Apricot Desire

Apricot Desire is a gorgeous waterlily dahlia with a soft, luminous colour palette that feels effortlessly romantic. Its broad, gently cupped petals open in peachy-apricot, pale yellow and delicate rose, creating a warm, glowing bloom that looks beautiful both in the garden and in the vase.

The flowers have a lovely, open waterlily form, with petals gently lifting upwards to create an elegant silhouette. Growing on striking dark stems and deep green foliage, Apricot Desire brings plenty of contrast and structure to the cutting garden while producing generous blooms throughout the season.

Key Features

• Classification: Waterlily

• Bloom Size: 10–15 cm

• Colour: Soft peach, apricot, pale yellow and subtle rose

• Flower Form: Fully double with broad, gently cupped petals

• Height: 90–150 cm

• Stems: Strong, rigid and almost black

• Foliage: Deep green

• Flowering: Mid-summer through to autumn frost

• Floristry: Cut flowers, romantic bouquets, weddings and floral design

Planting & Care

Plant Apricot Desire in full sun, ideally with 8 or more hours of sunlight per day, in fertile, well-draining soil. Allow around 30–45 cm of space between plants to encourage good airflow and healthy growth.

As a tall-growing variety with large blooms, staking or flower netting is recommended to keep the stems upright, particularly in exposed gardens. Pinch the growing tip when plants reach around 30 cm tall to encourage branching and increase your number of flowering stems.

Keep the soil consistently moist throughout active growth, particularly during hot or dry weather, but avoid allowing the roots to sit in water. Harvest regularly and remove spent flowers to encourage continued flowering and branching throughout the season.

Why You’ll Love It

Apricot Desire has that gorgeous soft, glowing quality that makes warm-toned dahlias so beautiful in floral work.

The combination of peach, apricot, pale yellow and hints of rose gives the flowers plenty of depth without feeling too bright or overpowering. Its elegant waterlily form adds a lovely sense of movement to bouquets, while the dark stems create a beautiful contrast beneath those luminous petals.

We particularly love it for romantic, garden-inspired and wedding florals, where its warm colouring works beautifully alongside blush, cream, champagne and other peach-toned flowers.

A beautiful statement bloom with an elegant silhouette and a seriously dreamy colour palette — Apricot Desire is a gorgeous addition to the cutting garden.

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.