Dahlia variabilis
Origin: Cardiff, Wales, via Oregon
Improvement status: Cultivar
Seeds per packet: ~35
Germination tested 02/2025: 96%
Life cycle: Tender perennial
Here's a really special offering from our friend Hank Keogh of Avoca Seed, a small organic family farm outside Corvallis, Oregon. We'll share Hank's story of this new variety, then offer some more detail about dahlias in general and the parent population of this new selection...
Hank Keogh: "It all started as a single volunteer the year after my sister's wedding. We grew the wedding flowers on our farm, and 'Bishop's Children' was one of them. This volunteer was the most beautiful shade of bright red, and all by itself on the edge of the field, no other dahlias anywhere. I wondered, do dahlias self-pollinate? I saved the seed and got my answer. Since then I've selected it a couple times for the same bright red flowers. People say you can't breed dahlias true to seed because of tetraploidy and transposons, but I'm here to say this strain is getting redder every year. Persistence is Resistance."
Dahlias are among the most magical plants in any garden, and this is especially true when grown from seed. That's the only way to comprehend the species' spell-binding diversity. Native to Mexico — where the indigenous Nahuatl name is "cocoxochitl — dahlias actually have a long history there of being consumed as food. The tubers, like the flowers, express a great deal of diversity, with some sweet, some sour, some like ginger, and others altogether unique. Since its a tropical plant, the tubers cannot tolerate freezing, so dahlia tubers are brought inside for the winter and usually kept in a cool place (like a basement or garage) while they remain dormant. Hank says he is able to leave the tubers in the ground over winter where he farms, outside Corvallis, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley.
While most people grow known dahlia cultivars from the tubers, 'Bishop's Children' — the parent of 'Resistance Red' — is often grown from seed. The population originated with the variety called 'Bishop of Llandaff', named after Joshua Pritchard Hughes, Bishop of Llandaff (Anglican) from 1905 to 1931. It was bred by nurseryman Fred Treseder in Cardiff, Wales. It's said the 'Bishop of Llandaff' variety was selected by the Bishop himself, from Treseder's many seedlings.
GROWING TIPS: 4-6 weeks before last frost, plant dahlia seeds 1/8 inch deep and keep warm (between 70-75 degrees F, ideally). Seedlings should emerge within 7-14 days. Plants prefer a sunny, well-drained spot with rich soil. At the end of the season, unless in a mild climate (where the soil never freezes below an inch or so), remove tubers from the ground and keep in a cool, dark place through winter.
