Growing dahlias has been one of my favorite things about the garden this year. While all of the dahlias that I grew this year were from tubers, I really want to try growing my own from seed. Since dahlias are octoploid, they’re loaded with genetic material. Therefore, you never quite know what you might get when you grow them from seed – they definitely won’t look like the parent plant. 
For fun, I let all of the bees in my garden do all of the hard work for me. The result was tons and tons of seed pods filled with seeds. As far as I know, most of these seeds will result in single flowered varieties. However, we can improve our chances of producing a nice dahlia by cross like-types of flowers. My seed produced dahlia will certainly be a surprise. 
I cut the dahlia seed pods from the plant when they were nice and dry, and firm. I found that a pod that was firm to the touch was sure to have black, mature seeds in it. 
After opening the pods, I let the seeds and extra pod material dry even more in a cool place for a few days. After, I was able to separate the seeds and store them in an envelope for the coming winter. 
Have you ever grown dahlia from seed or collected dahlia seed? I’d love to know all about it in comments below!
This is my first year growing dahlias and I stumbled across your blog. I am interested in finding out how well your dahlia plants did growing from seed?