Color story
Bicolors & Blends dahlias
Tipped, striped, streaked, and color-shifting varieties that refuse to be one thing.
15 varieties profiled
These palettes are our editorial groupings. The ADS classifies color separately with 15 formal classes; profiles note both where verified.
Labyrinth
A swirled two-tone blend of golden bronze and raspberry. The petals read peachy pink at a distance and resolve into the swirl up close.
Cafe au Lait Royal
A blush and white base streaked and tipped with magenta and purple for a tie dye effect. The RHS describes it as white overlaid with light purple blush and purple stripes.
Peaches-N-Cream
A light blend of peach and cream, with streaks and brushmarks of each color varying bloom to bloom. No two flowers stripe quite the same way, which is most of the charm.
American Dawn
A coral, raspberry, and plum ombre that refuses to sit still. Good Life Dahlias notes the colors change through the season, from bright pink with purple hues to bronze with the same purple undertones.
Burlesca
An antique blend of old pink, apricot, and plum that shifts with the light, often opening around a green button center when fresh. Ashridge sells it simply as apricot and plum.
Penhill Watermelon
A light blend of watermelon pink and peach washed with lavender, coral, and a faint yellow base. The mix shifts bloom to bloom and with the light.
Penhill Dark Monarch
Descriptions vary by source: the registry says bicolored purple and yellow, Triple Wren sees a raspberry-to-plum ombre, and the RHS describes swirling peach and dark pink. Expect a shifting dark blend rather than one fixed color.
Wine Eyed Jill
A light blend of petite pink petals around a wine to burgundy center, with an occasional yellow splash.
Mikayla Miranda
A light blend: white base with lavender and lilac tips and a soft green glow at the center.
Snoho Doris
A dark blend that varies bloom to bloom. Idlewild describes citrine yellow and strawberry red, koi-like, while Floret sees coral, peach, and apricot.
Santa Claus
Red and white bicolor with long, ruffled petals. Summer Dreams Farm notes no two flowers are patterned alike.
Polka
Pale rays edged with a thin red picotee line around a brilliant yellow pincushion center that matures to pink and rose.
Foxy Lady
The Swan Island plant is an ombre of burgundy through pink, raspberry, and peach to yellow. Other cultivars sold under this name are dusty mauve or magenta with white tips, so confirm the plant before trusting photos.
Strawberry Cream
Cream and strawberry pink laid on in stripes and brushmarks that shift bloom to bloom, sometimes on the same stem. Sunset View warns that like many bicolors it will occasionally throw flowers carrying varying mixes of its two colors on one plant, so a bunch cut on a single morning will not necessarily match itself. Whether that is the charm or the problem depends on whether you are arranging or filling an order.
Tangerine Dream
Orange petals tipped and striped with white, over a rose pink reverse that shows as the petals curl. Valhaven records the reverse explicitly. The balance shifts through the season: Pure Indulgence reports it moving from orange and white to golden and white, and Heirloom Soul describes it the other way round, as white with a dark orange stripe. Other sellers call the orange rusty, which is the same flower later in its run.