Bishop's Children Dahlia Seedlings

All that’s left of the Bishop of Llandaff’s Palace in Wales is an iron-gated arch entrance flanked by crumbling stone towers. But his gardens live on in the progeny of his dahlias. Though dahlias are most often grown from tubers, seed-grown dahlias are more fun. Why? Because dahlias are octoploids, meaning they have four times as many chromosomes as most other flowers, so the seeds produce a spectacular diversity of architectural leaves and blooms in a myriad of forms and colors. Part of the joy in planting the Bishop’s Children is that if you find one you love, you simply harvest and store the tubers to plant next year. Congrats: you’re a plant breeder!

Bishop's Children blooms in mix of red, burgundy, magenta and the occasional yellow flower on foliage that ranges from purple tinged to deep burgundy.