Genetic improvement of flower vase life is an important breeding target for ornamental plants. As the vase life of cut dahlia (Dahlia variabilis) flowers is very short, we initiated a conventional crossbreeding research program in 2014 to improve it. We evaluated the vase life of dahlia seedlings during summer (from July to early September) to develop dahlias that grow and bloom under high temperatures and have excellent vase life for Japanese summer conditions. Crossing and selection over five generations greatly improved vase life. The mean vase life increased from 4.4 days in the 1st generation, derived from 22 parental cultivars, to 8.0 days in the 5th generation, a net increase of 3.6 days. Mean vase life increased significantly by 1.6 days from the 4th to the 5th generation, indicating continued improvement. The mean vase life of the 12 lines selected from the 3rd and 4th generations ranged between 6.0 and 15.9 days in distilled water and from 7.8 to 14.6 days in GLA solution (10 g•L −1 glucose, 0.5 mL•L −1 CMIT/MIT [isothiazolinone derivatives], and 50 mg•L −1 aluminum sulfate). Vase life was further extended by 0.5 to 4.0 days using 6-benzylaminopurine (BA) sprays compared to GLA alone. In particular, the 4th-generation line 003-15 vase life was 13.8 to 15.9 days (2.5× that of 'Kamakura', a leading white dahlia cultivar in Japan) in distilled water, 12.0 to 14.6 days (1.8× to 2.2×) in GLA, and 13.9 to 15.3 days (1.7× to 1.9×) in GLA+BA in winter and spring. Cut flowers of line 003-15 harvested under high temperatures in July-August and at 28°C with GLA treatment also had long vase life. The pedigree of line 003-15 suggests that genes related to long vase life derived from 'Micchan' (with a long vase life) may have accumulated or duplicated in line 003-15. Finally, four selected lines, including 003-15, had high ethylene sensitivity, as 10 μL•L −1 ethylene treatment caused petal abscission in 2.0 to 2.8 days.