There are three ways to grow dahlia;
- From seed
- From tubers
- From cuttings
I shared a lot of my dahlia growing journey on my personal Instagram. You can find the dahlia seedling and tuber chat saved to this highlight.
Growing dahlia from seeds
This is the most cost effective way to grow dahlias, but each seed is a whole new combination of dahlia genetics and a brand new variety of flower.
So if you're not fussed about what your flowers will look like and you're happy with a lucky dip this might be the way to go.
If you have your eye on a specific bloom that you love and want that plant in your garden you're better to start with a tuber.
Pro's of growing dahlia from seed
- Seeds are a cheap way to get dahlia plants
- You will have a brand new variety of flower
- By the end of the season you will have tubers from your seedling that you can plant the following season
Con's of growing dahlia from seed
- It can be time consuming and fiddly germinating seeds, planting seeds and planting out seedlings
- Yellow and red are dominant colours and open is the dominant type
- There's a chance most if your seedlings will be yellow or red and open faced
Where do I buy dahlia seeds?
Now that I have finished harvesting seeds from seed pods I have realised I have few thousand more seeds than I need so I will have some for sale online soon.
The Wildstyler still has some seeds available online. Otherwise there are various sellers on TradeMe with seeds available - that is where I bought mine last year.
Growing dahlia from tubers
Growing a dahlia from a tuber pretty much guarantees that you will have flowers the same as the parent plant (unless you end up with a sport).
You will get one plant from a tuber (more if you take cuttings) and potentially dozens of flowers from that one plant.
Pro's of growing dahlia from a tuber
- It is relatively easy to grow plants from tubers
- You can take multiple cuttings from a tuber
- Your tuber will produce multiple tubers that you can dig up and divide at the end of the season
Con's of growing dahlia from a tuber
- Tubers can be hard to assess on arrival to ensure they are viable
- Tubers can be hard to store and may rot between arrival and planting
- There's a chance a tuber can be mislabeled and you get a different plant
Where do I buy dahlia tubers?
There are small, private sellers who sell tubers (usually as a presale). I have had mixed results buying from private sellers. The main issue being that I didn't know what I was looking for when the tubers arrived and they weren't viable.
The other issue I had was that all the tubers I bought from one seller rotted in storage despite being stored in exactly the same conditions as the other tubers.
I had great success with the tubers I bought from The Wildstyler. Kristy's next presale is on August 10th at 8pm. Varieties sell out super fast and can disappear from your cart so if you can't handle the pressure I recommend grabbing some lucky dip tubers instead.
I bought tubers from this seller on TradeMe and they were all viable. The cheapest option would be to get these lucky dip tubers is from TradeMe. These tubers work out to be $3 each (excluding shipping) and last season all of mine were great!
I have also recently found a buy/sell/swap group for tubers and seeds on Facebook. This is a good group to join if you are looking to buy tubers this season - even better if you can find someone local and save on postage.
I also bought dahlia tubers from Bulbs Direct and Garden Post last year and if you are just starting out these are the sellers I would (highly) recommend;
- You pre order and the tubers arrive when it's time for planting - you don't have to store them yourself over winter and hope for the best
- You buy "one tuber" but you always get a small clump with lots of growth points that you can easily divide up (I got as many as 7 or 8 plants from "one tuber")
- The tuber clump has already started sprouting and you can carefully remove these sprouts, dip them in rooting hormone and grow them - even more plants
- The tubers come clearly labeled (on the bag not the tuber) with wood shavings, so if you're not ready to plant them when they arrive you can easily store them for a couple of weeks and know which tubers are which
Note: Garden Post have quietly released some tubers for pre-sale - these are available now
Growing dahlias from cuttings
Once your tuber starts to sprout you can take cuttings and grow these. Also, when your plants have started to grow and it's time to "pinch" them you can grow these cuttings.
Flowers from a cutting will be the same as the parent plant. So if you buy a tuber of a plant that you love you can easily increase your stock by taking cuttings.
Pro's of growing dahlia from a cutting
- It is a cheap way to get more plants
- At the end of the season you will get tubers from the cuttings you planted
Con's of growing dahlia from a cutting
- It can be tricky to get the conditions right to successfully root cuttings
- Cuttings planted late in the season might not flower
How do I take dahlia cuttings?
When you buy from one of the commercial growers like Bulbs Direct or Garden Post you will find that your tubers have started to sprout (like potatoes left in the pantry too long). You can remove these, dip them in rooting hormone and plant these.
If you plant your tubers in small pots with a mix of compost and potting mix and leave the top of the tuber sticking out, you will find there are several growth points that appear. Once these have a few sets of leaves you can remove a growth point or two and grow this is as a separate plant.
Part of growing dahlias is "pinching out". If you have planted early enough you will be "pinching out" nice and early and you can grow these offcuts into their own plant.
