Unwin's Colorful Dahlias are grown from seed and then selected by color before growing on. These Dahlias are smaller, more compact, and naturally upright (so they don't need to be staked) than most other varieties with most blooms about three inches across. These plants are very prolific bloomers and are the backbone for our summer and fall bouquet production, the varieties included here are the ones we have selected specifically for this purpose. A single plant can produce 15-10 flowers with an 18' stem every few days starting in June and lasting all the way through the end of September. The cut flowers are long lasting and remain firm much longer than most other flowers we use.
Dahlia plants grow from tubers like potatoes and winter over just fine in zones eight and higher, but in colder climates it is best to pull up the plants at the end of the season and store your tubers in your garage or other cool location (ideally staying around 40 degrees for most of the winter) until spring. Wait to plant your tubers until around the last frost date in your area. The tubers store a lot of energy and nutrients so once they start growing they form a dense clump two feet tall in two or three weeks! Each year you can divide each plant into up to eight or ten new pieces, just be sure to leave at least one growing bud (called an 'eye') on each piece.
You will receive pruned tubers with at least three eyes but often dozens - the more eyes the more stems you will get! Keep your tubers in their paper packaging until you are ready to plant them in a cool location like your garage until spring. Our Unwin's collection has 30 varieties that we have selected, some are double flowering and others are single with colors including white, black, red, purple, magenta, yellow, cream, orange, pink, and lilac. We try to pack tubers so that you get as many varieties as possible but occasionally you will get two of the same style and color in an order. Ordering more tubers means you should get more varieties. We recommend ordering at least five tubers to get enough variety to really appreciate the Unwin's group.
These are only available in late winter and spring.
Pictures Of Some Varieties Included In Unwin's CollectionDahlia Tubers Below is a picture showing a box of our recently harvested and divided Dahlia tubers. Tubers like these are what you will receive to start your new plants with. Some varieties produce much larger tubers than others, typically this seems to correspond with the number of stems produced in a clump. Varieties that produce fewer but larger stems also have fewer but larger tubers produced, although this isn't the case 100% of the time.