Dahlia Daze

Then there’s the fact that dahlias are not hardy north of their native Mexico. Dahlia tubers are religiously dug up each fall by local gardeners and stored until spring (see sidebar). Bear in mind also that despite their large blooms dahlias will add no fragrance to your property (although, as Ringer notes, “I’m grateful they have no fragrance, or it would be too much!”).

So is it all worth it? “Of course,” replies Herb Brase, president (for the fifth time) of the 120-member Minnesota Dahlia Society. “They are such a stunning flower, grown right.” Brase, who grows more than 160 dahlias in his Roseville garden, should know something about stunning dahlias—he won the American Dahlia Society’s National Championship Award for Best Dahlia in 1999. “At any dahlia-growing competition, flowers are judged on the basis of perfection—perfect bloom form, if the flower is perfectly round, and how perfect the petals,” says Brase. Size, however, does matter. The same year, Brase also won the Biggest Bloom award—for his Minnesota-grown whopper with a single bloom measuring eighteen inches across by twelve inches deep. (Realize that eighteen inches across is larger than a dinner plate—then try to fathom a bloom twelve inches deep.)

Nearly 400 blooming dahlias will greet visitors this September when Lisa Ringer welcomes the public to the forty-acre Two Pony Gardens during her annual open house. The timing of the event suggests another reason why more local gardeners are becoming hooked on these fussy prima donnas: Dahlias bloom in the fall, joining the relatively short list of flowering plants that bring fresh color—lots of it—to the garden. It’s as if these excessive, exotic, brazenly colorful behemoths of the flower world knowingly save the best for last. For those gardening addicts out there who are still seeking that ultimate thrill, growing dahlias may be the final destination.