How To Choose And Grow Dahlias

For a spectacular and diverse variety of form and colour choose dahlias, says Anne Swithinbank.

I CAN’T think of any flower that has suffered more from the vagaries of horticultural fashion than the dahlia. Native to Mexico and Central America, plants were cultivated and bred by the Aztecs and brought to Europe by Spanish botanists in 1789.

Josephine Bonaparte treasured them at Malmaison and by the 1900s competitive dahlia societies were springing up all over Britain. They suited the swinging sixties, when large flowers in bright colours were on trend but gradually faded from the limelight and spent a good 20 years in the doldrums.