Dahlia flower is your go-to plant when it comes to adding pops of colors to your yard or living room.
Read on to find how to grow and take care of them so that they can thrive well and bring in good vibes to your home with its striking petals.
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Dahlia Flower Meaning
Dahlia flowers comprise a wide array of colors, which makes them symbolize various kinds of meanings. But they do share scarce things in similarities.
These flowers typically symbolize dignity, change, inner strength, elegance, diversity, and creativity. In the Victorian era, Dahlias personify an enduring connection as well as everlasting devotion among two souls.
Besides symbolizing positive meanings, Dahlia flowers also embody negative connotations, such as dishonesty, betrayal, and instability.
Besides, dahlia flowers have some other meanings depending on their colors. So, let’s check out what they are.
Red Dahlia Flowers
This variety signifies durability and vigor. Therefore, they are suitable for being a get-well-soon gift. They are also great to encourage people who just began a new professional career or milestone in life.
White Dahlia Flowers
White is the color of pureness and innocence. Therefore, these types of Dahlias are suitable for weddings and other ceremonies.
In addition to becoming decorative flowers for weddings, Dahlias also make a perfect gift for grandparents because this variety helps you show that you care about them.
White Dahlia flowers are also good for the recognition of the childbirth ritual.
Pink and Purple Dahlias
Who says that a red rose always makes a romantic gift on Valentine’s day?
In fact, pink and purple Dahlias are your go-to alternatives because they embody feminine beauty, kindness, grace, and service.
These flowers also mean royalty and dignity. Therefore, they can be a wonderful gift for somebody that you admire.
Blue and Green Dahlias
Blue and green Dahlias symbolize a fresh start and significant changes.
For this reason, giving these flowers to your friends that are starting a new career, moving out, having a new baby, or buying a new house is a terrific idea. Because it means you are congratulating them.
Black Dahlias
This type of Dahlia is not actually black. It is a dark burgundy. Since it has the strongest hue, it usually denotes sadness, betrayal, and other negative emotions.
Dahlia Flower Information
Dahlia flowers are mid-to late-season varieties that are native to Mexico. They are well-known for being long-playing cut flowers with their exceptionally beautiful blooms.
These flowers consist of approximately 30 species and more than 20,000 cultivars. So, they appear in an extensive collection of hues and patterns.
Some of them feature small-flowered bedding, while some others have plate-sized blossoms that get well over 5 feet.
The leaves of the Dahlia flower are mid-to dark green, and they are pinnate. Therefore, they generally flair out.
They also feature toothed margins with rounded tips. However, some varieties, such as cactus and laminated, are more finely cut.
Since Dahlias have a wide variety of species, the hardiness zones are varied depending on the cultivar. They are mostly hardy in USDA 8 to 11.mThese flowers require full sun at least 8 hours per day.
Although they like to live in USDA hardiness zones 8 or above, they prefer to have some afternoon shade to thrive better.
It is because they cannot be robust in extremely hot climates, such as southern Florida and Texas. They may also need extra water in this situation.
Dahlias are fast-growing and heavy-feeding flowers that grow from small tubers, not bulbs. They can do great in nutritious, well-drained earth. Bear in mind to also amend it with compost.
The Dahlia flower is a kind of tender perennial. It thrives well in North America whose climate is relatively warm but does not do best in cold weather like in Chicago winter.
Those condition makes it become a fussy plant that requires extra care. If you happen to live in zones 2 to 7, you may find it challenging to grow Dahlias, but that is not always the case.
Then, try to dig the tubers up in the fall. After that, store them for winter, and begin planting them again in spring.
Fortunately, many new cultivars are not too temperamental and fussy. They tend to be more reliable and easy growing so that you can enjoy the colorful blossoms without the hassle.
Dahlia Flower Varieties
As stated above, the Dahlia flower has more than 30 types and a lot of hybrids. You might even come across thousands of these plants, which are generally classified into these categories.
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Cactus
As the name suggests, these types resemble the spiky leaves of succulents, but they do not belong to the same family.
A cactus Dahlia flower is a double-flowering bloom with long as well as rolled petals that look like spikes. Likewise, this variety comes in a spacious display of tones and proportions.
Moreover, this type is classified into incurved, straight, and semi-cactus. The first one features petals rolling for the full length. Meanwhile, the tips are beautifully curving toward the center, for example, Mingus Gregory.
Straight cactus features straight petals rolled for about a half of the length. While semi-cactus has petals that are flat at the base, and half rolled. Some popular flowers of this variety are Doris Day, Frigoulet, and Pianella.
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Decorative Dahlias
This type of Dahlia flower is the largest category that has a vast variety of shapes and colors. It features broad as well as flat petals.
Decorative Dahlias are also classified into formal and informal. The first one features regularly-placed petals, while the latter is flat, irregularly placed, and has a slightly-rolled tip.
In addition, some examples of decorative Dahlias are Arabian Night, Rothesay Reveller, and Kelvin Floodlight.
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Single Dahlias
These kinds of Dahlias have a row of rounded or pointed overlapping petals that can be either flat or slightly cupped. The examples of this variety are Magenta Star and Mystic Illusion.
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Mignon Dahlias
This one is a bit similar to single Dahlias. However, the diameter of it is usually less than two inches.
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Pompon Dahlias
Pompon Dahlias are round. They are unique with tightly curled, quill-like corollas.
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Ball Dahlias
As the name suggests, this variety looks like a ball. The petals are blunt, indented, or rounded and come in a spiral arrangement.
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Anemone Dahlias
Anemone Dahlias are exquisite cut flowers. Likewise, they feature outer ring of flat petals that surrounds a group of long tubular petals.
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Collarette Dahlias
This one also has two kinds of petals. The flat ones surround the shorter located in the middle of bloom nicely.
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Peony Dahlias
Peony Dahlias feature two or more rows of large petals that surround the open center. They usually come in irregular forms, which gives a unique, fluffy look.
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Orchid Dahlias
This type of Dahlia is different from the orchids that you know. It is a single flowering with an open center and one row or two rows of petals.
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Waterlily Dahlias
This variety resembles water lily although they do not come from the same family. It has double blooms with striking colors and patterns.
Growing Dahlia Flower
As a good rule of thumb, the Dahlia flower can do best in soil with a neutral pH of approximately 6.5. It has to be a well-draining one, solid, and loads of organic matter.
If you are going to grow a Dahlia flower in a container, you had better mix the potting with garden soil to get better moisture retention. However, you will need a large pot as this plant requires much space.
You can also directly plant the tubers in your garden, but you have to wait for a couple of weeks before the last frost date, just make sure the soil is not wet and has become a bit warmer.
Dig a hole about 6 to 8 inches deep. Then, you can put the tubers into it. Make sure the “eyes” are on the top.
Next, overlay them with 1 to 3 inches of dirt. When the stem starts to arise, then add more dirt until it approaches the surface.
Simply learn that you must never water the tubers after setting because they can disintegrate. You can do it only if the sprouts have appeared above the soil already.
Adding mulch is not necessary since it can attract slugs. Besides, the Dahlia flower’s roots like the sun.
In addition to growing a Dahlia flower from tubers, you can also propagate it from seed by sowing it early in February or March. Ensure you keep it indoors.
Dahlia Flower Care
Once your Dahlia flower is established already, you need to take care of it. Here some ways to keep it robust.
- When propagating this flower, avoid putting it in a windy site so that the stems will not be broken.
- Present fair scope for big varieties to develop. You may also need to assist them with sticks.
- Water the flower fitly. Make sure the leaf is depleted and you are not soaking the plant. Less frequent, yet deep watering would be better.
- Fertilize Dahlia flower regularly as it responds to feeding nicely. The more you feed it, the more root mass that you will get.
- Mulching is necessary for an extremely hot, dry area to retain moisture.
The Dahlia flower may be a bit fussy, but the beautiful coupled with exotic blossoms are worth the effort. Just make sure you grow it in the right place and also not overwater it.