“My advice to women in America is to raise more hell and fewer dahlias.”
William Allen White
This is my all-time favorite quote about dahlias and it comes from a midwestern newspaper editor in the 1930s, William Allen White.
Amen, William. Point taken. But raising hell at 76 years old has fewer options so I’m sticking with my dahlias.
They require the same amount of investment as trying to perform at Carnegie Hall. The essential ingredient is to buy the bulbs online (they have more variety of the spectacular ones) to be delivered at planting time for your area. You can also buy bulbs in April at a flower center near me but the variety is limited and often may already be dried out. And, yes, you can buy at garden centers small pots of dahlias in May and June but they are also not the dinner plate variety as some of the ones below in the gallery or offer the spectacular variegated varieties if ordered earlier.
My second bit of advice is to “Google” how to plant and care for your dahlia bulbs. They need you to know how to stake them, feed them, and care for them once they bud.
The other benefit of dahlias? They try your patience until they finally bloom but they also bloom into October as long as the frost is not on the pumpkin.
You see, this really is my only option for hell raisin’ these days.
