Where to buy your dahlias
January is good for little other than dreaming.
Or shopping.
As my forms progress through the organic certification process, this is probably the last year I will be able to go wild with a catalogue and a credit card, and my days, I made the most of it. Dreams of dinner plates and smoky tones. I have found organic dahlia tubers rather hard to track down and Organic Bulbs seem to have not opened their books this year.
If you haven’t done your dahlias shopping yet and you have good taste, I would get a wriggle on. The best ones sell out early. (Yes, Senior’s Hope, I’m looking at you.)
Now, before you go wild and buy dahlias from every recommendation below, can I suggest you find your list, and then you start shopping? I love Pinterest for putting together colour schemes. One top tip: white flowers do not play well with others. If you are going to grow white, keep them separate.
On my list this season are:
Dahlia 'Café au Lait'
Dahlia 'Kick Off'
Dahlia 'Café au Lait Royal'
Dahlia 'Penhill Watermelon'
Dahlia 'Linda's Baby'
Dahlia 'Café de Paris'
Dahlia 'Night Silence'
Dahlia 'Wine Eyed Jill’
Dahlia 'Seniors Hope'
Halls of Heddon
Old school expertise. No fluff and no bluster. Of course, this means something of a tricky website but if you can track down what you want, then you are winning.
Make sure you know if you are getting tubers or rooted cuttings. Tubers get sent earlier and you can take your own cuttings so if you are confident with a knife, then these can be an absolute bargain.
Note: Halls of Heddon are also connoisseurs of ‘mums (chrysanthemums for the uninitiated) so it worth throwing a few of these in your basket too. Don’t ask me to advise on which ones; I find the categories utterly baffling. I just choose which ones have apricot in the name.
Have a look here.
rose cottage
Oh my goodness, the sheer range of dahlias stocked by Rose Cottage. They also have such a good reputation for big, healthy tubers. What I love most is that they are all displayed in colour n the website so you can scroll up and down and see a glorious tapestry of all your different dahlia options.
I did this when I was researching this blog post, and accidentally ended up ordering six more varieties. They are one of the few places I have found red ‘Cornel’, one of my longstanding favourites. (Also buy ‘Cornel Brons’ if you happen to come across it.)
Have a look here.
Peter Nyssen
Better known for tulip bulbs, Peter Nyssen also do a great range of dahlias. Longstanding favourite of professional growers, and if that isn’t a recommendation, I don’t know what is.
PN are the only place I have found ‘Bonesta’ (apart from Parkers, and you never quite know what you are going to get from them). This is an unusually patterned flower, with a stronger rose veining on a paler background. Lovely.
There are options for collections too, although none of them come close to the genius of their tulips collections.
Have a look here.
Farmer Gracy
A newcomer to the dahlia word, and omnipresent on social media. Ok, so this year, I cracked and ordered some, but mostly because they do a great range in the colours I really like.
Harnessing the power of google also really works well with the Farmer Gracy advertising budget - just google a variety that you like and so many ads will come up for other dahlia varieties that are similar. I found this was even easier than Pinterest for finding colour themes that go together.
How did I miss ‘Art Deco’?
Have a look here.
This blog post is an updated version of one that was first published in Gather in 2020. if you would like to read more of my recommendations, how to’s, journal entries and seasonal journals, you’ll adore my digital membership, Gather with Grace Alexander.