Novelty Fully Double Dahlia 'Akita'

I almost put a negative on this cultivar. Mine was purchased at Lowes or Costco so may not be the best place for good cultivar. Its mus...Read Moret be some kind of rejects or mass produced #2s. The first yr it gave me like 2 blooms and they were all banned out of shape, stem crooked, flower head deformed, open eyes too soon. Ok, I'll tried it this yr. Its also a very stingy flower producer in a bed of dahlias that got the same treatment and watered regularly. The plant was again weak which produces inconsistent mis-shaped bloom which head was pointing ever which way. When in bud form it was promising and I like the color. Maybe that was the idea of this cultivar but I'm not too keen on it.

Beautiful huge flowers on this dahlia in my Toronto garden...the first year anyway. I bought a big bag of these and Procyon dahlias, all ...Read Morebloomed great the first year. Dug them up and stored them in a cool basement in a open bag of peatmoss. Replanted this year and only the Procyon came back - no Akitas! Maybe they're more susceptible to damage by cold? FYI.

Akita is one tough survivor....Lost some of the tubers to
flooding and managed to salvage three small ones for the
followin...Read Moreg year....It produced a plant the following year that
was not very big or productive....but, the tubers looked
bigger and healthy, so saved them for 2009.....this time
the tubers rewarded me with some huge fantastic blooms
and a plant that reached 40 inches....the plants had to be
staked, as the flowerheads were heavy....the tubers I dug
up for 2010 are huge! Flowerheads last awhile in a vase,
but short stems require just the right vase for them.....

This interesting dahlia's blooms have a long life cycle and cut really well. As the blooms age the color fades but remains really pretty...Read More. It is a favorite of visitors to my garden.