Dahlia – the Perfect Perennial for Late Colour

As I look around my garden at the moment, there’s no getting away from the fact that a lot of the colour has gone. However there is one plant which is absolutely flowering its socks off – the dahlia. The dahlia is proving itself to be the perfect perennial for an October injection of oomph.

As a dahlia novice, I only have a very small selection in my garden. I clearly need to get more in my life. So to get a better sense of the possibilities, I visited Aston Pottery. Aston is famed not just for its cleverly painted pots but also its cleverful planted gardens. And at this time of year that means dahlias! Oodles of them. So I thought I’d share no fewer than 13 which caught my eye.

But first up, some advice on how what kind of perennial the dahlia is.

Dahlia is a tender perennial. But what does this mean?

The dahlia is a tender perennial. That means it comes back year after year but you will need to protect it from frosts that penetrate into the ground. But don’t let that put you off growing them. As the good news is that gardeners in almost any climate can grow dahlias if you give them the right protection. How you do this will depend on where you live and, how cold your winter typically is.

To help you – and because I know I have some lovely readers in the USA – here’s some advice based on the USDA Hardiness Zone system.

Zone 7

Dahlias grown in zone 7 can’t be left in the ground. Even with mulch to protect them, they probably won’t survive. So, after flowering, and before the first frosts, the dahlia tubers should be lifted and stored dry, in boxes in a frost free place like a shed, for winter protection. You then plant them back into the garden in the spring – after the last frosts have finished.

Zone 8

We don’t tend to talk about the zone system much here in the UK. That’s because the UK is pretty small, as a result most of us are in the same Zone – 8! Dahlias here should survive the winter so long as the frosts are mild. But they do need a bit of protection from a good 4″ (10cm) layer of mulch. You can use straw, bark chips, leaf mould or something similar.

Having said that, many experts still suggest erring on the side of caution and lifting them. Which is what I do. Although I live in the mild old Cotswolds I still lift and store my dahlias as described above in my advice for Zone 7.

Zone 9

The warmer, coastal bits of the UK are Zone 9. Dahlias grown here will likely survive the winter in the ground, and some basic protection from mulch should almost guarantee that. But again, if you don’t trust the weather and feel an unexpectedly harsh frost might come your way, then lift them.

Zone 10

I think a tiny bit of south east Ireland is Zone 10 – but then again my geography is absolutely terrible so I could be wrong. But if you are in this lovely temperate Zone, your dahlias can be left in the ground with no mulching at all.

Dahlia – 13 Examples of this Perfect Perennial

So now you know whether or not you will need to lift dahlias in your garden, here are some beauties for you to put on your list. I saw them all at Aston Pottery in Oxfordshire. If you’re in the region and you’ve never been, I’d heartily recommend a visit. The gardens are wonderful, the pottery is fantastic and the cafe serves delicious food – all the ingredients for a perfect trip!

Not only do dahlias come in an incredible array of shapes – pom poms, dinner plate and cactus – but also every colour under the sun, or so it seems. So I’ve tried to include in my selection a good mix of colours and shapes.

Cactus Shaped

I like the architectural look of cactus dahlias. They look slighlty other-worldly and yet still voluptuous. When it comes to the colour possibilities I think this selection takes some beating.

With Orange Queen you have a classic rusty orange which works so well when combined with grasses.

Want less orange and more pink? Well Park Princess is a soft, lovelt pink and white dahlia.

Need something hotter – less about romance and more about passion? Well Purple Gem is absolutely drop dead gorgeous!

But the ultimate drama queen has to be Black Narcissus. My photos here are in a lot of sunlight, so you see more of the dark maroon than the blackness. But with the petals curving about half way up, and the shadowy redness I think she’s stunning.

If you’re after two colours in one, then Weston Spanish Dancer combines yellow and red in a searing combination. From the picture below you can see how brilliantly it can work in a border with pure yellow dahlias or with peachier varieties. And the backdrop of this grass is perfect.

If you are wondering what searingly attractive yellow dahlia you can plant next to Weston Spanish Dancer, how about Inland Dynasty, with its whopping acid yellow, 25cm blooms!

Pom Poms

There’s something pleasingly pert about the pom pom dahlias. All that colour and passion packed into a repressed neat, slightly flaring bloom. It all feels a bit like a ‘Jane Austen novel of a flower’ if you know what I mean! Anyway, if you do, and you want a bit of it in your borders, I think Barbarry Gem is a beauty.

Aston must be picking up on the literary vibe too, as they have the dahlia Charles Dickens growing right next to Barbarry Gem. A hot pink pom pom dahlia – I seriously think it can’t be matched.

I’m a big fan or coral pink in gardens, and to my eye, Oakwood Heather is a superb coral pink pom pom dahlia.

Dinner Plate

Sometimes you can just see why a particular variety is popular Thomas A. Edison is a perfect example of this. With its massive dinnerplate heads in handsome, deep magenta purple, it’s a stunner. I also gather it’s an early bloomer. So with regular picking you will have flowers for months.

For a softer look all together but with the same huge dinner plate form, Silver Year is worth looking at. The predominantly white flowers have the loveliest delicate flush of pink particularly on the petal edges. This pink deepens in hot weather. So you almost get two flowers in one!

Similar, but slightly different is this one below. I think it is Orion – but to be honest I became so overwhelmed I’m not sure.

Last up is dahlia Old Gold. I just love the way this plant’s petals of coppery, red-orange at the centre pale to yellOw so dramatically.

The Dahlia a perennial with so many possibilities…

I hope this romp through just some of the oodles of dahlias at Aston Pottery has whetted your appetite. With so many dahlias out there, the possibilities seem endless. It seems to me that if you add a consistent backdrop of something like grasses, you really can travel the entire colour spectrum in a relatively short space with just the humble dahlia to help you.

Happy gardening x