One of the great plant revivals of recent years has been the comeback of the dahlia. With their dazzling colours, dahlias are vibrant in the border and dramatic in the vase. But those referred to as “dinner plate” dahlias – such a cliché, and not remotely descriptive – must be among the most difficult to meld into appealing planting combinations. When just one exploding 12in (30cm) flower comes in three contrasting, no-hope-of-harmony colours, then we yearn for a little natural elegance.
Fergus Garrett, head gardener at Great Dixter, where Christopher Lloyd did so much to revive dahlias’ fortunes, agrees: “The dahlia has come back with a vengeance,” he says. “Colour is considered cool and all of a sudden gardeners have become more adventurous. Single dahlias, elegant in flower and with graceful foliage, seem to be the most acceptable of all, especially to the fainthearted good-taste brigade. Single-flowered dahlias are graceful and are good blenders, integrating well into most borders, giving colour from midsummer until the first frost.”
The comeback
And so it was that in the Eighties 'Bishop of Llandaff’, first raised back in 1924, began to swing enthusiasts for perennial plants in the direction of dahlias. After all, it looked more like a perennial than a dahlia, so the legions of hardy planters felt comfortable with it and could proudly say: “This is not like other dahlias, this is special.” Essentially a single-flowered dahlia, albeit with a few extra rows of petals providing more impact, and reaching a very manageable 3ft-4ft (90cm-120cm), the flowers are not too big, the colour has a rich subtlety to its scarlet, and all set – unusually for a dahlia, at least in 1924 – against sharply toothed leaves in dark bronze.
'Bishop of Llandaff’ became extraordinarily fashionable, partly because it makes great associations: it looks good in front of purple-leaved cotinus and with Crocosmia 'Lucifer’ or fiery cannas, as well as with Nicotiana 'Lime Green’ and the foliage of Helichrysum 'Limelight’. Recent years have seen the appearance of a number of new “bishops” from Holland.There are now seven, all similar in style to their progenitor.
We then looked to other single-flowered varieties that had been popular in parks and integrated these into mixed borders at home. 'Yellowhammer’, in particular, with yellow flowers slightly streaked in orange, and with that same dark foliage, became widely used, along with 'Fascination’, with vivid pink flowers and dark foliage, and the white 'Omo’, now long gone like its detergent namesake. And we have some exciting newcomers.
Themes and variations
From Holland comes the Happy Single Series. Reaching about 22in-28in (55cm-70cm), they come with fashionably dark foliage and many have bicoloured flowers. Happy Single Date ('HS Date’) is orange with an almost vermilion ring around the eye, Happy Single Wink ('HS Wink’) is purple with a crimson ring around the eye and is good in a container with silver-leaved Helichrysum petiolare. There are seven other bright colours and bicolours.
Coming down in scale, to 18in-22in (45cm-50cm), is the Mystic Series created by New Zealander Keith Hammet. The Mystics stand out for their uniformity of height across the range of eight colours, so if you plant two or three in a large container one will not tower above the other. They stand out too for the darkness of the foliage. The flowers all feature one row of unusually broad overlapping petals to combine an appealing simplicity with real impact.
'Mystic Dreamer’, which was the star of the show at Hampton Court in 2008 under its original name of 'Candy Eyes’, features pink and white striped flowers, while apricot-flowered 'Mystic Spirit’ is ideal in a container with a semi-trailing begonia such as 'Sherbet Bon Bon’. But taller forms for the middle ground or the back of mixed and summer borders are still in demand. In addition to the exquisite 'Twyning’s After Eight’, with white flowers set against black leaves and a favourite of Fergus Garret, the Cornish breeder Mark Twyning has developed a number of slightly taller dahlias in unusual colours.
Every petal of 'Twyning’s Candy’ is white with a red border along each edge, and really sparks in a planting with bronzed castor oil plant, Ricinus communis 'Impala’, and Salvia 'Blue Enigma’. But my favourite is 'Twyning’s Chocolate’. This has the same coloured flowers as chocolate cosmos but with a tiny flash of red at the base of each petal. It shows up well against the silver foliage of Hippophae rhamnoides.
With single-flowered dahlias really in vogue, more varieties are turning up in garden centres and mail order catalogues. Thanks to their natural look, continuous flowering and sparkling colours, we are all finding new ways to use them in our gardens.
Where to see dahlias
The Happy Series 'Date' dahlia
In a garden setting, you can see wonderful dahlias at Great
Dixter in East Sussex (01797 252878).
The National
Dahlia Collection in Cornwall features thousands of varieties (07879 337
714).
The RHS is inviting
visitors to Wisley in Surrey to vote for their favourite dahlia. There are
86 on trial.
The De Jager Dahlia Festival at Chatsworth
House in Derbyshire (part of its Florabundance Festival) runs September
21-25. Displays are labelled and you can order tubers.
Where to buy dahlias
Dahlias in pots are in garden centres now. Many Bishops are widely available.
Plants in the Happy Single and Mystic Series can be found in good garden
centres. But for the best choice of varieties, order young plants now for
spring delivery. Check new catalogues as they appear and try these mail
order suppliers:
National Dahlia Collection (details above)
Plantify (01753
272024)
West Country
Nurseries (01237 431111)
