Cafe Au Lait Dinner Plate Dahlia

code: 1229

‘Cafe Au Lait’ Dinner Plate Dahlia produces large, buttermilk-colored blooms up to 10 across that blush with pink and hints of barely-there latte brown. As the season progresses and the flowers mature, expect more delicious color variations to appear. Excellent as a cut flower, ‘Cafe Au Lait’ is hugely popular in wedding bouquets and arrangements. Prefers full sun. (Dahlia)

Plant Information

Why Gardeners love Dahlias (See combination photo below.) Dahlias are one of the most rewarding summer flowers of all. They’re really easy to grow and make excellent cutting flowers.

Dahlias for today’s gardeners offer a really big gardening treat.

The ‘bulbs’ are actually tubers, and look a lot like peony roots–sort of like a bunch of carrots. The plants grow quickly and some grow quite tall, always with lush deep green foliage.

Types of Dahlias These plants have been hybridized into various heights from short bedding plants to tall bushy ones. But they are officially categorized by flower type or shape. The term, ‘Dinnerplate Dahlia’ is probably the most famous description, and though all gardeners use the term, it is not an official classification. ‘Dinnerplates’ are, simply put, the large plants with the huge flowers. The always-double flowers are up to 8″, sometimes a whopping 10″ across, so the name makes sense.

Here are the official classifications:

‘Decorative Dahlias’ This group includes the Dinnerplates and also other taller (to 4 ft.) plants with double, chrysanthemum-like flowers. The famous ‘Shogun Dahlias’ are as tall as Decoratives, but have very heavy bloom of smaller bi-colored flowers for gardeners who want a large bushy plant covered with color.

‘Cactus Dahlias’ are the ones with the cactus-like blooms, often in super-bright bicolors, always with the rolled, pointed petals. Like other groups, Cactus Dahlias can be of various heights, as long as they have ‘cactus’ flowers.

‘Gallery Dahlias’ are a newer group of shorter plants with flower-types of the Decoratives and Cactus groups. The Gallery group is named with terms from the art world including famous artists’ names.

‘Butterfly’ or ‘Impression Dahlias’ are what the Dutch call ‘bedding dahlias.’ They stay short, and are perfect for pots or borders. The names in this group all begin with ‘F’ like ‘Futuro’ and ‘Fantastico’. The flowers are wide-open and daisy-like for a really colorful display of their brilliant hues. If well cared-for, watered, and dead-headed, they bloom constantly all season, making great masses of color.

There are other groups such as ‘Ball Dahlias’ and ‘Pom Pom Dahlias’ with spherical blooms, ‘Colarette Dahlias’ with uneven rows of petals creating a ‘collar’ effect–the varieties go on and on. Growing all of them is essentially the same, and best of all, it’s easy.

Growing Dahlias:
All the gardener needs to do is plant the tubers after spring frosts in good garden soil with full sun. It’s best to position them against a wall or be ready to stake them, since they are brittle, and must be protected from high winds. (If you’ve grown perennial Delphiniums, the plant size and growth is similar, but success with Dahlias is much easier.) Keep them free of bugs, well-watered, and well-fertilized as they grow, and your dahlias will begin to set buds by midsummer and be in full bloom, usually during July or August. Then the huge flowers keep coming until frost.

When frost threatens, just pull the roots up, cut off the stems, and store the tubers until the following spring. Each fall, you’ll be amazed how the ‘bulbs’ have multiplied during the summer, giving you more and more to divide and enjoy the next year.

One expert has said, ‘Never have so many gardeners received so much for so little work, as when they grow dahlias.’