Dahlias: The Flowers That Wait Until the End

Dahlias are worth the wait.

They arrive late in the season, just when summer is beginning to fade, and then suddenly the garden is full of them. One day you’re wondering when they are ever going to bloom, and the next there are flowers everywhere.

That is one of the reasons I grow so many dahlias for my wedding couples. They come into their own when the season is at its fullest, and they bring something special to late-summer and early-fall weddings.

And then there is the variety.

So Many Colors. So Many Forms.

There are dahlias in almost every color you can imagine—soft blush, creamy white, peach, coral, yellow, burgundy, deep red, lavender and the most beautiful combinations of several colors at once.

And the flowers themselves can look completely different from one variety to another. Some are perfectly round and formal. Some are loose and almost wild-looking. Some have long, curling petals, while others are made up of hundreds of tiny petals packed tightly together.

For weddings, that range is especially useful. A dahlia can be soft and romantic, colorful and playful, or deep and dramatic. It can fit into a garden-style bouquet without taking over, or become the flower everyone notices.

And because I grow them here on the farm, I get to choose varieties not just because they are beautiful in a photograph, but because I am thinking about the weddings they might become part of.

There is something pretty wonderful about walking through the dahlia beds in late summer and seeing all those possibilities growing right there in front of me.

The dahlias have finally arrived.