Hi Gretalynn,

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

From your questions...the one I feel I can answer would be about depth and spacing. Plant one tuber per hole, 4-6" deep and I have read to space them 18-24" apart(I grow dahlias in pots). Here is a link to the BigList, which is a gathering of dahlia supplier information and dahlia varieties and which suppliers sell them. On the suppliers' website, growing information is most often always available. http://www.dahlias.net/dbiglist.htm

May your dahlia growing season be blessed with abundance and beauty!

allie

How many do I need....kind of a loaded question, there are many things to consider...When is your wedding?, How are the flowers to be used?, What kind do you like", color is not a problem, only if you want blue (no blue dahlias)...BB 4" to 6" flowers tend to do best....If you plant the tubers May 1st., you should start getting flowers later July...you plant one tuber per hole, you can plant them 18" apart but they will soon crowd out each other....I plant mine two per stack, five feet apart and by August you can barely walk around the plants...now when they are blooming at the time of your wedding if its Aug. or later, you might have 3 or maybe a dozen or more blooms which will make a good cut flower per plant...so you will want to plant at least a couple tubers of each different kind you would like to have....I would use up as much ground as you can, plant at least a dozen, maybe two dozen or more...that if you want the brides maids, flower girl, yourself carrying flowers.....and perhaps having flowers in bouquets on the tables...I have seen my flowers used set out at the end of the chair rows, pedals strewn on the aisle and offered in buckets at the front door for guest...I guess you could go on with all kind of ideas....what I'm trying to say is the more you can get in, the more options you have....

Congrats on your pending marriage, Gretalynn. When is your wedding and how many bouquets/centerpieces will you require? What zone are you in? This is all important information to have to be able to address your questions.

Davidinsf: I've been to the dinner with the earwigs falling onto the finely set table. I brought them as completely uninvited guests. Horrific little buggers and not at all good dipped in seasoned butter LOL. Have read before that some people swish their blooms gently upside down in water to flush out the earwigs, then give them a gentle shake before setting upright to dry out. That seems to have worked.

I prefer to kill them upfront with Sluggo Plus or a pruning shears.

I would also suggest planting Zinnias. They are SUPER easy to grow and many people can not tell the difference between dahlias and double Zinnias.

Just an idea!

Good Luck.

Keriann~

Thanks for all the helpful information! But here are some more details for the wedding.

I live in Portland OR. and the wedding will be September 18th. I want to use the dahlias for centerpieces for the tables of 180 guests which would be about 23 tables plus some extras for decoration. We have a huge garden area that doesn't get used so I'm prepared to fill it all with the flowers, I'm just sure how many tubers to buy because I'm not sure how many flowers I should expect from each bush.

Are you using 5 loose stems per vase/table or using 35+ stems in a structured arrangement (using oasis, greens ect)

Smaller pom-pom dahlias will give you more flowers (per plant) but they will take up less room in your vase. Large dinner plate dahlias will give you less flowers but fill a larger space in your vase.

A very rough estimate that late in the season would be 3 large-er dahlias per plant and 7 pom-pom dahlias per plant that are usable.

Quick math at an average or 5 stems per plant, 28 tables with 25 stems per vase....you will need 625 stems plus extra so around 700 divided by 5 flowers per stem...

you are looking at 125 tubers.

That is a lot of dahlias!

You may want to consider zinnias as well, which produce 3-4 flowers at a time and they are just a seed packet, you can sprinkle in the garden in the spring, much less expensive.

Unless you have a lot of flowers it is hard to grow them for a wedding because each plant only can send a few cut flowers up at a time.

It is do-able and very rewarding but you need a lot of them for that size wedding, especially that late in the flowering season.

Keriann~

Perfect wedding date for dahlias. Mid-September is a wonderful time for dahlias out here in the PNW. Unless you are really smitten by the idea of growing your own, why not take advantage of already-growing dahlias that are available to you as cut flowers? It would be a lot less stressful as your wedding approaches and the many details aside from gardening need tending.

Frey's link below. They offer cut dahlias and look to be only an hour or so away from Portland. You'd have the advantage of previewing colors, making your dahlia choices and could still make your own centerpieces with whatever other flowers you chose to grow on your own. Compared to buying tubers, their cut dahlia prices are very reasonable.

Just a thought. We had friends do this for a sister's wedding and it worked out beautifully. They had plenty of flowers and fun making their arrangements without the stress and worry about the gardening season.

Cowlitz River Dahlias is an hour north, but I'm not sure she does cut flowers or not. Might be worth an email if you consider this an option.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cut dahlias

poochella stated a good idea...unless you love growing your own, it's a fair amount of work, it needs to be a labor of love....I do think you could get away with half or less of the 125 tubers...I don't think "poms" would be the way you want to go...I don't think they hold up as well and it takes a lot to make a nice visible center piece ....your "M" 4in. or less and your "BB" 4-6 inch flowers plus what ever else you want to throw in your center piece....ie feathers,ferns..zinnias.......Your dahlias should be blooming at their best by your wedding and if you pinch back your central stems you should have a nice full plant...half or a dozen flowers per plant....if you do decide to grow your own "dahlias" I would suggest you look up your local dahlia club, I know there must be one near by and check to see when their dahlia tuber sale is...most clubs have their sale coming up the first part of April...you will find the tubers at the sale are probably half the price or less of any tuber you will find in a catalog or store....if you know a grower, talk with them, a lot of times they will have extras or seconds which will produce great flowers...in tubers it's not the size, one the size of your little finger is just as good as one the size of your fist, just make sure it has a good eye so it can see to grow (plant addict joke, but true)..best of luck to you and yours...

go to the Colorado Dahlia Society site to find the nearest dahlia club tuber sale. There's a Portland club & a Vancouver, WA club. Hurry as some clubs have already started sales. You can get good dahlias- not the junk you get in the bags at stores-- for a really reasonable price.
You could even go to the meetings, learn how to grow dahlias well &, come wedding time, if you need extras, there's always great dahlia folk in the clubs that are willing to give blooms away at the drop of a hat!
Some of the B & BB sized dahlias (BB= 4-6" diameter blooms, B= 6-8" diameter blooms) will have upwards of at least 10-20 blooms on a plant at the same time. The miniatures (up to 4" diameter blooms) will have even more. You will need to keep them dead-headed to keep them blooming until the wedding but the timing is great for the PNW!!
I have done a couple of weddings where the bride & her girls just carried ONE huge dahlia as their bouquet & the centerpieces were also one huge dahlia-- easy to do & not stressful on the wedding day!

I encourage you to go ahead and plant your dahlias just for the sheer fun of them! And be sure to stake them or you could have a tumbled mess by Sept with no straight stems. Swan ISland Dahlias is only about 1/2 an hour south of you, and they so sell cut dahlias. The week before the wedding I would take a look at what I have and then put in an order for what ever else you might need. They are also an excellent source of Tubers but you would have to hurry because they stop selling April 1 I beleive. Get your tubers now and then prepare your beds. I start all of my new tubers in gallon pots anyhow and do not plant them untill they are 12-18" tall. THat helps them to survive insect damage when they first emerge.

I have found Swan Island tubers to be the hardiest in all those bought in the Pacific Northwest. WHen I count up survivors theres are the ones I keep from year to year.

And be sure and go to their festival this fall. I went right after my son's Portland wedding last August and was totally blissed out by their displays.

By the way, the dahlias help up much better for table decorations then the roses did! I suggest planting some lacy filler flowers in your field that would complement the dahlias...ammi visnaga, ammi majus, Larkspur, snapdragons, etc.