Special Dahlia Vocabulary
Popped or Blown Center
Popped or blown center means the pollen shows on an overly mature fully double bloom. The petals will soon begin to fall off and the bloom is past its peak. Blooms with popped or blown centers should not be entered in a dahlia competition.
Staghorn petals are when an incurved cactus petal has an elbow instead of a smooth arc to its bend
Staghorn Petal
Ray Floret
A broad petal of an open-centered dahlia.
Fine line of contrasting color found on the margin of the ray floret (example: Stevie O, pictured)
Picotee
Bullnose
Petals do not grow over the center. Blooms with a bull nose should not be entered in a dahlia competition.
A random petal of a different color.
Wolf petal
Reflex
The layers of petals go back toward the stem. Balls reflex all the way back, hiding the top of the stem.
Involute
Petals roll in. If you plucked one, it would be like a canoe.
Crotchbound
Bloom grows on short stem deep within the plant.
Cutting vs. Seedling:
A CUTTING either comes from a tuber sprout or off a growing plant. It is cut off. It is put in a light soil+perlite mixture to root under lights. Genetically speaking, a cutting is a clone—an exact genetic copy of the plant or tuber it came from.
A SEEDLING is a new combination of chromosomes coming from a dried seed head. No one knows what it looks like until it blooms for the first time. A seed planted this April will bloom this season and produce tubers at the end of 2026. It will be an entirely new genetic entity. A cutting will also bloom this season and produce small tubers this season. A cutting should look EXACTLY like its parent plant.