Dalia tenuicaulis is a wild relative of the common garden dahlia from southern Mexico. Like D. imperialis, these are commonly known as “tree dahlias.” For some reason, while D. imperialis is fairly well known, D. tenuicaulis is really uncommon and hard to find. This is surprising because, while D. imperialis is a short day flowerer that will barely survive long enough to put on a show in the Pacific Northwest, D. tenuicaulis begins to flower much earlier. Outside frost free climates, D. tenuicaulis ought to be a lot more popular.
Like many of the wild dahlias, it has purple, star shaped, single flowers. Plants are very tall, reaching seven or eight feet here, before the tops are killed by frost. In frost free climates, D. tenuicaulis may reach 15 feet or more. Flowering seems to be triggered more by maturity than day length. Plants flower here at 6 to 7 months, so there may be an advantage to starting this one in pots to get earlier flowering.
None of our dahlias are grown on a spacing that precludes cross pollination between species. They aren’t right next to each other, so they will be reasonably pure, but there is always the possibility that you will get some seedlings that are inter-species crosses. To my way of thinking, that only adds extra value, but if you have a need for absolute purity in your seeds, these might not be what you are looking for.
20 seeds per packet
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