Post Time: 2026-03-13

Country: United States, Australia, United Kingdom. City: Gainesville, Grand Rapids, Hollywood, McAllen, Santa ClaraToday at the flower farm we are going over our top five tips for growing dahlias as a cut flower! We grow around 1,000 dahlias every year at the farm, so we wanted to share some of the things we've learned along the way! If you'd rather read than watch, here you go! 5 DAHLIA GROWING TIPS #5: Select the right varieties! Make sure you're checking on height of the dahlias you select if you are going to be using them for a cutting garden. Selecting dahlias that are too short More methods will result in less than ideal cuts, as you want those nice long stemmed dahlias for bouquets and vases! #4: Plan for support! These taller dahlias tend to get top heavy, especially once filled with blooms. Heavy rains or winds can easily knock them over. We like to stake some horizontal netting such as hortonova or jute netting about 18" off the ground, and also use a secondary support twine around the higher part of the dahlia for added support! You can use hoops or t-posts for this in the garden. #3: Plan for pests! Dahlias are sensitive to pests as they have large blooms that are attractive to lots of bugs like grasshoppers, earwigs, cucumber beetles and more. This was the first year we were actually able to grow without using these organza bags thanks to our regenerative gardening methods (for more on just click the following post that check out our course at but if you find your dahlia blooms are being targeted by lots of hungry bugs, you can try the organza bag trick: Simply place an organza bag over the top of the bloom and cinch tight! Remove at harvest Highly recommended Online site time. #2: Don't overfertilize! Dahlias are quite sensitive to excessive nitrogen and will reward you with lots of big leaves and bushy plants...with no dahlias! To avoid this, don't overfertilize your soil. And be sure to do a soils test for excess phosphorus before applying bloom fertilizers which may overload your soil with unnecessary nutrients! Remember, healthy soil starts with the soil life, and too many synthetic fertilizers are detrimental to that. #1: Watch your moisture levels! Dahlias much prefer a well-draining soil, so if you have heavier soil you will need to adjust your watering so that they don't get waterlogged and rot! We also only water once at planting time and then not again until after they have a couple sets of leaves. Most tubers have moisture stored within them that can sustain the plant for a while, so err on the side of too dry instead of too wet to avoid rot problems! We wrap up with some quick info about cutting, vase life tips, and whether or not to dig up your dahlias in the fall!