General Dahlia Chat - 2025

Juliarugula · 2025-01-01T13:30:33+00:00

Justafewdahlias whew! Much better thanks! 😅

MIDahlias

What cultivars come to mind growing 36" and shorter?

I'm going on year three growing Jeannie. It's a shorter plant and it's yet to not grow by the taller plants. This year I'm trying to figure out about a dozen plants I have that are shorter.

Bishop of Llandoff
U2 Ania
Jeannie
Small World
Little Diablo
(Stopped growing Cream de Cassis and Cognac)

I'm growing some more PomPons this year. Do they tend to be shorter or depends on the cultivar?
New to me this year
Black Diamond
Willow Violet

Bessie

MIDahlias Crighton Honey is the shortest Dahlia I've grown.

Veryzer

MIDahlias My dark foliage plants, David Howard and Night Silence, stayed at about three feet for me last year.

Justafewdahlias

MIDahlias China doll, Mary Jo, and Matilda Hudson are advertised as being “low growing” and I would say they were definitely under 3 feet tall growing for me here in PNW. One year I decided to buy mostly low growing dahlias because I didn’t want to “deal with” staking them…..my how things have changed 😂

Teddahlia

"I'm growing some more PomPons this year. Do they tend to be shorter or depends on the cultivar?"
HH Snowdrop is by far the tallest pom at 7 feet. Nothing else is close. Pop Willo can be 5 feet while most poms are about 3.5 feet tall. The biggest challenge with poms is finding good stock. Lismore Peggy is about the same height as Pop Willo. An old one named Atom grew pretty tall. Willo Violet is an old classic pom of typical height. Never heard of Black Diamond and in the classification book it is a ball.

MissyWeitzel

I'm having a really rough start to the season when it comes to pests. I generally think of the time between planting and mid June as the honeymoon period where everything is healthy and happy and aside from an occasional slug, there is not much pest pressure here. I get aphids around now but they normally only bother my peas and roses. I applied the triple threat beneficial nematodes 5 weeks ago. I have been working on soil health. I have loads of ladybugs naturally. Multiple times a day I walk through and look closely at leaves. I had a ton of thrips come in seemingly overnight. I also seem to have a really bad mite problem and it's weird because I swear they're clover mites and I haven't ever seen them go after my plants like they are. It's too early for this! To add insult to actual injury, last night I screwed my back up dusting diatomaceous earth. I'm popping ibuprofen and laying on ice packs!

Thanks for "listening". I feel better. Maybe this means the rest of my season will be easy. 🤔

Bessie

MissyWeitzel I'm so sorry to hear about all the difficulties, especially your back. I think this is the place where people understand. Growing dahlias takes, to name a few attributes, determination, perseverance and planning. I'm in awe of those that have been growing for decades, despite the fact they age and their body doesn't work as good as it used to.

NCDahlia

MissyWeitzel I hope you feel better soon and the dahlias kick it into gear. I am one to over worry thinking they won't make it and my wife always says to relax "only the strong shall survive" lol 🤣

There does seem to be more bugs, earlier this year! I even have found earwigs inside the top covers of my beehives where the syrup feeders were.

Juliarugula

MissyWeitzel are you sure the clover mites are doing anything though? I see them on my dahlias every year but I’ve never noticed them doing any damage.

MissyWeitzel

Juliarugula if it's not clover mites, it's another very similar mite. Apparently you can tell it's a clover mite by the longer front antennae and these have that. The one thing that is confusing is there are ones that are the same size and shape but some are red, some rust, some black or brown. But they're all in the same area and on the same plants and I'm 100% sure they're doing damage. It looks like spider mite damage. Maybe they change color after chomping my precious plants?! Before doing any research I thought they were clover mites but then I have been scouring any info I can find and it all points to that too!

Justafewdahlias

What is the tallest dahlia cultivar you have grown or seen? I am thinking of using dahlias as a plant to kind of semi screen an area of my back yard. I am sure overall height depends on many factors for how tall and well each plant grow. In general what are some extra tall ones you can suggest? Thinking of future plans for next year! I have a couple of plants from last year that got to 5 or 6 feet in terrible conditions so I will use those for now. However, a plant getting to 7 or 8 feet or taller would be great!

SteveM

Justafewdahlias extra tall ones you can suggest?

Another Hollyhill suggestion is HH Berry Purple. It grows 7 feet tall for me and doesn't have strong apical dominance so it branches out and fills in nicely. It also has an upright habit so is easy to stake.
The tree dahlia (Dahlia imperialis) is a fun novelty species and one to try if you haven't.

Teddahlia

We have bred about 10 varieties that reach 8 feet. In 2025 HH Razz Berry and HH Sunflare were released and both hit 8 feet easily. Zarina, and Tangelo go over 8 feet. HH Finlandia was 10 feet tall in a trial garden. Lots more here. Our waterlilies have been too short for us but this year HH Calypso(2026 intro) will be a 7-8 footer and Amethyst is only slightly shorter at 7 feet. Bloomquist Jean is a tall one at about 7 feet. I believe Clearview Peachy grows tall. And last but not least our white pom Snowdrop makes 7 feet easily.

Justafewdahlias

Teddahlia Wow, lots of great ideas for next year! And 10 feet tall must be a record!

Teddahlia

HH Dungeness is 7-8 feet as is HH Carefree.

Veryzer

Camino Sitka grows very tall for me as well.

Justafewdahlias

SteveM This does look like a fun one to try!! Wow it says dying back to the ground and growing 20-30 feet! This could be a great summer screen or shade source without having to have a tree there all the time

BackyardBouquets_17

I had a seedling last yr that was 5 1/2 ft tall just planted in a 4 inch sink pot. I wasn’t extremely wowed over it ( it bloomed late an the center wasn’t just real great ) but I did dig it and planted it along my property line this yr along with a bunch of other not real good ones as a bit of a screen to block the neighbors view of our backyard. I spent to much money on dahlias otherwise so I used my rejects for my screen this yr. Plus it gets shade so I wanted to see how they bloom their first.

For a privacy screen I’d definitely look at Ted’s varieties for that purpose. I think he’s got some of the tallest ones I’m aware of plus u know he’s got a good line of dahlias 😀 can’t go wrong with his!

calico20hill

BackyardBouquets_17 Salish Twilight Girl is over 6' tall for me. I like tall seedlings and since I collect a lot of seeds from Hollyhill dahlias, as well as gardening in the mostly benevolent Pacific Northwest, many of my seedlings are that tall. I was surprised to have one that only grew to about 40" last year. It will be Salish Twilight Rose.

Justafewdahlias

BackyardBouquets_17 Dahlias have great potential for a summertime screen/creating shade. I don’t personally know of any other plant that grows as tall and as full as quick as dahlias do. Of course vines grow fast but I don’t want to deal with trellises everywhere

calico20hill

Juliarugula

Both Hollyhill Honeygoldand Golden Glow were pretty tall for me - 6-7 feet. McKenzie Violet was super tall - maybe 8 feet? BQ York is about 8 feet too.

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