My Top 10 Dahlias for 2024

We grow nearly 50 varieties of Dahlias here at re.Planted Farm. This blog post discusses our top 10 favourites. We use dahlias for both cut flowers and to sell tubers each Spring, so this list includes varieties we love in bouquets and have generous tuber production.

As our 2024 Dahlia Tuber Sale (Jan 7th) and many others begin for the 2024 Season, I hope you find the list of our best-performing, disease-resistant, and jaw-dropping dahlia varieties helpful.

SO, WHAT MAKES A GOOD DAHLIA?

Here are some the the factors I considered while compiling this list.

COLOUR

Dahlias come in thousands of colour variations. On our flower farm, we prefer dahlias that pair well in various possible colour combinations. We tend to stay away from multi-toned, variegated or garish-coloured dahlias that only sell well in limited pairings.

We also consider our sales channels. We grow dahlia for our weekly farmer’s market, our CSA and weddings. Each of these markets prefers different colour combinations.

We grow dahlias in every colour in the rainbow (except green and blue), but tend to prefer solid colours, in or pastel shades, and nothing too ‘loud’.

FORM

From single-petaled collarette types to ultra-full massive informal decorative types, better known as dinnerplates, dahlias come in a variety of shapes and forms

At re.Planted, we prefer ball dahlias. They’re the easiest to work into bouquets, have the best vase life, and are most popular at market. We grow a few dinnerplates for large-scale wedding work and keep a few decorative-form dahlias that come in colours I can’t resist.

PRODUCTIVITY/CONSISTENCY

We have 110 frost-free days in our growing region, which leaves very little time to grow a frost-tender crop like dahlias. So, I tend to value dahlias that are early to bloom and can stay productive through peak summer temps.

We also sell dahlia tubers, so while this doesn’t always influence the varieties I select to grow, I still do value dahlias that are generous tuber producers.

Some dahlias also tend to bloom with open centres and change tones quite a bit as the season draws on. I find myself keeping varieties that stay as consistent as possible throughout the season. Colours tend to saturate a bit as we approach cooler weather in September, which I don’t mind, but dramatic changes, like spotting or streaking, are not usually welcomed here on our farm.

10) Mystique

I’m starting the countdown with the smokey-dusty-rosey-mauvy raspberry dahlia Mystique. She’s a challenging to color to describe succinctly, and that’s exactly why I love this variety. One of the few decorative forms we grow, the nuanced tones of Mystique allow us to create highly sophisticated bouquets when paired with lavenders, peaches and pinks.

Unfortunately, we won’t be offering tubers of this variety in our 2024 sale, but I’ve linked Nova Scotia-based flower farm Greener Pastures, if you’re interested in the tubers.

9) Kelgai Ann

The highly sought-after Kelgai Ann produces large upward-facing, waterlily flowers in the softest blush pink, and sometimes with darker pink streaks. The flowers close up at night and look extremely similar to a peony. It’s early, and productive and its unique form makes it great for wedding work.

My only complaint is that the stems can be thin, causing the flowers to pop off with regular handling, and that every so often the plants throw up blooms that are streaked in a garish bright pink.

We’ll have a very limited amount available during our 2024 Dahlia Tuber sale.

8) Creamy

Yellow flowers tend to sell poorly at our markets and in our grocery bouquets, but Creamy is a soft buttery yellow that everyone can fall in love with. It plays well with just about every colour, produces all season long, and comes in a size that’s easy to work with.

We’ll have a limited amount of these tubers during our 2024 sale.

7) Ferncliff Pearl

It proved challenging to capture Ferncliff Pearl’s iridescent quality. This photo from Au Beau Pre does this perfectly.

Holding it’s #7 spot Ferncliff Pearl is the ONLY white ball dahlia we grow. Unlike most white ball dahlias that sometimes present with pale yellow centers, Ferncliff Pearl has pearlescent ivory centers that help make, what otherwise would be a plain white flower, an absolute stunner! Like most ball-shaped dahlias, Ferncliff Pearl has a good vase life. It produces abundant, easy-to-divide tubers for us.

I’m excited to have Ferncliff Pearl tubers finally available for 2024 for the first time!

6) Copperboy

A challenging-to-find variety, Copperboy is the perfect shade of burnt copper with rust-red flashback petals, giving the blooms an irresistible multi-dimensional quality.

It’s a shorter plant, so great for home gardeners with limited space, but the plants still produce great stems for cutting. Tuber production was okay, but the plant continued to bloom throughout entire the season.

This variety will be available for our 2024 tuber sale.

5) Cornel Bronze

A seemingly ordinary variety, Cornel Bronze dahlia tubers produce warm, bronze orange blooms in the perfect shape and size, that pair well with everything! We used every single stem that we harvested in 2023. A little later to bloom, but considering its Fall-toned colour, its timing is perfect. Once it starts blooming, it’s extremely generous. Cornel Bronze makes clumps where almost every tuber has multiple accompanying eyes, making it extremely easy to divide with nearly no wasted tubers. This is this variety’s 2nd year in the top 10.

We have plenty of Cornel Bronze tuber available for our 2024 tuber sale.

4) Jowey Winnie

Making the top 10 list again, Jowey Winnie draws me in with its geometrically perfect blooms that have mauve reverse petals, giving the flowers a lavender center against its dusty-rose/peachy base. This lovely dual-toned colouring makes it a fantastic base for bouquets because it essentially creates a complete colour palette for you! Although Jowey Winnie wasn’t our most prolific tuber producer, the tubers it did produce were plump and large; perfect for storing over winter.

Unfortunately, we won’t be offering tubers of this variety in our 2024 sale, but I’ve linked Nova Scotia-based flower farm Stone Meadows Gardens, if you’re interested in the tubers.

3) Rock Run Ashley

Rock Run Ashley is the perfect shade of muted pink and does fantastic in wedding work. The plant was early to bloom and had great tuber production. The only drawback was that it pittered out by September but by then, we had moved on to fall-toned dahlias anyway. This dahlia is highly sought after for good reason!

We’ll have a limited amount of these tubers during our 2024 sale.

2) Larks Ebbe

Larks Ebbe keeps its #2 spot on the top 10 list again. Where do I even begin? The picture speak for itself! Larks Ebb is a dahlia that plays well with everyone. No matter what I paired this variety with through the 2023 season, his soft peachy blooms with hints of yellow/pink were a standout. I could not have enough!

The plants were productive right until frost. Larks Ebbe produces excellent tubers and didn’t seem bothered at all by our dry, hot summer. Such a staple on our flower farm and truly earns the #2 spot!

We have plenty of Larks Ebbe Tuber available in our 2024 sale.

1) Linda’s Baby

And #1 again this year is Linda’s Baby. Linda’s Baby is everything you could want in a dahlia and more; an early producer, in a stunning shade of soft sherbert peach-pink, with perfect ball-shaped blooms. This variety was the MOST productive bloomer in our dahlia patch. Linda’s Baby also produced the most dahlia tubers of all our varieties in 2022. Such an all-around useful flower that works well in both summer and fall arrangements.

Unfortunately, Linda’s Baby didn’t produce to her usual optimum in 2023 because of the mediocre soil in the new location we planted the tubers. That was environmental, so I won’t hold it against her.

We’ll have tubers available for sale again in 2024.

Most of the varieties listed here will be available at our January 7, 2024 dahlia tuber sale. The online sale will go live at 1pm EST.

Did you grow dahlias in 2023?

Tell us your favourite varieties or which ones you're looking forward to growing in 2024!