Dahlia

Farmer Blue is a 12-acre, cut-flower farm in Seabrook. Its owner is working hard to build a better bouquet with local flowers. The farm grows over 300 varieties of annuals and perennials for florists and event planners in the Lowcountry. 

Here is owner David Blue’s favorite flower for March: 

Dahila

Dahlia is a genus of bushy, tuberous herbaceous perennial plants native to Mexico. A member of the Aster family, it is likely the most hybridized flower with thousands of named varieties. This diversity results from Dahlias being octoploids; having eights sets of chromosomes, where most other flowers only have two sets. The Aztec cultivated and foraged for Dahlia, as the entire plant is edible. 

We grow Dahlias countercyclically (in the winter) due to our warm overnight temperatures in the summer. The stomata or pores of Dahlias need cooler evening temperatures to close. Without proper function of these cell structures, photosynthesis cannot occur. Every gardener in the Lowcountry has given Dahlias a try because of their great beauty but usually surrenders due to our weather.