Brookside Snowball

J. W. T. Hurt introduced Brookside Snowball in 1976 and it is still in commerce half a century later, listed by Swan Island, Connell's and Idlewild among others, which for a white decorative is a long run. The ADS classifies it 3001. The Brookside prefix belongs to a body of introductions from the same program, and the name has done the variety a small disservice: it describes the look rather than the class, and enough sellers repeat the ball reading that buyers arrive expecting a ball dahlia. It is a formal decorative under every registry-grade source we found, and the tidy round white bloom is simply what a good formal decorative looks like when it is grown well.

Brookside Snowball is a show flower that also cuts, which is a combination worth paying attention to. Swan Island rates it yes for exhibition and yes as an excellent cut flower, and describes blossoms held erect on strong stems with excellent depth and form. Held erect is the operative phrase: plenty of white decoratives nod, and this one does not. Blooms run 4 to 6 inches on a plant somewhere between 4 and 5 feet depending on whose field you read, and Heirloom Soul calls the stems extremely strong. Swan Island times it at 90 days, an average mid season start. Pinch at 12 inches and disbud if you want the depth the show growers get. White dahlias mark easily in rain, so cut ahead of a storm rather than after one.