Dreaming of Dahlias

There’s nothing more cheering than to look up some summer colour on the Mr F website and dream about dahlias. You know what I’m going to say next don’t you: order tubers now before they sell out.

I’ve just been drooling over the forty plus Dahlia tuber varieties Mr F are offering at the moment…

Over at Mr F HQ the team grows a trial of dahlias every year, helping them choose the best new varieties to add to the range and also helping to decide if some varieties need retiring.

Mr Fothergil's team and I are obviously on the same wavelength because they've chosen two of my all-time favourites for Mr F customers. – ‘Karma Chocolate’ and ‘Café au Lait’

‘Café au Lait’ (above right) must be the most fashionable dahlia on the planet. The huge, slightly wild looking flowers are white with palest toffee-pink tints and are a creamy coffee shade in centre.

I’ve found it a very productive plant – it’s no use if the flowers are lovely but there are hardly any of them. I only have one plant but this will be its fourth winter left in the ground. This year the plant was huge – so big it snapped the twine and blew over. There’s a lesson, be sure to provide them with some support in exposed or windy locations. Cafe au Lait is classified as a Double Orchid type.

My other fave is ‘Karma Chocolate’. (above Left). Any dahlia you come across with the Karma prefix indicates that it was specially developed in The Netherlands for cutting. ‘Karna Choc’ is classified as a Decorative dahlia which is fair enough. Mr F also list two other spectacular Karma dahlias; Karma Bon Bini (below left) and Karma Prospero (below right). 

I have to say the picture on the Mr F website shows its colouring of ‘Karma Choc’ as more red than I’ve ever seen – more usually it is really a dark chocolatey shade with the red glinting through. What’s more it’s foliage is a good bronze – and it even smells of dark chocolate too! And it’s very productive.

For some years I grew ‘Crème de Cassis’ with blueberry/blackberry colouring on the backs of the petals seeping through to the white on the top sides. This time I’m going to try ‘Crème de Cognac’ (below left) which is in a similar style but with two-tone peachy red flowers.

‘Totally Tangerine’ (above right) is also on the list an anemone-centred type with a row of peachy-pinkish-orange petals surrounding a fluffy cluster of short rusty-tangerine petals. Should look good with arching crocosmias in front.

I’m going to pick a few for my garden that I haven’t grown before!