How to Choose Dahlias You’ll Love Growing
There is something wonderfully hopeful about choosing dahlias for a new growing season.
You may begin with every intention of being practical. You tell yourself you only need a few. Then you see a color you’ve never grown before, discover a beautiful new variety, or come across an old favorite you suddenly realize you’ve missed—and before long, next summer’s garden is beginning to take shape in your imagination.
We understand. We do exactly the same thing.
After growing hundreds of dahlia varieties here at Flaming Acres Dahlias, we’ve learned that choosing a dahlia you’ll truly love growing involves more than simply falling in love with a photograph.
The most beautiful dahlia in the catalog isn’t necessarily the best dahlia for your garden.
So as you begin dreaming about 2027, here are a few things we encourage you to consider.
Start With the Colors You Love
Color is often where the dreaming begins.
Some gardeners are drawn to soft blush, cream, peach, and lavender. Others love gardens filled with brilliant reds, oranges, yellows, and deep burgundy. And sometimes it’s that one unusual dahlia—a smoky mauve, glowing coral, or unexpected blend—that becomes impossible to resist.
Think about the colors already growing in your garden and the ones you find yourself reaching for when you make a bouquet.
But don't be afraid to try something different, either.
Some of our favorite discoveries have been varieties we might have passed over in a photograph, only to find ourselves completely captivated once we saw them blooming in the field.
Think About How You Want to Enjoy Your Dahlias
Are you dreaming of armfuls of flowers for the house?
Do you love creating bouquets for friends and family?
Or are you primarily looking for spectacular blooms to enjoy in the garden?
Your answer can help guide your choices.
If cutting flowers is important to you, look beyond the bloom itself. Strong stems, good stem length, productivity, and how the plant continues producing throughout the season all matter.
For a garden display, you might choose differently. A spectacular dinnerplate dahlia may not produce the same number of blooms as a smaller variety, but one enormous flower opening in the garden can be worth waiting for.
There is room for both.
Pay Attention to Bloom Size and Form
One of the joys of dahlias is just how different they can be.
There are enormous dinnerplates and perfectly rounded balls. There are decorative dahlias packed with petals, delicate collarettes, cheerful singles, whimsical anemones, and so many others.
Mixing different bloom sizes and forms makes both the garden and your bouquets more interesting.
If most of your collection consists of large decorative dahlias, perhaps 2027 is the year to add some smaller balls or miniatures. If you primarily grow cutting varieties, you might reserve a little space for one extravagant dinnerplate you've always wanted to grow.
Your garden doesn't have to choose just one personality.
Consider the Plant, Not Just the Flower
This is something we have come to appreciate more and more as growers.
When we're evaluating a dahlia at Flaming Acres, we're not only looking at the flower.
We're watching the whole plant.
How does it grow? Is it vigorous? Does it produce consistently? Are the stems strong? Does it hold up well in the field? Does it continue blooming as the season progresses?
And eventually, we ask a very simple question:
Would we want to grow it again?
That's a useful question for the home gardener, too.
Garden space is valuable. The dahlias that earn their place year after year are often the ones that give us more than a beautiful photograph.
Make Room for a Few Favorites
Not every dahlia garden has to be completely new.
There is something wonderful about seeing an old favorite return.
Maybe it's the dahlia that never disappoints you. Perhaps it's the one that always ends up in your favorite bouquets. Or maybe there's a variety connected to a memory that makes you smile every time it blooms.
Those flowers deserve garden space, too.
A new season can be a mixture of trusted favorites and new possibilities.
We think that's part of what makes planning so much fun.
And Leave a Little Room for Surprise
You don't have to have the entire garden figured out today.
In fact, we hope you don't.
Part of the joy of gardening is discovering something you weren't expecting to love.
Try a different color.
Experiment with a new bloom form.
Grow one variety simply because it caught your attention and you couldn't stop thinking about it.
Sometimes those spontaneous choices become the flowers we remember most.
Your 2027 Dahlia Garden Starts With a Little Dreaming
Choosing dahlias should be fun.
Take your time. Look through photographs. Think about the bouquets you'd like to make and the colors you'd love to see outside your window. Remember what worked beautifully this year—and what you might like to do differently next time.
Then choose the dahlias that make you excited to begin all over again.
Our 2027 Flaming Acres Dahlias collection is now available in the online shop, with more inventory expected to be added after our fall harvest. We invite you to wander through the collection, discover some old favorites, meet a few new ones, and begin imagining what could be blooming in your garden next summer.
Long before the first tuber goes into the ground, a garden begins with a dream.
Enjoy!
Debra Flaming
Flaming Acres Dahlias
