Blackberry Plum Dahlia Bulbs

Plum, not purple. There’s a difference and it matters: plum carries a brown-red undertone that keeps the flower from looking synthetic next to true violets. The petals are dark enough to read as black in shade, then light up lavender on the reverse when the sun gets behind them.

What you get

• Graded tubers with a visible eye, packed in peat.
• Blooms 5–6 in with a small gold center that shows at full open.
• Plants 32–40 in tall — stake in exposed positions.

Color pairing

Plum and lavender is the safest dark-light pairing in a border, and it’s what this plant is doing in the photographs: dark flowers in front, pale ones behind. Reverse it and the dark flowers vanish.

Planting

• Wait for warm soil. Plant two weeks after your last frost date, once the soil holds 60°F / 15°C at 4 in deep. Cold soil rots tubers before they wake.
• Set them 4–6 in deep, eye facing up, with 2–3 in of soil over the crown. Space 15–18 in apart so air moves between plants.
• Water once at planting, then hold off until shoots break the surface — a soaking wet tuber with no roots has nowhere to put the water.
• Full sun, 6+ hours. Stake at planting if you want straight stems; adding supports later breaks roots.

Season & hardiness

• Blooms 8–10 weeks after planting and keeps going until the first hard frost.
• Hardy in USDA zones 8–11. In zones 3–7 lift the tubers after frost blackens the foliage, or grow as an annual.
• Pinch the center shoot at about 12 in to double the stem count; more stems, smaller blooms.
• Deadhead spent flowers every few days. Left to seed, the plant stops producing new buds.