I enjoy bringing new crosses on from seed, using singles/misc. as a base. In the second or third year I put the best, identical plants beside each other to get a good show. Friends in various dahlia society encourage you to "show" but when I go to their "gardens" they have maybe twenty or forty of one variety in a bed that they disbud, bring on/to get their timings right for a show.
Their gardens consist of maybe 1,000 dahlias, but only twenty or thirty different plants. Oftentimes the beds of dahlias are protected under large opensided polytunnels, or Perspex roofs and the "gardens" are an eyesore, more akin to junkyards. I don't say this of course, but I am not very interested in their gardens. They are very knowledgeable and open with advice and guidance though.
They do sometimes have the very best stock tubers you can get, and at the end of the season the growers that are not florists are happy to gift them to anybody that wants them. It is a great way to get dahlias. Unfortunately very few singles are grown or shown so again , of not much interest to me.
