Suggestions for Dinner Plate bulb supplier

11 years ago

Hello,
My mom and I have raised Dinner Plate dahlias for almost 10 years now and we've always ordered them from K.Van Bourgondien. However, the results of the bulbs the last 2-3 years have been very disappointing for both of us and we're thinking about purchasing elsewhere. The flowers simply didn't get to the size they normally do.

I got a catalog today from Royal Dutch Gardens that has some of the dinner plate dahlias that I liked. I also liked the fact I could order 1 or 2 at a time rather than 5 like KVB requires. I did some quick google searches on them and was wary of the reviews I read.

I was hoping someone might have some recommendations for purchasing these bulbs as I really love the dinner plate variety and have missed them in my garden the past few years. Thanks

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Comment (1)

davidinsf
11 years ago
Not sure what state/country you are writing from but in the US, I would estimate the VAST majority of true dahlia lovers order from smaller individual growers, like Swan island, Aztec, Hollyhill, et al. Not only do you order only 1 tuber but their descriptions will tell you exactly how large the flowers are expected to be.

Assuming you are already familiar however with on line growers, I can only assume you deliberately choose the larger European growers like Bourgondien and Royal dutch (or perhaps you are in Europe and many of our growers will not ship out of country) for a reason. If you are purchasing pre-packaged tubers however, I can tell you that the amount of mismarking and misleading of packaged dahlias has been getting worse and worse. (see my recent post re: Rosella and Rosemunde. I just saw another Rosella at OSH today and once again, it is advertised as a dinnerplate and yet mine was at best 4-5" open.)