calico20hill I would love to see a picture of your booth setup and your flowers if you run across one someday! Personally, the thought of working super hard and late into the night, then getting up early to spend all day in the elements with no guarantee of selling anything turns me off. You make it sound really fulfilling and fun though!
Part of my decision not to sell in markets stems from experiences I had doing it with my previous business. I sold gift boxes with all local products. Before I realized corporate gift giving was the ideal market for my product, I tried selling them at vendor shows and farmers markets. 75% of the time people just asked to buy individual products out of the gift boxes and not the whole thing. So I pivoted and tried the 'build your own gift box' route and then people just bought snacks for themselves to eat while they walked around looking at the other vendor booths. 
Best selling varieties for farmer's markets
I don’t sell at market, but during peak season, I’ll set a cart out in front of my house once a week with about eight-ten mason jar bouquets. Mostly they’re bought by neighbors.
My observation is that whatever bouquet I love the most is the one that’s left at the end of the day. 
. So there you go! (It kind of works out well for me because then I get to keep it!)
If I had to pin down similarities, I think the leftover bouquets tend to be ones with cactus forms and maybe darker colors.
Orange and yellow don't seem to sell until Sept when it's suddenly fall. Everyone wants their cardigans, leather Chelsea boots and pumpkin spice lattes. Then, and only then, do they agree to purchase "fall themed" colors. Lol.
That being said, pairing yellow with white and light pink can be popular and pairing lavender with orange is eye catching.
The great thing about farmers markets or road side stands is you get to be as creative as you want to be! Come back this summer and let us know which bunches sold well!
Images of the first bouquets to sell from a road side stand this summer. The little boy might have influenced a sale or two. 
dahlia1972 You also want to consider varieties that grow well where you are and a mix of early bloomers and late bloomers. Have you checked out the websites of the Dahlia Shed (Middletown, RI) or the Little State Flower Company (Tiverton, RI)? They will give you an idea what varieties grow and sell well for them in southern RI. BTW both farms usually sell their extra tubers at their flower stands as they are planting their own fields (@ early May). Also the Farmer's Daughter (S. Kingstown, RI) might sell extras after they finish dividing their clumps but you have to ask.
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Hereis a photo of my booth the Farmer's Market in 2019, the last season I was on the Island. We were lucky enough to be allotted space in the shed due to how long we had been selling,,,made it much easier then having to set up a canopy. My husband made the fantastic 3 tiers stand out of a couple of corner shelve displays sold as cheap garden accessories. He then made the plywood cup holders for the recyclebable plastic cups with lids that I used for my bouquets. These cups made it easy for customers to carry their flowers then set them in the drinks holder in their cars to get them home safely. I sat behind the display making new bouquets as fast as they sold, and my son and who ev er was assisting took care of financial transactions. So I am back beh8ind this with buckets and buckets of flowers and greenery, cups, lids and jugs of treated water working as fast as I can to keep the stand filled!
calico20hill just gorgeous, and the easy to transport home container is a great idea!
calico20hill Noni, I bet you never worked so hard or had so much fun!
You are absolutely right, Steve. And I miss it so much! It felt like something I was born to do. But the Sundays after Saturday market....pretty much vegged out in a quiet house, waiting for the plants to put out more blooms . But I liked doing the hard work then having a few days off. I did have a few commercial customers where I delivered early in the week for their offices. I enjoyed knowing my customers and what they liked, then designing directly for them.
calico20hill with your vast experience selling flowers, I'd love to hear you name the Dahlia varieties you consider are good for bouquets.
Well, Bessie, I hve been out of it now for 4 years but I will think about this, going back. On one hand, my community is one of artists and creative people but mostly it seems like there was nearly always someone who loved what ever I put together with the exception of Yellow. I kept trying but I still could not sell a lovely bouquets of yellows nd whites, yellows and blues, yellows and brights, yellow and anything! I did favor miniature through B sized dahias but occassionally sold a really big one if I had it. Even kowing that it would not last as long, sometimes people wanted it anyhow.Cafe AU Lait was usually so late coming on that market was pretty well over with for the year when it did bloom but there was always someone who loved it. Also, I mixedi n all kinds of annuals or perennnials blooms, and foliage or blooms from my shrubbery. I sldo asked the customer where they planned to display it, and if it was on a dinner table I made sure it was short enough to see over. I included a lot of other flowers in my bouquets too... always something for fragrance and nice complementary colors. So here I am telling you everything except what you asked me, LOL...but that was all part of the "package". The foliages were what what really set everything else off. OK, for dahlias I used a lot of bb sizes with B and Miniatures to make it more interesting. I would grow an assortment of lights, brights and dark complementary colors in B sized blooms, lots and lots of bb sized ones and lots of miniatures for filling in, Choose popular colors but also the ones that help create a mood...small bright reds and oranges, soft pastels, darker dramatic colors. I would skip the fimbriated ones for all but special arrangement bouquets. If you are just making bouquets for yourself, choose the colors you like in your house along with some that are lighter and some that are darker or contrast well with them. Its always good to have an array o f " whites " and 'black"s to accent the other colors. Ball types and FD's last the longest in a bouquet usually. Some of the filler flowers I especially liked were snapdragons, lupines, foxglove, and dianthus. I varied the plants by the season...I noticed there is a 3-5 week rotation on what is avialble in the Pacific Northwest. After that it is all about conditioning your cuts so that they last well once made up.
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I was hoping to get the "experts" to give me their ideas of what they've experienced as the best dahlias varieties for cut flowers. Stated another way, what varieties should I grow with the goal of breeding dahlias that are relatively long lasting in the vase(5-6+ days), have good substance, hold their form without shattering, and are colors and shapes florists request. I respect the vast knowledge contained in this forum. Even with all the sluething I've done on Cubits, there are likely varieties I need to acquire and start growing this year. Thanks!
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I don't have personal experience with growing for cut flowers, but the '50 most offered varieties' on the Trivia page of dahliaaddict might be a good reference. By definition, those varieties are, with few exceptions, the good producers that most all cut flower growers grow. Further they are likely to be decent tuber makers and keepers so they have good genes in that direction as well. Penhill Watermelon is on there, the only one on the list that I grow. I grow it because it's big, but I'll bet it's on the top 50 because it pumps out the blooms, acts like you fertilized it when you didn't, and produces a bunch of tubers that keep through the winter even when you leave it out half-dug. I'll bet most of the other varieties on that list are much the same.
The '50 most viewed' are going to be the opposite with few exceptions.
"...Dahlias that are relatively long lasting in the vase(5-6+ days)," Over the years I have seen a version of this statement a hundred times. If some dahlias were going to last longer in a vase, we would have figured it out 25 years ago or perhaps 100 years ago. They are what they are and if you find one that lasts a lot longer we would really like to know.
I would still look at this from the angle of knowing which ones WON'T last long. Other then that I think you have to go by trial and error in your particular bit of climate. What works well in the Seattle Area won't be the same as what works well in warmer dryer climates. I can only generalize that poms, mballs and balls work well because the petals are tight together and don't let hotter dryer air dehaydrate them. Formal decs are good this way too. Waterlilies are gorgeous but not long lasting. Especially if it is hot. Some beautiful dahlias will color fade in sunshine. Sometimes they turn a really yucky color if the room is too bright. The chemicals in your water will affect them. If it is a very common flower like Childson's Pride it will not attract as many people as the latest Hollyhill. People will look at it and say...Oh yes, I grew that one 30 years ago.
Big question here is WHO are you doing cut flowers for? If it is for yourself, grow and cut what you like and experiment or go pick a fresh one when one wilts or fades. If it is for marketing, then you will want the newer ones that people are not tired of. And you will want to cater to tastes that may not be the same as yours. Some people love the brightest most cheerful arrangements. Others want restful soft colors. I tried to work around that by having a large variety of moods and color combos. You might grow different ones for a market then you would for yourself. Swan Island often mentions ones that are good as cut flowers.
I like Ted's answer.
Great thread - flowers are my passion - dahlias especially. Following.
I love yellows. I grow the lemony and softer yellows. I have no problem selling bouquets with those yellows mixed in. They seem to 'go' with everything and brighten up and contrast well with the other colors.
I have had poor luck with size A flowers or bigger in terms of cutting. Semi cactus - they're variable for me. Some keep great in the vase, some wilt immediately. Laccinated or fimbriated dahlias last as long for me as any of the others, and I love their forms. Mini balls and FDs hold up great - but the category I love best are the informal decoratives because they are the most varied. I also love the stellars. Some of the IDs are wild looking, like a bad hair day - Those are my personal favorites. They often have unusual color combinations or petal shapes. I like to mix smaller tighter petaled balls and decorative forms with one or two size B 'wilder' forms. Mixing scale and shape makes a pleasing bouquet. I keep my prices really low because I'd rather grow what I like, even if they only last 3 or 4 days in a vase. This is easier to do for a hobbyist like me. Sure, I've love more money for all that work but this is a labor of love first and foremost for me.
I don't know enough about how to treat the cut flower water so if someone wants to divulge their secrets I'd be interested to try treating the water next year and see if it helps the flowers stay fresher.
Dahlia53 I don't put anything in my buckets. I make sure my buckets are extremely clean and fill them with well water out of the hose. I don't use water from the tap inside because we have a water softener. If I get water inside for buckets or vases I get it from the RO tap.
I did a test a year or two ago after listening to a podcast where the florist guest raved about using alum powder (usually used in pickling) in water to extend vase life. I chose a cultivar I had 60 plants of so I could cut 3 stems as identical a maturity level as possible at the same time. 1 stem went in plain RO water, 1 in the recommended amount of alum dissolved in water, and 1 in the recommended amount of floralife in water. I didn't change water or recut stems and I had them next to each other out of direct sunlight in an air conditioned room. Plain water was best, followed by Floralife, followed by alum. Perhaps the alum and Floralife work well for other flower types, but I didn't find them to be helpful for dahlias.
I have never used anything in water. Clean water and clean buckets is key. Ideally I like to cut into "field buckets" and transfer them to another bucket at market or before wholesale delivery . When you strip foliage in the field, lots of leaf bits end up in the water when it washes off the stems in your buckets.
I have always believed that the key to long lasting flowers is:
#1) Cut in the morning. 90% of my dahlias are cut BEFORE the sun comes up. The plants take up moisture over night and start to loose that water the second the sun hits them. This means in peak season I am up about 3 a m. and cutting by headlamp. I typically have staff start at 5 a.m. after I've filled a half dozen buckets or so. Thankfully the sun comes up late during dahlia season. It's only "peak" season for 4 weeks and I cut 2 times a week. So 8 times a year I pull these early morning events. It's not that bad.
#2) Water your plants well. I time my irrigation so that my soil is most hydrated on cutting mornings (Tuesdays and Saturdays for me). I mulch heavy with leaves and straw and this also helps conserve water and keep things moist and cool. We'll hydrated plants have longer lasting flowers. I have some repeat customers that will give feedback on how long they lasted that week. Without fail, they'll report the worst results when the weather (particularly overnights) is hot and dry.
Back to the topic of the thread ...
I find for the farmers market I sell at (Mill City Farmers market in downtown Minneapolis) people love:
#1) BIG flowers. I sell giants for $5 a stem and could easily sell for more. They sell out often in the first 60 minutes of market. I also grow lots of big B sized flowers and punch them in 4s or 5s and people love them.
#2) Fall colors. Rusty oranges, muddy yellows and some burgundy. I grow 125 plants of Cornel Bronze which is more than any other variety. I mix it with ANY thing with a similar size. White, purple, red, yellow and even pink. If I have leftover flowers at the end of market - it is almost never a bouquet that has Cornel Bronze. It's more typically yellows or pinks of monotone dark colors (purple or red). Another orange I'm building stock of is Crazy 4 Wylie Quinn. A lovely petal dense sunset blend of orangy/pink (I'm a bad color describer).