What are the best dahlias for wedding design work? We are excited to share our picks with you today.
We learned early on that not all beautiful dahlias look good in wedding bouquets. Some are the wrong color, the wrong shape, or the wrong size for delicate wedding bouquets. Ideally, the best dahlias for wedding design tick these boxes: soft muted colors, a workable size, easy to use shape, and they’re also vigorous, prolific bloomers.
It’s important to know who or what you’re growing for when planning your dahlia list. Bright colors sell better in market bunches, but we almost always reach for rich, muted colors for our wedding work.
Click here for our blog post on how to grow dahlias.
Best Shape
For a good mix of wedding worthy dahlias, we grow a variety of shapes: ball, pompon, formal decorative, dinner-plate, semi-cactus, and collarette. We think the best designs mix at least 3 shapes in a cohesive color palette.
Our favorite shape to use in wedding work is a ball or pompon dahlia. These are easy to work with and look good no matter where you place them in the bouquet. We recommend filling your cut flower garden with lots of ball shaped dahlias, and then adding in some of the other shapes you can’t live without. Like everybody else, we love the Cafe Au Lait dahlia, but dinner-plate dahlias are hard to work with in hand bouquets. My favorite dahlia, Sweet Nathalie, falls into the formal decorative category, and I reluctantly admit she too can be hard to design with.
Best Colors
We grow 4 main color of dahlias: Blush, Burgundy, White, and Peachy. We’ll share the best dahlias for wedding design in each palette:
BLUSH: Cafe Au Lait (dinner plate), Sweet Nathalie (formal decorative), Camano Zoe (pompon)
BURGUNDY: Downham Royal (ball), Ivanetti (ball), and Jowie Winnie (ball) Jowie Winnie is lighter than burgundy, but sooo pretty when paired with this palette. We also use plenty of white dahlias in our blush + burgundy color palette. A large semi-cactus dahlia that also pairs nicely with this palette is Rip City.
WHITE: Fleurel (dinner plate), Blizzard (formal decorative), and L’Ancresse (ball)
PEACHY: Crichton Honey (ball), Peaches N Cream (formal decorative), Cornel Bronze (ball), Rose Toscano (formal decorative)
To Summarize:
- When selecting your dahlias, choose a variety of shapes in the same color tone. For instance, we have a dinner plate, formal decorative, and pompon dahlia in the blush color. This makes design a snap down the road.
- In the same vein, select a variety of shades in the same shape, especially the peachy palette.
- Fill your garden with ball dahlias. They are by far the easiest to design with. Grow the other shapes, too, but if you’re like us you will reach for the ball shaped dahlias most.
- Grow the colors you love. You may dislike our color selections. The beauty of being a flower farmer is the freedom to grow what you love. I was shocked to discover that I loved the fluorescent orange Punkin Spice last year. It is swoon worthy when paired with white and green in a baby blue mason jar. That’s some strange flower magic.
- If you’re growing for market, grow some bright colors, and grow some purple. Humans love purple flowers.
- Don’t be afraid to pair unusual colors together. Our favorite combinations have been the result of what was available in the garden.
We also know that we probably haven’t even discovered our favorite dahlias yet, and we’d love if you’d share your top picks with us in the comments section!
LaRonda