Dinner Plate Dahlias

Pocket Square Farm is mostly about growing vegetables... lots and lots of vegetables. However, I have a soft spot for growing flowers for cutting, also. I love arranging big, billowy bouquets to perch here and there around my home. Even a single stem resting in a tiny vintage glass bottle fills an entire room with cheer.

My favorite flowers for cutting are roses, plumeria, sweet peas, and dahlias. This month, while my spring roses have faded and I'm eagerly awaiting their last fall flush, my dahlias have come into their own. While I typically grow standard-sized dahlias, this year I ventured out and tried something new: dinner plate dahlias (thus named because the blooms can reach twelve inches in diameter, the size of a dinner plate). Here are some pictures of a single dinner plate dahlia from my garden.

I love the shape of each individual petal, the flower's richy, buttery center, and the million lemony shades and hues of yellow the flower reveals. I like to think that someday, when I make more time for art, I would like to try a Georgia O'Keeffe-esque oil painting featuring a single dinner plate dahlia. If nothing else, it would be an interesting study in monochromatism. But I diverge.


Dahlias are fairly easy flowers to grow if you just keep a few things in mind. First, they like loose, rich, free-draining soil. I once tried to plant dahlia tubers in a hard, clay soil, and they never even sprouted.

Second, dahlias need to be staked securely and often. Place a tall (6 ft. long) and sturdy stake into the ground BEFORE planting the dahlia tuber a few inches away from it. Tie your main dahlia shoot closely to the stake as it grows using biodegradable paper garden tape. I try to tie my dahlia stems to the stake every six inches or so to keep them secure and straight.

Third, dahlia flowers need to be cut frequently (practically every day while they are in full bloom). Dahlias are wonderful cut flowers because they have long, sturdy, thornless stems, and they keep very well in vases. I recommend you cut flowers a day before they fully open on the plant to prevent browning around the edges of the petals. Also, if too many flowers bloom at once the plant can become very top heavy and topple over, despite your staking efforts. This is a particular problem with dinner plate dahlias, whose stems can barely hold up their massive floral heads. They tend to fall over (timber!) if you let them get too big on the plant. Don't hesitate to cut flowers early, as they will continue to open indoors where you can enjoy them even more!

It's hard to get a sense of just how large the blooms of dinner plate dahlias are without some frame of reference. Here's a sweet one for you.


Despite the fact that my daughter appears to be smelling the flower, dahlias actually have no fragrance. I suppose that is their one downfall. But who needs a perfumey scent when you can have blooms bigger than your head?