Café au Lait Dahlia: Growing Guide, Care Tips, and Where to Buy Tubers
Café au Lait Dahlia: Growing Guide, Care Tips, and Where to Buy Tubers
If there's one dahlia variety that stops people in their tracks, it's Café au Lait.
Soft blush. Warm peach. Creamy ivory. The colors shift and blend depending on the light, the time of day, and the stage of the bloom. No two flowers look quite the same — and that's exactly why dahlia growers and floral designers come back to it year after year.
It's our most requested variety at Rooted Dahlias. Here's everything you need to grow it yourself.
About Café au Lait Dahlia
Café au Lait is a decorative dahlia with large, fully double blooms that typically reach 6–10 inches across. The petals are broad and slightly cupped, layering on top of each other in a way that gives the bloom remarkable depth and texture.
The color is its defining characteristic — a warm, muted palette of blush, peach, cream, and soft apricot that photographers and florists describe as impossible to capture fully in a photo. It's one of those flowers you have to see in person to truly appreciate.
Stems are long and sturdy, making it an excellent cut flower. Vase life is good — typically 5–7 days with proper care.
How to Grow Café au Lait Dahlias
Planting:
Plant tubers in spring after your last frost date, 4–6 inches deep with the eye facing up. Full sun — at least 6–8 hours per day. Well-draining soil amended with compost.
Spacing:
Give Café au Lait plenty of room — at least 18–24 inches between plants. Good air circulation reduces the risk of powdery mildew, which dahlias in general are prone to.
Pinching:
When your plant reaches 12 inches tall, pinch the central growing tip just above the top set of leaves. This is especially important for Café au Lait — pinching produces more branches and significantly more blooms per plant.
Staking:
Café au Lait produces large, heavy blooms on tall stems. Support is essential — without it, stems will lean and eventually fall. Use stakes, a corral system, or hortonova netting depending on your setup.
Watering:
Water deeply 2–3 times per week once established. Avoid overhead watering — wet foliage encourages disease. Drip irrigation is ideal.
Fertilizing:
Use a low-nitrogen fertilizer once plants are established and budding. High nitrogen encourages foliage over flowers. We use a balanced slow-release fertilizer at planting and switch to a bloom-promoting formula once buds appear.
Cutting Café au Lait for Arrangements
Cut in the early morning or evening when stems are fully hydrated. Cut when blooms are nearly fully open — Café au Lait doesn't continue opening significantly after cutting. Strip all foliage below the waterline, recut at an angle, and place immediately in clean water.
Change vase water every 1–2 days and recut stems each time. Kept this way, Café au Lait will last 5–7 days in the vase.
Why Café au Lait Sells Out Every Year
At Rooted Dahlias, Café au Lait is one of the first varieties to sell out every December — sometimes within hours of the shop opening. The demand from home gardeners and hobby florists is extraordinary and we never grow quite enough of it.
If it's on your list, join our waitlist at rooteddahlias.com/pages/waitlist. Waitlist members get early access before the shop opens to the public — it's the only reliable way to get this variety before it's gone.
Our shop opens every December. Tubers ship end of March, weather permitting. 🌸
Rooted here. Blooming there.