Dahlia, White Aster

White Aster is a high yielding variety with small, round to oval, tan tubers.  The tubers are almost as sweet in the fall as in the spring.  The flower is a white ball.  Medium size plants grow to about three to four feet.

This is a very old variety, possibly the oldest extant European variety, dating to 1879.  It seems that older varieties are a little more likely to make good edibles, possibly because they haven’t been selected as long and intensively for flower traits.

Although we sometimes offer tubers of these varieties, my main focus is producing seed for breeding.  Like all dahlia seeds, the true seeds of this variety will not be true to type.  I have grown out quite a few and got a range of types, mostly singles and doubles in white, yellow, and pink.  Many had good edible qualities.