These days, the Cafe au Lait dahlia is all the rage in the wedding flower world and it’s not hard to see why.
I’ve grown this beauty for a number of seasons but finally clued in and tucked 100 row feet into one of our greenhouses to get a jump on field plantings and provide an insulated environment for their big, pillowy blooms.
Plants are already shoulder high and just beginning to pump out the massive, ever-changing, pink, cream, blush toned blooms. No two are exactly alike and I think it’s one of the traits that makes them so special.
These beauties make me feel like I’m cheating, just a bit.
Finding tubers is tough now that they’re so popular but if you start the hunt early on, say by Fall, you should be able to snag a few. Plants are stocky and have really large leaves so give them room and some super sturdy support.
For longer stems, snip out the center of each plant when they are just 18″ tall to encourage low branching. The process, actually called pinching is really tough to implement since it seems counterintuitive to trim a small growing plant but if you can stomach it, you’ll be rewarded with monster stems like these all summer long : )
This week on The Seasonal Bouquet Project I gave the sweet peas a glorious send off. If only I could share their scent through the screen!! You can check it out here.
I also have a very exciting collaboration, with a VERY special someone to announce later today/early tomorrow so if you want all the juicy details early, sign up HERE!
And a little later this week I get to share some STUNNING images captured by the one-and-only Jose Villa from the March Flower Wild workshop in Palm Springs. So stay tuned.
vivian gerard on
how do you cut the flowers to bring indoors for fresh flowers will the un opened buds bloom also what to do about the bugs