Little Lifestyle Flower Farm Event

Dahlia Seed Mix
Approx. 30 seeds per packet
Grow your own dahlias from seed! This is a magical mystery mix from the entire field. All seeds have been collected and carefully dried by me – and it feels so special to be able to offer them for you to grow.

What does Open Pollinated mean?
These seeds are collected from open pollinated dahlias. It just means that all our happy pollinators (bees, butterflies, flies, etc) have been hopping from flower to flower feasting – all the while they are dropping off pollen from one plant to another. This means they are transferring the genetics from one plant to another in the wide open field, which leads to us not knowing which plant now has been crossed with which! It's quite a fun way of breeding dahlias.

By growing these seeds, you are growing a dahlia no one has ever seen before! Dahlias have a huge amount of chromosomes (64!) which leads to massive diversity and countless genetic combinations. This is why dahlias have so many types, styles and varieties.

My field is full of ball type dahlias, water lilies, collarettes, formal and informal decoratives, dinner plates, pompons, cactus, laciniated, fimbriated and anemones in the full range of colours available. This mystery mix is a mix of seeds across the entire field, so these could grow you just about anything and will be lots of fun to see what pops up.

Your seed-grown dahlias will form tubers in their first year, so you can lift them at the end of the season and plant again next year.

How and when to plant
You can start germinating your dahlia seeds by using the paper towel method (sprinkle seeds between two damp paper towels and seal inside a snap lock back, placing in a warm dark place for a week or two), or you can plant them directly into seed raising soil (Tui Seed Raising Mix from Mitre10 or Bunnings is great).

Dahlias are frost tender, so you will be planting your germinated seedlings well after the last frost (think early to mid October). You can either germinate your seeds in October after the frosts have gone, or count back about 6-8 weeks (early August) and start your seeds in a greenhouse or on your windowsill inside the house.

There are a lot of resources online now for germinating dahlia seeds – and here are a few good ones I like:

• My Garden Bee Blog – Starting Dahlias From Seed (Paper Towel Method)
• This Is Texas Gardening – A Cute YouTube Video (Sowing Direct to Soil)

It is okay not to have grow lights, so long as they have a source of nice indirect sunlight they will be okay. I often put mine in shelves inside on an Easterly or Northern facing window and they get plenty of sun. You can also buy mini greenhouses on TradeMe or online – these are handy to put on your deck if you don't have room in the house. Google is your friend, and you can be as budget friendly as you like! Happy growing!