Apricot Honey Dahlia Bulbs

The warmest flower in the collection. Apricot at the outer petals, deepening to honey toward the center, and unlike most apricots it doesn’t turn beige after a day in the sun. The color holds because the pigment sits in the petal rather than on the surface — the same reason it looks lit from within in the photographs.

What you get

• Graded tubers with a visible eye, packed in peat.
• Blooms 4–5 in with a small gold center.
• Plants 30–38 in tall with good stem length for cutting.

Where it earns its place

Apricot is the color that makes yellow and pink look deliberate instead of accidental. If you’ve got a bed that’s drifting toward clashing warm tones, plant this between them and the whole thing settles.

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.