L.A.T.E

L.A.T.E. is one of those dahlias that stops you in your tracks. Its sunset-toned blooms shift through soft peach, apricot, salmon pink and warm coral, with a delicate raspberry-pink dusting that gives the petals incredible depth.

The fully double blooms are beautifully rounded, with tightly rolled petals creating an almost perfectly formed shape. Add its exceptionally strong, rigid stems and upright habit, and L.A.T.E. is every bit as useful in the cutting garden as it is beautiful in the vase.

Key Features

• Flower Type: Formal Decorative / Ball-type

• Flower Size: 7.5–10 cm (3–4")

• Colour: Peach, apricot, salmon pink and warm coral with raspberry-pink undertones

• Centre: Muted green to soft yellow

• Plant Height: 70–120 cm

• Stems: Exceptionally strong, straight and rigid

• Flowering: Approximately 80–100 days from planting, continuing through summer and autumn

• Best For: Cutting gardens, bouquets, weddings and floral design

Planting & Care

L.A.T.E. performs best in full sun with rich, fertile, free-draining soil.

• Plant tubers approximately 5–10 cm deep, with the eye facing upwards.

• Allow 30–45 cm between plants for good airflow and development.

• Pinch the growing tip once established to encourage branching and plenty of flowering stems.

• Its strong stems give it excellent natural structure, but staking is still recommended in exposed or windy positions.

• Keep the soil consistently moist during active growth, particularly through warmer weather.

• Harvest flowers regularly and remove spent blooms to encourage continued production.

Why You’ll Love It

L.A.T.E. has that gorgeous sunset colouring that florists dream about — soft enough to blend beautifully into romantic palettes, but with enough warmth and depth to make every bloom interesting.

The colour shifts beautifully across the flower, while the tightly rolled petals give it a wonderfully polished, almost sculptural form. And those exceptional stems? They make this variety particularly valuable for wedding work and floristry, where you need your flowers to hold their shape and look beautiful from every angle.

A seriously special dahlia, and one we’re very happy to have in the collection.

Tuber Quality

Each of our dahlia tubers is carefully hand-selected and inspected to meet our quality standards. We check for:

• A healthy body

• A strong neck

• At least one visible eye ready to grow

Only when we’re confident it’s ready for your garden do we pack it up and send it on its way.

Please keep in mind that tubers naturally vary in size, shape, colour, and texture. Some may arrive looking a little small or slightly shrivelled — and that’s totally normal! As long as it has a good neck and an eye, it has everything it needs to grow beautifully. We only send tubers we’d be happy to plant ourselves.

Storage & Care

Once your tubers arrive, they’ll need a little care until it’s time to plant. Keep them in the box with the wood shavings in a cool, dry place until planting time. In New Zealand, this is usually around Labour Day weekend, once the risk of frost has passed — but conditions vary, so be sure to consider your local climate and soil.

Pest & Disease Notice

Our tubers come from healthy, disease-free beds and are divided with sanitised tools to keep them that way. While we do everything we can to ensure they’re in top shape when they leave us, we recommend planting them in pots for their first season so you can monitor them closely. Once they’re in your care, we can’t control outside factors like soil conditions, pests or cross-contamination from tool use.

Upon Arrival

Please open your package as soon as it arrives and check everything over. If you have any concerns, contact us within 24 hours, including clear photos, so we can help. If something’s not quite right, we’ll do our best to replace the tuber or offer a refund if we don’t have a suitable replacement.

Because tubers are living things, we’re unable to accept returns or offer refunds due to change of mind. Once the tubers leave our hands, we can’t guarantee how they’re stored or whether they’ve been exposed to garden conditions that might affect their health.

A Note on Variety & Surprise

We take every care to ensure your tubers are correctly labelled - but because this is a hands-on, seasonal process, and a house move at the end of last season, we have taken every car to ensure every tuber has been labelled correctly (you can find lucky dip dahlis for any we are unsure about), However the occasional mix-up can happen. If this small risk isn’t something you’re comfortable with, we completely understand and kindly ask that you don’t proceed with your purchase.

Shipping

Please ensure you select the correct flat rate shipping option for your delivery destination. Incorrect postage and handling means we have to follow up which in turn means your delivery will be delayed. Please bare with us as we work though all orders.