The dahlia hunt is a little bit crazy

The dahlias everyone wants come in tiny batches. Farms open sales on random dates all winter, and the good tubers can be gone in minutes. If you've ever refreshed a farm's shop page at 8am on a Tuesday, you know.

So this is the guide we wanted. Every variety gets its real classification, why people hunt it, how it actually grows (the annoying parts too), and what to get instead when it's sold out. There's also a directory of farms, what they carry and when their sales open, plus drop alerts so you don't have to watch the calendar yourself.

It's all free. We don't sell tubers and we don't take a cut from any farm, which is why we can tell you when a variety is a lousy tuber maker.

How we source things is on the methodology page. Run a farm and want to share photos? Say hi. We credit and link every image.