The clue is in the name. These double flowering dahlias grow to the size, quite literally, of dinner plates. But where do they come from?
Dahlias arrived in Europe as seeds in the late 1700s. The first were grown in Madrid and were the single flowering type with open centres. They looked more or less exactly like your average cartoon flower: nine petals with a yellow middle.
It didn't take long for the horticultural wiz kids of the day to breed these small, simple stems into what they call “double flowered” stems in the growing game.
![Dahlia Pink Cafe Au Lait](https://floom.imgix.net/general/Dahlia-Pink-Cafe-Au-Lait.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=58f2f40d9ac7332a31fe9829e18b04e5 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/general/Dahlia-Pink-Cafe-Au-Lait.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=3e29e39c7cfe47dc9f45c97b31547062 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/general/Dahlia-Pink-Cafe-Au-Lait.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=3c7a9f4d3a2892472b24e0d0a50111e8 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/general/Dahlia-Pink-Cafe-Au-Lait.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=180f910f491e3dabca6653938153bb9b 400w)
Skip forward 100 years and all kinds of dahlias started being produced – some labeled "fancy dahlias”, nodding to how the petals have more than one color. In 1872 dahlia tubers were once again brought over from Mexico. The horticulturalists took this tuber and developed it into the spectacular cactus-flowered dahlia, and decorative dahlia types, which produce the big, plate-sized blooms.
Other examples of spectacular dinner plate dahlias include the “Café au Lait”, which produces creamy white to peach flowers, and the “American Dream”, a variety with large pink double blooms with darker pink stripes.
Read more about the history of the dahlia here.
![Dahlia Lifestyle Summer 4 Copy](https://floom.imgix.net/general/dahlia-lifestyle-summer-4-copy_190724_102822.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1440&s=52dbfc847e813485f86e09841223bad7 1440w, https://floom.imgix.net/general/dahlia-lifestyle-summer-4-copy_190724_102822.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=1000&s=8ed0420fdb593b72dfea7072bb921d0e 1000w, https://floom.imgix.net/general/dahlia-lifestyle-summer-4-copy_190724_102822.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=600&s=103b4c9eda4ceb73d00c7adc4216b4ba 600w, https://floom.imgix.net/general/dahlia-lifestyle-summer-4-copy_190724_102822.jpg?auto=format&crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fm=pjpg&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=65&w=400&s=c1591bd4f1715177604f140876715be9 400w)