How We Grow the ROE Dahlias Line

Each spring, we kick off our dahlia season by starting thousands of dahlias from seeds. A seed-grown dahlia is a brand-new, unique creation distinct from its parent plant unlike a tuber grown dahlia which is a clone of the parent plant. From the very first bloom, we carefully evaluate each flower to see if it aligns with our hybridizing goals. Only the most promising varieties move on to year two of trialing.

To reproduce a dahlia that grows from seed, we lift its tubers in the fall, divide and store them in the winter, and replant the following spring. We then trial each variety for at least three years to ensure the genetics are stable and reliable before introducing it to the market.

Although we soft launched our first hybrid, Roe Ube Charm, during the 2025 ADS dahlia show season, we are excited to introduce our own line of dahlias to the market during our 2026 spring tuber sale.

Strategies we use at our farm:

1. Open Pollination – Thanks to Sean for keeping our bee population healthy, nature does its work, allowing dahlias to cross naturally.

2. Hand Pollination – For precise hybridizing, we carefully cross selected varieties by hand, controlling pollen transfer and bagging each flower to ensure only the crosses we want happen. It’s labor-intensive, but it greatly increases our chances of achieving the traits we seek.

3. Selective Planting & Culling – We plant varieties strategically to encourage certain crosses and towards the end of the season, we remove plants that don’t meet our goals. By letting bees work only among chosen flowers, we can focus on passing the genetics we want to the next generation without having to do the manual labor of hand pollination.

We are dedicated to bringing new and exciting dahlias to gardeners everywhere so we have hundreds of seedlings that are currently under evaluation, many of which will soon be available as tubers for purchase. Take a look at “Our Dahlia Seedlings” and see the next generation of show-stopping blooms!