Dahlias in Flordia

Dahlias in North Florida

That’s right, you can grow Dahlias in North Florida. These beautiful tuberous plants are native to the highlands of Mexico and Central America, where warm days in the mid to upper 80’s and relatively cool nights are the norm. The extreme heat & summer rains of North Florida certainly pose challenges when growing these tubers in our agricultural zone 9, but with a little bit of pampering, the very gratifying splendor of these beauties can be realized.

If you decide to start with your own tubers, rather than buying a finished plant from a grower such as yours truly, select a more heat tolerant variety, as well as a modest size plant in the range of 24 inches. This size plant will bear flowers in the range of 4 to 6 inches in diameter, and be much easier to grow than the taller dinner plate style dahlias.

This year we planted our tubers in the second week of February. We used one of our standard potting mixes at the nursery that consists of 60% small aged bark nuggets, and the balance a blend of compost and peat moss, as wel