Cornel Bronze Dahlia Bulbs
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Product Information
Cornel Bronze dahlia bulbs produce long-lasting ball-shaped flowers with peachy bronze petals. A must-have dahlia for cut flower gardens!
Bloom size: 4 in
Plant height: 3′
Cornel Bronze dahlia bulbs are planted in the spring to give you incredible blooms with the most vibrant colors and designs. Dahlias should be essential to your flower garden if you love cut flowers.
How are Dahlia flowers produced?
Dahlia flowers are typically grown from tubers planted in the spring that are allowed to bloom and produce flowers all summer long before digging the tubers up before the first frost. Luckily, you can overwinter dahlias in Zones 9 and 10 if your area does not get winter freezes.
Note: Dahlia bulbs are perishable items and are final sale. Growers should plant their dahlia bulbs immediately after receiving them. Dahlia bulbs are a natural product and will vary in shape, size, and weight. Each package contains (1) dahlia bulb regardless of size and appearance. See product images for an example of what you will receive.
2025 estimated ship dates are March 31st.
Planting Dahlia Bulbs in Zones 9 and 10
Planting tubers is the quickest way to get blooms and provides flowers identical to the mother plant. By planting tubers in the spring, you will get flowers you can enjoy the same year they are planted. As the blooms fade, the remainder of the plant will continue to photosynthesize and gather the energy stored in the bulbs. Dig up your bulbs around November if you live in an area with winter freezes. Store the dug-up bulbs in peat moss or pine shavings until you plant them out again the following spring.
Planting Dahlia Bulbs in Zones 6–8
Plant dahlias bulbs in the spring into warm and thoroughly worked soil (see below). For areas with particularly short growing seasons, you can pre-sprout your tubers by transferring them into plastic trays filled with about 2″ of seed starting or potting mix. Place tubers with their eyes facing up and the other end buried in the potting mix. Keep the tubers in the flat until their eyes begin to grow into a sprout, usually two to four weeks. Gradually give the flat more exposure to the sun. Keep the potting mixture damp but not soaked.
During this time, you can prep your garden soil.
Prepping Garden Soil Before Planting
Till or cultivate the soil and add compost, manure, granular fertilizer, and worm castings. Work your soil well enough for your dahlia plants to grow uninhibited. It’s also a good idea to place a sturdy plant stake in the ground to support the blooms. Placing them after the flower has arrived can be distressing to the plant, especially if you drive the stake through the tuber.
Planting Dahlia Bulbs in the Soil
If you pre-sprouted your tubers, when they are about 2–3 inches tall, gently remove them from the potting mix and place them in your freshly prepped garden area. Cover the tubers with 2–3″ of soil. Using shade cloth is recommended if you plant your tubers on a warm day. We also recommend you put down Sluggo Plus.
Growing Dahlia Plants
Once your plant has 2–4 sets of leaves and is about 12 inches tall, you need to top it. That happens by pinching the top of the center that is growing. Doing this will send up lateral shoots that end in flower buds. If you wish for the biggest and most robust flower blooms, pinching is how you can do that. You can also let your plants grow naturally, knowing you will likely get smaller blooms.
Feeding Dahlias
Dahlia flowers need lots of fertilizer to be prolific bloomers. Add Darn Good Fertilizer at the time of planting and regular applications of a liquid fertilizer like our Fish and Guano. During the blooming period of mid-summer and on, you should fertilize with a high potash fertilizer to encourage the biggest blooms.
Harvesting Dahlia Blooms
Dahlia blooms do not continue to open much after harvest; harvest them for cut flowers when the blooms are about three-quarters open. Harvesting your dahlia blooms is best done in the cool of the morning. Immediately place your cut flowers in water for the longest-lasting blooms, and move them into a cool area out of direct sunlight. Add clean water to your vase as needed for longer-lasting flowers.
Joni –
The videos are why I’m
Ordering dahlias and answered ALL of the questions that’s kept me from ordering in prior years.
Sarah –
I pre-sprouted the tubers in an 8” azalea pot filled half way with moist Happy Frog soil inside. I misted the soil daily to keep it moist but not soggy. Sprouted within a week, filled the rest of the pot with moist soil, misted daily, and waited for it to break the surface. Once that happened I brought it outside into my “screen house” and grew them large enough to pinch them 2x for more blooms. Liquid fertilized 1-2x at this stage. They grow big FAST and start to dry out daily, that’s when they gotta go into their main container. I used a 17” container from Amazon (The HC Companies Classic Round Plastic Plant Pot w/ Rolled Rim) – LOVE these pots for dahlias because they come in different colors, easy to clean, easy to store. I would not use anything smaller than that, and if you have anything bigger than that go for it (20” pot are good, too). I planted using Fox Farms Ocean Forest, a couple scoops of All Purpose granular fertilizer, mykos, and side dressed with Malibu Compost, topped with orchid bark for mulch. Hooked up to the irrigation + hand watered maybe once a week. Do NOT underwater! These things can take A LOT of water in a pot – much more than in the ground. This thing GREW BIG!!! Once it started blooming I did a full strength fertilizer + compost tea application and I side dressed with bone meal. What a healthy, beautiful plant – grew to 4+ feet tall and the blooms were ABUNDANT!!! The plant that would quit, no joke. Kept the powdery mildew at bay with potassium bicarbonate once it showed up. The only downside for me was the pests were terrible. Leaf miners really started to ruin the new growth on the plant. Caterpillars were unreal, had them on the leaves and these itty bitty ones all up in the flowers.
Ok all of that said – this is a ball dahlia. It grew amazing, bloomed profusely. But for a home gardener, the color was a miss. The photos always make it look kinda coral or peachy – but it’s a muted pumpkin pie orange color – great for floral arrangers doing fall bouquets but as a home gardener w limited space, it was not a color I could make work with any of my other flowers. It was not my favorite and I would not plant again.
South Bay, So Cal, zone 10b