A college roommate of mine hung a poster in our kitchen that read; “Women should raise more hell and fewer dahlias.” I loved it. I was not a gardener at the time. Now, after 23 years as a gardener, I realize you can successfully do both. I grow armloads of dahlias. Great big dinner plate dahlias.

You would think that with Vermont’s short growing season such a late blooming tender plant would be difficult to include in your garden but they have been popular here for a century. At Horsford’s Nursery we help you out by planting all our dahlia tubers in hefty gallon pots as soon as they arrive and tuck them into the warm greenhouse. This warming process forces the root to break dormancy quicker than waiting until your garden soil warms up. Once we see green sprouts we know the root is viable and we put them out for sale.

We suggest that you take the tubers out of the pot and plant them directly into rich garden soil in full sun and give them adequate moisture. Mix them in among your perennials in groups of three or six to ensure splashes of rich color from August through October. You can also row them out in your vegetable garden as you do gladiolus bulbs. A mature dahlia plant will take up a 2 foot space.

Dahlias make excellent cut flowers. They are lovely grouped together in vases or paired with the autumn blooming PeeGee hydrangea. If you do not cut flowers for the vase then be sure to dead head spent blooms as they wither and fade.

There are hundreds of varieties of dahlias and more are hybridized each year. Horsford’s selected a few favorites in an assortment of flower styles and colors. Look for them in the greenhouse this spring.

Our varieties include:

Dahlia ‘Bluebeard’ - Vibrant violet-blue starburst type flowers on 3 foot stems.

Dahlia ‘Ellen Houston’ - Robust apple-red blooms on 2 foot stems.

Dahlia ‘Kelvin Floodlight’ - The size of a dinner plate, these intense lemon-yellow flowers will stun you upon appearance in August. Will continue to bloom until frost. Grows 3-4 feet.

Dahlia ‘Melody Dixie’ - Robust and long-flowering, blooms have creamy yellow petals with hot pink edges. Grows 2-3 feet.

Dahlia ‘Niigata’ - Robust red petals have white tips. Grows 3 feet.