Seedlings are dahlias grown from seed that will produce a new unique dahlia. In order to keep reproducing that same dahlia grown from seed we dig up the tubers from the plant in the fall, then divide and store them, and then plant those tubers the following spring. Tubers are clones of the parent plant whereas seeds will produce a brand new dahlia.

We grow all of our seedlings for at least three years in order to grow enough stock and evaluate the plant before introducing the tubers to market. We introduced our first two River Merle Farm cultivars in 2023, RM Watermelon and RM Baby Girl, and we released 11 new cultivars in our 2024 tuber sale. We are introducing 23 new cultivars in 2025. We are continuing to prioritize the introduction of new healthy dahlias to the backyard gardener and have hundreds of seedlings under current evaluation. Each year we now grow thousands of dahlias from seed to have a large pool of dahlias to select our favorites from.

We harvest seed two different ways 1) through open pollination which we thank our helpful bees for doing all the hard work and 2) from hand pollination where we control the environment and intentionally try to breed certain traits. Below are some photos of the seedlings that we have grown. Many of these will be available as tubers for purchase in the future.