In my very tiny flower farm I grow approximately 300 dahlia plants each year of about 50 varieties. Ive been working on narrowing down the varieties I grow over the last couple of years, firstly because I have such a small amount of space I really only have room for useful and productive blooms, and secondly so that I have a little room each year to try some new varieties out! If you’ve grown dahlias for a while you will know that everyone has a dahlia unicorn they’re hunting down!
Without further ado these are the plants that I will be culling from my collection next season:
Florelie lemon drop: This is a good little pompon but I just dont love the colour. Its very, very bright yellow and I found it hard to work with for that reason. It also wasn’t quite as productive as other poms I’ve had.
Butternut: I was so disappointed in this bloom and found it to be flat out ugly. A really scrappy form and yucky orange colour. Maybe I got a bad one as Ive only had it for one year – but I pulled the plant out I disliked it so much!
Grenadier: So productive and a really nice red, but the stems just aren’t strong enough for floristry work – even with support she was flopping all over the place. I also just dont use red that much! She makes a lovely garden flower though.
Florelie Queen of hearts: Gorgeous colour, productive enough and fun, frilled petals but every bloom has a downward facing head which makes it impossible to use in floristry.
Sunnyrose: This is a lovely colour, shape and quite productive but I have several in this colour way and its my least favourite of the lot! Its brutal out here!
Also these are the dahlias that need to pull up their socks if they don’t want to get the chop! I like them all BUT I need them to be more productive to earn their place in my little farm!
Salmon Joy , Winkie Truffle, Shirley Yeoman and Florelie honey red.
Grenadier
Florelie Lemon Drop