In a Facebook discussion that exploded to nearly 300 comments, grower Jennifer Rose shared numbers that stopped people cold.
Out of 156 tubers she purchased, 63 turned out to be mislabeled. Nearly 40 percent grew out to reveal they were not the varieties claimed.
Jennifer later clarified that out of 300 tubers bought from supposedly reputable sellers, about a third were blind or mislabeled. For her, the worst part was not just the loss but the indifference she felt when she raised the issue. “Problem tubers seemed to be clumped into a handful of farms. When contacted, I didn’t feel like honestly they even cared.”
Her post struck a nerve because it reflected what many had felt but rarely said aloud. Buying dahlias has become as much a gamble as it is a joy. The flood of responses painted a vivid picture of where we are today: a marketplace swollen with new sellers, a surge of cuttings at premium prices, blind tubers, dismissive customer service, and financial losses that sting both hobbyists and professionals.
This was not just one grower’s bad year. The detailed and often poignant responses told the story of a community under strain and perhaps approaching a turning point.
The author in his garden, carefully cross-checking the bloom of every dahlia against its variety label
Mislabeled Dahlias: The Hidden Cost for Growers and Buyers
Of all the complaints, mislabels were the most corrosive. A blind tuber is disappointing. A cutting that wilts in shipping can be shrugged off. But when you have watered, staked, and weeded for months only to see the wrong bloom open, the loss cuts deeper.
Jennifer Rose explained how she handled it at first: “Of 20 tubers with one mislabel, I just let it go. If they had sprouts and looked viable I called it a win. I’m not super bothered by that. But when the rate climbs higher, when mislabels seem clumped into certain farms, that’s when it becomes a real problem.”
Cindy Slanoc agreed: “I’ve had more mislabeled tubers this year than ever, even from reputable sellers. It’s always so frustrating to confirm the mislabeled ones only after you’ve taken care of it for two or three months.”
For flower farmers, mislabels mean more than disappointment. They threaten the bottom line. Luke Childs put it bluntly: “Even if they refund the price of the mislabeled tuber, it is still a huge loss because of the loss of income from the tubers that they produce.”
More than half the comments in the thread came from buyers who had faced mislabeled or blind stock firsthand. The pattern was unmistakable.
Sellers also chimed in, describing the discipline it takes to prevent errors. Lindsey Wenger shared her process: “We label every single plant when it blooms in the field, and then when dividing every single tuber gets stamped with its name. If there’s a question at all it goes in the question bin to be replanted and labeled the next year.”
Tracy Van Der Meulen explained her system: “I only sell what has been bloom-confirmed, and I only ship tubers with an eye. I also flag my dahlias when they have a bloom attached to nearly eliminate the risk of mislabels.”
Grower Susan Russell Griffin outlined her routine: label plants in bloom, update maps, keep flagging tape on stalks until division, and never guess when labels are lost. “If something spills and you’re not sure, don’t sell it. Use those tubers as freebies.”
The tools to prevent mislabels are not mysteries. But not everyone is taking them seriously. And buyers are paying the price.
Dahlia cuttings in the author’s greenhouse have been labeled to match the bloom-verified parent tuber they were propagated from
Dahlia Cuttings: Promise vs. Pitfall
The loudest chorus in the discussion came from cutting buyers. Dozens of comments echoed the same theme: fragile plants, high prices, and little to show for it.
Kate O’Brien described paying dearly for rare varieties: “Sure enough, $150 down the drain, as they were all viral, powdery mildew, and three out of seven were just barely three inches tall.”
Jamie Lynn Bell was even more direct: “I lost $700 in other cutting sources, including the bigger names, of which not one survived.”
Aileen Hom recounted her worst season: “My first large cutting order, around $2,000, and mostly all mislabeled. That was devastating.”
Jennifer Rose herself concluded: “We as a farm have flat out decided that we will no longer be buying cuttings. After some intense discussion we just felt disposable as the customer and like the business relationship is a bit one-sided.”
Other buyers told similar stories: puny plants, rotted stems, diseased stock, and above all, mislabels.
Some sellers pushed back. Tiffany Jackson insisted cuttings can be shipped successfully if handled right: “I propagate beautiful cuttings that make the travel with ease. I’ve been told more than once that they didn’t even realize they had been shipped.”
Heidi Wilson suggested “shipping trials” as a safeguard: mailing sample boxes to friends before the season to make sure packaging and moisture levels hold up in transit.
But skepticism is strong. Amy Ferguson said, “Last year I ordered 25+ cuttings, and maybe half survived shipping and were the correct variety. This season I only ordered three, from a farm I trust.”
Jessica Preston summed up the prevailing mood: “So no cuttings. This year I risked tubers early so I could take my own cuttings.”
Dahlia cuttings were once promoted as a cheaper, easier entry point. For many buyers, however, they have become a warning sign for larger issues in the dahlia community.
In the author’s dahlia business, all tubers are pre-sprouted to confirm viability before being listed for sale and shipped to customers
Non-Viable Tubers: Blind Dahlia Failures
Few things sting like planting a tuber that never emerges. (The word “blind” is used to describe tubers without a viable eye, making them biologically incapable of growing.)
Jennifer Rose shared the scale of her frustration: “Last year I bought about 300 more from what I thought were reputable sellers. Out of the few thousand I have spent, about a third have been blind or mislabeled. The worst part is when you buy early there is no recourse.”
Camille Anderson told a similar story: “I still have a tuber in the ground that is intact and firm. It was blind and never emerged from the soil. The farm didn’t do anything about it. I even offered to mail it back as proof.”
Christine Midkiff, herself a seller, explained why blind tubers are tricky: “If a customer receives a tuber that they can’t see the eye or genuinely feels is blind, it’s crucial that they reach out to the seller immediately with pictures. The key is reporting the concern immediately so there’s no way the seller can say that the customer’s growing conditions caused the issue.”
Some sellers try to prevent disputes by shipping only tubers with visible eyes, or by photographing orders before they leave the farm. Mark Helling noted, “If it looks questionable, I don’t sell it. Period.”
Buyers are learning to pre-sprout their tubers, document their purchases, and demand accountability. Sellers who photograph eyes before shipping are winning loyalty by showing that they take tuber viability seriously.
The author packs dahlia tubers in oversized shipping boxes with plenty of space for protective cushioning. All orders are shipped via Priority Mail for faster delivery.
Customer Service and Accountability in Dahlia Sales
Problems happen. Poor customer service is what turns them into deal breakers.
Amber Gaines described ordering hundreds of dollars in bulk tubers from a reputable farm: “None of them came up as what I was sold. The seller didn’t respond to emails, phone calls or social media messages.”
Jennifer Rose challenged the idea that this should be acceptable: “Should hit and miss really be the standard?”
Some sellers agreed that accountability defines the difference between a bad season and a loyal customer. Brooke McCollum said: “At my farm, customer service has always been the foundation of the business. Growing flowers should bring joy, not frustration, and certainly not the feeling of losing money while fighting with a seller who won’t make things right.”
Tanya Murtha, with a field of thousands of plants, backed that up: “In my 3,500-plant dahlia tuber production field this year, I’ve only had three mislabels. I always make it right with a refund or replacement. I take customer trust seriously, and I go above and beyond to fix my mistakes.”
The contrast could not be sharper. One approach builds lasting trust. The other drives customers away for good.
The author (in blue) sells the final book of his 27-year bookselling career to a long-time customer on the day of his retirement
Dahlia Boom or Dahlia Bubble?
Lessons from Another Market
What’s happening now in dahlias reminds me of another sea change I lived through. Before I was a dahlia grower, I spent nearly 30 years as a used and antiquarian bookseller.
In the early 1990s, when Amazon was just beginning, I sold out-of-print books to them directly. Eventually they pivoted to hosting third-party sellers, letting anyone with a garage-sale paperback compete with established booksellers like me.
What followed was chaos: price wars, software-driven races to the bottom, and floods of unqualified sellers who didn’t know a first edition from a book club reprint.
Customers were burned. The condition of collectible books (the most important price factor) was frequently misrepresented. Customer service disappeared. And many long-time bookstores closed their doors.
Sound familiar?
The dahlia boom, accelerated by the pandemic, has drawn in countless new sellers. Some are earnest beginners. Others are chasing quick profits. Cuttings and tubers are being sold without confirmation, without accountability, and often without the knowledge needed to stand behind the product. Buyers are paying the price in lost money, lost time, and lost trust.
The bookselling world was changed forever. After hundreds of years where antiquarian bookselling was conducted in person, with the knowledge and reputation of the dealer a keystone to the customer experience, lowest price and highest convenience to the buyer became paramount.
Sellers who could not find a way to adapt were forced to close shop. But not everyone disappeared. Those who built their reputation on honesty, consistency, and service survived. Under new ownership, my bookstore is still thriving today, 34 years later.
The question is whether the dahlia world can learn the same lesson.
My local dahlia Facebook dahlia group organizes an in-person tuber sale and swap every year
How Dahlia Buyers Are Taking Back Power
Amid the chaos, buyers are adapting. Many now keep spreadsheets of every purchase, noting where they bought, what arrived, what thrived, and what failed.
Phillip Bizzell explained: “I now have a spreadsheet of where I’ve bought from and who sent me diseased, wrong, or blind tubers. It’s becoming clear who I should buy from again and who will not be getting my business.”
Others are building informal networks: local swaps, trading groups, and trusted circles of friends. Elsa Tatom summed it up: “Honestly sharing who sends what with friends is helpful. Hearing others’ experiences and talking to people helps the most.”
Jennifer Rose admitted she may have fueled her own frustration by spreading orders too widely: “I bought from several new farms this year and that is likely where some of the issues happened.”
Some buyers are simply scaling back. Jocelyn Tylicki wrote: “I will only buy from local growers and box stores. I’d rather risk mislabels there than spend a ton and end up with a virus.”
The power is shifting. Instead of blind trust in reviews or glossy websites, buyers are learning to rely on their own records and their community.
This dahlia cutting was mailed to the author, well-packaged with healthy roots. It has grown into a beautiful plant
Toward Industry Standards for Dahlia Sellers and Buyers
Not everyone is content to shrug and say “buyer beware.”
Heidi Wilson suggested: “It’d be nice if we could create some sort of common guidelines that both sellers and buyers agree on. Totally unenforceable but it would give some common language and understanding.”
Other commenters pointed to best practices already in play: sellers who only ship bloom-confirmed stock, who photograph eyes before shipping, who are transparent about mistakes, and who set clear refund and replacement policies.
Julie Summerfield noted that she now photographs each order with the eyes visible, then follows up to make sure customers are satisfied.
Jennifer Rose, who posted the message that put this entire conversation in motion, reminded readers not to lose sight of what is possible: “I truly believe that we have some very great people in the industry and we are capable of improvements.”
These are the seeds of a higher standard. Whether the community can organize around them remains to be seen.
What’s at Stake: The Future of the Dahlia Community
The dahlia world is at a crossroads. If nothing changes, unreliable sellers may vanish on their own, but not before leaving a trail of burned buyers. Larger commercial growers may step in to dominate, but at the cost of diversity and personal connection.
Or, most troubling, buyers may simply stop trusting and stop buying, shrinking the very community that made dahlias so exciting in the first place.
The alternative is harder but better: a culture of accountability, transparency, and mutual respect. Sellers who own their mistakes and fix them. Buyers who keep records, share experiences, and support the growers who do it right.
Jennifer Rose said it best: “Should hit and miss be the standard though?” The answer has to be no. Dahlia buyers need dahlia sellers. The small farms, hobbyists and breeders dedicated to getting their tubers, cuttings and seeds into the hands of growers? They need dahlia buyers.
My own bookselling past taught me the same lesson. Communities survive when accountability wins out over shortcuts, when reputation matters more than speed, and when the work of service is valued as much as the product itself.
That is how the world of dahlias can move through its growing pains and into a stronger future.
The author in one of his dahlia gardens. Photographed on Fidalgo Island, Washington State USA zone 8b on the last day of August
How This Article Was Created
This article was created through a collaborative process between the author—a dahlia grower and educator—and an AI language model, ChatGPT 5. The author guided the structure, tone, and emphasis of the piece and contributed personal experience to frame the narrative.
The AI was used primarily to parse, summarize, and organize nearly 300 Facebook comments (about 18,000 words in total). All quotations are taken verbatim from that discussion, with only minor corrections to punctuation or typographical errors.
