The most (and least) profitable dahlia varieties
Ohhhh, dahlias. Are they worth it? The debate over these babies can get INTENSE on those flower farmer facebook forums!
For most of us, the answer is: sometimes YES and sometimes NO.
Let me explain…
We all know how much work dahlias are: the digging, storing, dividing, re-planting, pinching, staking, (I could go on…) takes so much effort and time.
To make the juice worth the squeeze, you must grow productive varieties that bloom their heads off! The more the plants flower, the more you harvest, and the more you sell.
I've grown drop-dead gorgeous varieties that are stingy with their blooms… these varieties usually get cut from the lineup. Instead, I focus on growing ultra-productive varieties that produce tons of blooms: giving me lots of opportunity to cash in and make more money.
You can increase your profits on dahlias significantly by simply choosing more productive and highly saleable varieties.
The catch? (of course there's a catch). The varieties must not only be productive - they must also be a beautiful color and shape that sells well! For example, “Cornel” is a red ball dahlia that is extremely productive for us - however, the color is unpopular in my markets and no one wants to buy them. Unfortunately, even through “Cornel” is highly productive, we no longer grow it.
Here's a List of Our Top 5 Most Productive (and top selling) Dahlia Varieties:
Peaches n' Cream:
A ball-shaped pink, white, and orange dahlia that not only yields the highest stem counts, but also is our #1 best seller. A MUST HAVE.
Linda's Baby:
A color-shifting large ball dahlia that starts out bright pink early in the season, and fades to a peachy-blush pink in the fall as temperatures drop. It's perfect for weddings and for blending with autumn colors!
Cornel Bronze:
A classic productive ball dahlia that blooms a bronzy-orange-rust color that is absolutely perfect for September and October sales. Seasonal colors are essential for big sales in Autumn!
Diva:
This large, decorative style dahlia looks almost like velvet. The deep purple petals are silky smooth and it's highly popular at our farmer's market. It also lasts an incredibly long time for a decorative dahlia! It's the most productive decorative style dahlia we have ever grown.
Boom Boom White
The #1 white variety for weddings and florist sales. Take care to heavily pinch this variety, or else you'll end up with ultra-thick stems (which can make it tough to design with). This variety never fails to pump out tons of large, pure-white balls of beauty!
Here's a List of our Top 5 LEAST Productive (and/or Worst Selling) Dahlia Varieties:
Penhill Watermelon:
Although GORGEOUS, this ultra-late-blooming dinnerplate variety rarely even flowers for us. It’s often time for a frost when we finally get blooms. When it does flower on time, we hardly harvest anything. Unless you grow this one for pure personal enjoyment - my advice is to cut it from your lineup.
Polka:
Another super fun and recently popular dahlia that we no longer grow. It was cute, but our plants never thrived and we barely got any blooms. It could have been our original tuber stock, but we tried growing this variety for several years with no returns.
Sylvia:
A safety-cone orange ball dahlia that blooms with multiple flowers on one stem (although we never got very many stems). There was too much foliage on this variety, which made harvesting it slow and difficult. Not to mention that nearly everyone was off-put by the harsh, overly-bright color.
Hillcrest Suffusion:
This variety was once uber-popular (back when I first started farming). There seemed to be a frenzied craze around getting your hands on a tuber - but when we finally did, the results were beyond disappointing. The color was cool, but its yields were awful.
Bristol Fleck
Ok, this one is a bit of an exception here at TMFF. Bristol fleck is a decorative dahlia that has a base of white petals with streaks of purple/magenta in it. It. is. FASCINATING. It's not very productive, but it's a fan favorite both with our employees and our market customers (plus, it's my husbands favorite!). For that reason, we still grow this variety, but we are careful to make sure it earns its keep (we sell every single stem!).
(PS: If you’re curious about what these varieties look like, check out our 2022 dahlia tuber catalog HERE.)
Do you have ultra-productive and profitable dahlias on your farm? Or varieties that barely bloom or are horrible sellers? If so, leave a comment below! We are always trialing new varieties and love to hear (and share) what everyone else is growing.
Mark your calendars, our online dahlia tuber sale goes live on Saturday, February 25th 2023.