you cut, the more they flower.
There is a phenomenon called bud blast that can affect sweet peas in the spring. Sweet peas are very sensitive to climate/environmental changes. For example, if the temperatures swing dramatically or we get a ton of rain, it can cause the buds to turn brown and drop off. The buds will reform, usually takes about 2 weeks. I see this happen usually every year. It’s just a fact of growing sweet peas in a climate that fluctuates a lot during the Spring.
Aphids can also be common on sweet pea flowers and they can even show up before flowering begins. So keep an eye out for them. Shower them off with a spray of water or use a insecticidal soap.
Sweet peas have a vase life of about 5 days on average. If it’s a cool spring, then they may last longer in the vase. If it’s hot, then maybe only 3-4 days. Mine usually keep flowering until late May/early June. Keep watering them and harvesting to keep the blooms coming!
But most of all — Enjoy your Sweet Peas! I don’t know of a better flower that is such a treat for the senses- smell, touch, sight!
**Sweet pea transplants still available in the online store.
Cold Hardy Annuals
My box of anemone and ranunculus corms arrived today! I’m always excited to see it, yet it also feels confusing at the same time. I’m completely immersed in daily dahlia harvests yet I’ve got to start soaking my corms within a few weeks. The constant battle of managing multiple seasons at once is an every day occurrence in the mind of a farmer. How you are ever supposed to just be present I’ll never know?!
I had a consultation this past weekend with a new flower grower and it led me to reflecting on some of the things I just know intuitively now. Things I’ve done for so long that they are second nature. Yet they were learned by long periods of trial, error, and observation. We had a long talk about cold hardy annuals and what were the toughest, how to space them, care for them, etc. So I decided to make a chart highlighting a few of the aspects that I get the most questions about. (Hint: If you click on it, it gets bigger and easier to read. Also if you right click, you can download it.)
Few Notes:
Cold Hardiness:
- 5 - Plants can go to low 20’s with no/little damage
- 4 - Plants can go to mid 20’s with no/little damage
- 3 - Plants can go to high 20’s with no/little damageEase of Growing
- I rated these from the view point of someone who has done some basic gardening and knows the basics of how to care for a plantBloom Season- these are when the flowers usually bloom in Zone 7b, Upstate area of South Carolina
Plant spacing- if you are planting in a raised bed style situation with plants bordering each other. You can plant these as stand alone plants in a landscape style bed.
Cold hardy annuals are really fun plants to try because they will amaze you with how much cold they can take. They are also the best way to have early season color in your yard. You’ll have bouquets long before anyone else in the neighborhood.
Getting the most out of your Dahlias
The weather has finally turned to Fall here in the South. Let’s talk about the queens of Fall— Dahlias!
Miss Amara in the greenhouse
Vase Life
If you’ve ever cut a dahlia and put it in a vase, you know they can be short lived beauties. However they have such a jaw dropping beauty that I don’t mind their lesson in appreciating all beautiful things no matter how fleeting. If you are growing your own, cut early in the morning for best results, late evening if you aren’t an early bird. The sugars in the plant are at their highest in the morning. Never cut in the heat of the day. Place in a cool container of water (make sure your vase is squeaky clean— think “would I drink out of this?”) Then add a bit of flower food. You can buy flower food online from places like Amazon or floral supply sites. Chrysal and Floralife are two popular brands. It comes in liquid or powder form— both work well. You are looking for the one that says “flower food”, not quick dip or holding solution. Maybe that sounds obvious but there are a lot of choices out there.
**After writing this blog post, I got a few questions from other growers and wanted to note that this blog was written for the home grower. Commercial growers have other tools (flower coolers, etc. ) available to them for conditioning. Conditioning dahlias for sale to a wholesaler or florists as a commercial flower grower would be a whole other blog post.
When receiving a bouquet of dahlias, you follow the same procedure. Recut about a 1/2” off the bottom of the stem, place in clean cool water in a clean vase. Dirty vases and dirty water are the enemy of making your flowers last. Change the water every day if you can, at least every other day. Also, recut the stems and add more flower food each time. If your bouquet contains a packet of flower food— you can split it in half if your vase isn’t too big.
Growing Dahlias
A few tips for this time of year if you are growing dahlias. It’s time to stop fertilizing them. You don’t want to generate a lot of new growth. We are mid way through September and from now on out, the plants won’t produce too many new buds. The already formed buds will develop and bloom. You’ll start to see the blooms taper off by mid October. The plant will also be putting a lot of energy into developing tubers. This time of year is when you really want to watch the amount of rain we get. Extreme heavy rains can cause tuber rot and also produce softer tubers that don’t store well. We’ll have a frost by early November most years but as long as your dahlias have been in the ground and growing for at least 120 days, you can dig the tubers before frost. The tubers will be fully formed. So if you don’t relish digging tubers in the cold, you can go for it by late October usually. I’ll post a blog in a few weeks about digging, dividing, and storing tubers.
***If you are a commercial grower, you can do one last fertilization about 6 weeks before your last frost which would be about now in South Carolina. The intense production required by commercially grown plants requires more nutrients than the average backyard dahlia plant.
After the vase
There are a few options for your blooms after you’ve enjoyed them in the vase. You can hang them upside down to dry— the fuller the bloom and brighter the color, the better it dries. Dahlia petals are edible (although I don’t think they taste that great!) But you could style your food for your latest Instagram post with dahlia petal sprinkles. You can also pull the petals off the bloom and make art. I like to deconstruct the flowers and make mandalas, flower quilts or abstract designs. It’s very relaxing!
I hope this helps you to get the most out of your dahlias. If you haven’t gotten a dahlia bouquet from us this year, it’s the perfect time for it. The dahlias will be at their absolute best in the next few weeks. Check out our website for more information.
All the Pretty Dahlias
One of my goals this year was to make sure I got a picture of every dahlia variety I grow. So I’ve been making time for that each week as new varieties come into bloom. I thought I’d share some of them with you. If you want to see more, join me on Instagram live, Monday, Sept 21 at 7pm for a Virtual Tour through the Dahlia Field. Follow me on Instagram @flwrtherapy
Mouse over the image for the variety name.
