Foxy Lady

There are at least three dahlias answering to Foxy Lady, and they barely resemble each other. The widely traded one is the Swan Island ombre ball profiled here, burgundy to peach to yellow. The second, listed by the RHS as Foxy Lady US and sold by Floret, is a miniature formal decorative in dusty mauve over buttercream with a darker reverse, an early bloomer with about five days of vase life. The third is Allen's Foxy Lady, bred by Allen Manuel and introduced in 2022, a miniature formal decorative in magenta with white tips, ADS code 4008. Before you buy, ask the seller which plant they actually grow, because photographs get recycled and the wrong Foxy Lady is a season-long disappointment. No introduction year is sourced for the Swan Island plant, and the exact breeder attribution remains open in our records. Swan Island, Triple Wren, and Five Fork were all sold out at last check.

The Swan Island Foxy Lady, the plant most US farms sell under this name, carries 3 to 3.5 inch blooms on a 36 to 48 inch plant, listed as a ball by some farms and a formal decorative by others. Triple Wren reports great productivity and strong stems, and Five Fork Farms calls it an extremely prolific early bloomer, so it earns row space from the first flush. The ombre is the draw, burgundy through pink, raspberry, and peach to yellow, shifting across each bloom. We found no sourced vase life for this specific plant, a gap worth noting because vase data published under the Foxy Lady name may describe a different cultivar entirely. Standard ball culture applies. It suits market growers who want a whole sunset in one flower, with one warning: confirm which Foxy Lady you are buying.