Native to Mexico and Central America, the dahlia (Family asteraceae) is a bushy and beautiful flowering perennial. The dahlia is Mexico's national flower, and its tuberous roots were eaten by Aztecs before the Spanish Conquest. Following Central America's colonisation, the dahlia was exported to European nations, where it thrived even in countries with harsh or cold winters. Since the 18th century, botanists, taxonomists and gardeners have had a fascination with the flower, identifying over 850 different species each with unique petal or stem structures (this number includes the plant's hybrids, too). Since dahlias are extraordinarily varied in appearance, they also tend to be categorised by the shape of the flower, with 10 categories that include anemone, peony, pompom, ball, decorative, cactus, single and waterlily.
Today, the dahlia is a highly sought-after plant, perfect for beginner gardeners thanks to their resilience. Knowing the types of dahlias to choose, of course, is a difficult task, so we've asked our favourite gardeners and landscape architects for their favourite dahlia varietals, each at the ready to be planted in your garden, their flowers petals to bloom again and again for years to come.
Lottie Delamain, garden & landscape designer
Garden and landscape designer Lottie Delamain adores dahlias, 'Verrone's Obsidian' being her current favourite. “[I love dahlias with] the deepest darkest maroon petals, so rich they look like velvet, with a bright orange eye,” says Lottie, “I love their elegance - long petals that curl inwards at theta to create an eight-pointed star. Lovely long stems great for cutting a wonderful bee magnet too.”
Milli Proust, actor, writer and floral designer
Based in Sussex, floral designer Milli Proust has, much to her excitement, just cut the season's first dahlia. The flower in all its colourful iterations is one closest to her heart, though her all time favourite dahlia is ‘Wizard of Oz’, “a cool pink [flower] with a lemony yellow tinge on the less mature petals” whose versatility in floral arrangements and design is unmatched. Other types of dahlias favoured by Milli are the the ball, mini-ball, and pompom types. “I find these have the longest vase life and are more ‘weather proof’ last longer when left in the garden too. They handle heat better and the petals are less easily damaged by rain,” she says. When it comes to dahlia colours, Milli cites ball dahlias in dusky sunset tones as her preference - think ‘Brown Sugar’, ‘Cornel Bronze’, ‘Jomanda’, ‘Jowey Winnie’ and ‘Linda’s Baby’ varietals. However, when it comes to wedding floral design, the white pom ‘Small World’ dahlia is Milli's go-to, as it is not only the first to flower for Milli on her patch, but, according to Milli, the flower blooms “prolifically and is utterly adorable to use in wedding work.”
Arthur Parkinson, garden writer
Garden writer Arthur Parkinson, whose Create Academy course on growing summer flowers in pots is endlessly useful, has four favourite dahlias: ‘Totally Tangerine’, ‘Bishop of Llandaff’, ‘Bishop’s Children’, and ‘Waltzing Mathilda’. “Totally Tangerine is often the earliest to flower by the middle of June if it’s potted up in March on a warm windowsill – [it's also] beloved by bumble bees,” says Arthur. The Bishop of Llandaff varietal, on the other hand, is a “classic of the Bishop dahlias – a real Tudor, postbox red [colour].” The Bishop of Llandaff has particularly beautiful foliage, according to Arthur, “like that of a black laced elder bush.” “In pots,” adds Arthur, “it will need a few canes to help support it on windy days.”
For those keen on growing dahlias without a long wait for blooms, Arthur says that Bishop's Children dahlias are “amazing and fast to grow from seed and single dahlia that will flower amazingly by July if sown in March. The seedlings will grow to flower in a tapestry of rich summer pudding and Jaffa cake orange colours.” Finally, Arthur recommends the Waltzing Mathilda for its “wonderful nectarine pink single flowers”, which he describes as “truly dazzling and prolific”: “I like to grow it with Thunbergia ‘African Sunset’, as this delicately clambers through its dark green foliage.”
instagram.com/arthurparkinson_
Erin Benzakein, flower farmer
Flower farmer Erin Benzakein, whose prize flower crop grown at Floret Farm in Washington's Skagit Valley is comprised of over 850 dahlia varieties, and claims the flower to be the favourite of all she's ever grown, as “they come in a dazzling rainbow of colours, they produce an abundance of flowers for cutting from midsummer to the first autumn frost, and the range of shapes and sizes available is staggering.” Erin is particularly keen on the collerette (collarette in the US) dahlias, which suit the current trend for naturalistic planting schemes. “They have an almost wildflower-like quality, unlike some other dahlias,” says Erin, “and they are more delicate, with single blooms and a collar of ruffled petals. You can thread them in with other flowers and they give an arrangement such a beautiful look.”
Of all of the collerette dahlia varietals, Erin prefers ‘Ferncliff Dolly’ in sugar pink with a contrasting yellow ruffle; ‘Appleblossom’, which is the palest creamy apricot; and ‘April Heather’, which is pale yellow suffused with apricot. In her book, Discovering Dahlias, Erin also mentions the semicactus ‘Henriette’ with its softest salmon blooms, peachy-orange ‘Pam Howden’– the most perfect waterlily type – and the supremely popular ‘Café au Lait’, which is her farm's most requested dahlia.
TJ Maher, artist
In the riotously colourful and textured garden of Irish artist TJ Maher in County Wicklow, a variety of perennials take centre stage, their sizes, colours and shape undulating at each curve. TJ is unconventional with his garden design, planning his plantings to yield the most fauna “foot traffic”, from butterflies to birds to buzzing insects. As many dahlias tend to be hybrids of the original plant (and hybrids often have little or unobtainable pollen and nectar), TJ has endeavoured to hybridise his own kinds of dahlias that can often be grown from seed. In his garden, TJ enjoys planting single-flowered dahlias in shades of crimson, magenta and raspberry pink provide an easy source of food for bees and butterflies, unlike the more showy dahlia hybrids.
Flora Soames, interior and fabric designer
Interior and fabric designer Flora Soames has always had a special relationship with dahlias. Flora's mother collected dark-coloured dahlias, a habit Flora inherited. Indeed, the designer's first “decadent wallpaper” part of her first collection has, according to Flora, “become synonymous with my style as a whole and was founded on the joy that I got from the dahlias planted at my Dorset cottage.”
When it comes to specific dahlia varietals, however, Flora's favourites vary: “My thoughts on dahlias are constantly changing,” she says. “A lot of what appears in my [flower] beds is quite random.” Currently, Flora loves colourful, small baubles for the unique structure they bring to a floral design and cites ‘Wizard of Oz’, ‘Downham Royal’ and ‘Burlesca’ as her favourites. Also beloved by Flora are coral-coloured dahlias like ‘Karma Fuchsiana’ and ‘Orange Fubuki’, a varietal for which she always strives to “achieve the right colour mix.” Though dahlias remain a beloved flower of the designer's, one colour in particular still proves difficult in her garden and floral schemes: yellow. “I have YET to find the yellow that works for me!” she says.
Clare Foster, garden editor, House & Garden
“Explosive shapes and fabulous colours make the dahlia one of the most visually arresting plants we grow,” says Clare Foster, House & Garden's garden editor, “so it is surprising to find that it doesn't have the breadth of artistic history that many other plants have.” Clare's dahlia inclinations are wide-ranging; however, she adores particularly decorative dahlias, including ‘Hillcrest Suffusion’, a decorative type with orange/purple blends, 'Twyning's After Eight', a decorative type with orange/purple blends, the smallish single flowers in dark chocolately shades and gold stamens of ‘Dark Desire’, and the ‘Blackberry Ripple’, a tall, semicactus type with white petals splashed with purple. For dahlias planted in pots, Clare has a “passion for the soft apricot Dahlia ‘Totally Tangerine’ with matching Agastache ‘Navajo Sunset’ around the edge of your pot.”
instagram.com/clarefostergardens
Sam McKnight, hairstylist
With the help of landscape designer Jo Thompson, hairstylist Sam McKnight has curated a maximalist, colourful wonderland full of whimsy, pure plant joy and, of course, a wide array of dahlias in his London garden.“I like the crazy dahlias,” says Sam, “The wilder in shape and colour, the better.” Sam particularly appreciates – and frequently photographs, to the delight of his Instagram followers – the cactus and semi-cactus dahlia varieties, from the intense pale glow of 'Cabana Banana' and 'Mingus Randy', to dark ‘Nuit d’Été' and 'Myrtle's Folly'.
