Coseytown Dollys Heart

Meet Coseytown Dollys Heart, a robust and beautifully deep burgundy red dahlia with an interesting story behind her name; keep reading to find out more.

In 2022 our local Greencastle, Pennsylvania community had the opportunity during its weeklong community-wide triennial homecoming celebration, called Old Home Week, to name a brand-new variety. This as-yet-unnamed burgundy red dahlia was on display during the Old Home Week Flower Show for all to see and submit name suggestions for, and there was one name that quickly filtered to the top.

As I quickly learned throughout the process, Greencastle has a very long-standing history of residents that dearly love their hometown; a devotion that is palpable and spans generations. More than one citizen suggested the Dolly name, and for different reasons.

One suggestion succinctly detailed the life of Frances ‘Dolly’ Harris, a courageous Greencastle citizen and Civil War heroine who, as a teenager, defiantly stood up to Confederate Gen. George E. Pickett and his men as they marched through Greencastle, Pennsylvania. I immediately fell in love with this woman's confidence, bravery, and audaciousness. She had heart and her brazen actions are still being talked about some 160 years later.

Another submission suggested the name Dollys Heart, in honor of Dolly Shoemaker who championed the Old Home Week Flower Show for many decades. I can appreciate the dedication someone can give to a cause over a lifetime. Communities are built upon the legacies developed over time by tenacious people that continue to show up.

For all these reasons, I decided on the name Dollys Heart. It’s a name that embodies the endearing and enduring qualities of two Greencastle citizens that each left a lasting legacy in their own way. A name that speaks of standing up for what you believe in. A name that exudes bravery and tenacity. A name established in town pride and loyalty.

LeeAnn's Hybridizer Notes
Coseytown Dollys Heart is a sturdy plant that produces an abundance of dark green foliage. When grown in a row it forms an impactful green hedge with rich colored flowers that bloom all season. Dollys Heart has consistently bloomed at the end of July when tubers are planted mid-May here in south central PA.

The plant has a fantastic branching habit and strong stems, and I’ve always felt like this plant could get away with not being staked. Despite being on the short side for a cut flower dahlia, it blooms above the leaf canopy, and you can harvest 16 inches of stem without sacrificing the plants integrity. Dollys Heart’s growth habit reminds me of a peony plant in size and scale, but with the advantage of blooming all summer until frost, so I know this dahlia would function well as a hands-off landscape plant.

Thank you for your interest in Coseytown dahlias! Our Tuber Sales are held during the first quarter of the year. Sale dates and details are announced to our mailing list as sale season approaches, so be sure to get signed up here!

The Details

  • Coseytown Dollys Heart

  • Bloom Form:

    Formal Decorative

  • Bloom Color:

    Deep Burgundy Red

  • Bloom Size:

    3 in

  • Plant Height:

    3.5 ft

  • 2023 *New Intro*

Learn About Coseytown

Here at Coseytown Flowers we specialize in the creation, cultivation and sale of new dahlia varieties, with leading plant traits in health, growth and vigor, for the cut-flower and enthusiast markets.

Leading the charge is LeeAnn Huber - the dahlia hybridizer, educator, flower farmer and entrepreneur behind it all. Prioritizing continual growth in knowledge and practice is our guiding star, and LeeAnn's passion for lifelong learning and applying evidenced based approaches in an agricultural context is embodied in her daily mantra ‘Every day is a school day!’ LeeAnn has amassed a sizable and engaged following among fellow cut flower farmers and gardening enthusiasts, where she is known for taking topics head on in a thoughtful and engaging way while sharing her expertise on all things dahlias.

Coseytown Flowers strives to offer only the highest quality single-division dahlia tubers and premium dahlia seed. All dahlia tubers are guaranteed true to variety, and I will never sell anything I would not personally be satisfied to receive myself ...but don't just take our word for it, check out what our flower friends are sharing.

All our tubers are individually labeled, and all orders are individually inspected for quality and accuracy prior to shipment. Additionally, international tuber orders (currently Canada) are individually inspected by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. Coseytown Flowers dahlia fields and storage facilities are inspected annually by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and we possess all needed inspections and licensing to sell dahlia tubers and seed. Every dahlia tuber and seed sold have been grown right here in Greencastle, PA.

At the heart of our mission is the Coseytown commitment to transparency with continual growth in our core values of healthy plants, happy pollinators and responsible production. We take the health of our plants and tubers seriously by testing for and providing our dahlia plants with the proper conditions, nutrition and proactive management for optimal plant and pollinator health. We also proactively test for the following major DNA and RNA viruses: Dahlia mosaic virus (DMV), Dahlia common mosaic virus (DCMV), Impatiens necrotic spot virus (INSV), Tobacco streak virus (TSV) and Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV). To learn more directly from LeeAnn about the Coseytown Commitment to Healthy Dahlias, including our proactive 3-pronged approach to address virus in dahlias, please click here.

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