Garden Highlights

Don't miss our Garden Highlights, updated every Thursday featuring plants for their outstanding ornamental characteristics. Discover everything from flowers to fruit, buds, bark and more. You can search for specific plants using the Plant Finder

Featured: Sept. 11-17

Common Name: Dahlia
Scientific Name: Dahlia

While botanically classified as a perennial, dahlias are most commonly grown as annuals due to their lack of cold hardiness outside of Zones 8-10. Dahlias have a small native range restricted to the mountainous regions of Mexico and Central America, but are grown all over the world for their distinctive flowers. These flowers come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and unique colors! Lacking a distinct scent, dahlias attract pollinators such as bees, butterflies and hummingbirds with their vibrant flowers. Dahlias have an unusual bloom time, as they reach their peak near the end of the growing season and can flower up until the first frost in the fall.

At the Arboretum, a wide variety of dahlias can be observed in several locations throughout the grounds. Most prominently, at the dahlia display located in the Lily Collection, as well as at the Dahlia Trial Garden located off of Three-Mile Drive. The Dahlia Society of Minnesota chooses new unnamed hybrids to test yearly in the Dahlia Trial Garden and monitors their growth, flower quality, disease resistance and more!

Garden Highlights

Featured: Sept. 11-17

Pink Turtlehead

Nodding Bur-Marigold

Garden Mum

Ironweed

Showy Stonecrop

Grapeleaf Anemone

Floribunda Rose

White Heath Aster

Japanese Spikenard

Bigleaf Hydrangea

German Garlic

Little Bluestem

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