The Most Productive Dahlias (and Best Tuber Makers)
Two kinds of productivity matter. Bloom productivity fills a market table; tuber productivity fills next year's bed and your trade pile. The varieties here are documented for one or both. Sellers rarely tell you a flower is a weak tuber maker, so where a grower has said it plainly, we pass it along.
If you are trying to multiply stock of an expensive variety, lean toward the ones noted for generous, easy-to-divide clumps.
- No. 1
Cornel
Ball · Cor and Nellie Geerlings
Super productive with strong straight stems, named again and again as a flower-farm staple. Reliable bloom and a reliable clump. The benchmark the others are measured against.
Who carries it - No. 2
Cornel Bronze
Ball BA · Cor Geerlings
The bronze sport, which Idlewild says blooms its head off all season and makes plentiful, easy-to-divide tubers. If you want to multiply stock fast, this is a forgiving place to start.
Who carries it - No. 3
Diva
Formal Decorative BB · Swan Island Dahlias
Heirloom Soul calls it hyper-productive in both blooms and tubers, with huge burgundy-plum heads. A rare combination of show-size flower and farm-grade output.
Who carries it - No. 4
Blizzard
Formal Decorative M · Roger Adams Jr.
A pure white decorative that Heirloom Soul flags as highly productive and a designer favorite. White is always in demand for weddings, and this one keeps supplying it.
Who carries it - No. 5
Salmon Runner
Unclassified
Coral-salmon on dark stems, a farmers-market best-seller per Five Fork and a fixture on most-productive lists. Cut it hard and it keeps coming.
Who carries it - No. 6
Snoho Doris
Ball BA · Bill Bonneywell
A ball in shifting citrine and strawberry that Floret calls virtually weatherproof, with long strong stems and a designer following. Tough, productive, and no two blooms quite alike.
Who carries it