First 17 Dahlias Planted (14 New To Me) - June 2026

Dahlia season has begun here.  With the initial planting of seventeen dahlias.  That was day one of planting the tubers that I started out in the garden.  I made this annotated map to show (mostly myself) where everything is planted because I'm growing many new (to me) varieties for the first time and have a much more diverse lineup than in previous seasons. 

Note:  this post is going live in early June, but I planted these on May 20th.  Last year, I planted them in the first week of June, so this is almost three weeks earlier. 

Here, below is that map.  So far, I've put six in the "Pizza Oven West" bed, seven along the side of the house in the "South Sun Wall" bed and four "Under the Elm".  You can see them numbered in red:

Pizza Oven East

1.  Crichton Honey

2.  Cafe Au Lait

3.  Creme de Cognac

4.  Blue Wish

5.  Milena Fleur

6.  Jowie Winnie

Here (below) is a photo below of these plantings.  Note that I put EVERY SINGLE DAHLIA inside of a (temporary) chicken wire starting ring.  Five of the six here are new this year.  

South Sun Wall

7. Cafe Au Lait

8. Ivanetti

9. Melina Fleur

10. Burlesca

11. Brown Sugar

12. Crichton Honey

13.  Kelsey Annie Joy'

Here (below) are two photos of this southside cut flower bed where I have grown dahlias over the years.  This year, I planted them much tighter than previously and packed in seven.  Here, too, five of the seven are new to me.  Similarly, each of these are protected from those (dang) rabbits.  As they put on more size, I'll remove the cages and replace them with supports. 

Under The Elm

14. Brown Sugar

15.  Sweet Nathalie

16.  Metro Star

17.  Bell's Palermo

The last of day one planting went into the bed under the Triumph Elm tree.  I grew dahlias here last year that were productive.  This area gets good sun and I end up watering it when I do the front porch beds.  Photo below showing the four here that feature only one legacy dahlia (Sweet Nathalie) and three new (to me ones).

Of the seventeen, just three are legacy tubers (Melina Fleur, Ivanetti and Sweet Nathalie) with the other fourteen being brand new ones.  

I have a bunch more to get into the ground and I'll fill in as best that I can to maximize how many cut flowers we can grow.  Below is another annotated look at the planting guide.  The teal circles show the locations of where I think I can safely plant more dahlia tubers including the Pizza Oven West, IB2DWs, Island bed and maybe one or two more along the South Sun Wall bed:

Also, of note...I sprinkled some basic 10-10-10 granules on each of them (both in the hole and on top), so that goes towards checking-off part of my 2026 to-do item on dahlias when I said this:

6. Go (even) big(ger) on dahlias. Cut flower farming to the max. Start them indoors, feed them. Spray them. And, make a lot of arrangements.

Feed them.  And, 17 is a good start on 'going big'.  Last year, I planted 23 dahlias, but that included six Border Dahlias (Pablo Gallery), so it was really more like 17 larger ones - a total that I've hit with just day one of planting.   We're certainly "going big" this year.