Our Dahlia 2021 Collection

We are so excited to share our dahlia collection with you all!

Dahlias were one of our favourite flowers that we grew last year in the garden and we are really excited about growing loads more this year. We have curated a collection of some of our favourites for you to buy and grow a long with us. Dahlias are an excellent flower to grow if you are a beginner (or not!). They are easy to grow and provide an abundance of flowers from mid-summer, all the way to the first frost of the year. Dahlias start off as tubers, which are like big, lumpy bulbs that look a bit like salamis! So don’t be alarmed when they arrive in the post! Dahlias are a cut-and-come-again flower; meaning that when you cut the stems to bring them inside, it encourages more stems to grow. It’s a win win!

I thought I would take you through the varieties we have chosen in more detail in this blog post. As well as being able to buy individual tubers, you can also purchase a lucky dip selection meaning we will put together a beautiful selection for you! As always, every purchase you make at Bloom Sheffield, goes towards supporting female mental health in the city. It helps us develop the space for women to enjoy, and contributes towards the groups and sessions we run for the community. So, thank you so much!

Above are the varieties we have chosen for our collection. They are:
Cafe Au Lait, David Howard, Otto’s Thrill
Palmares, Bishop of Dover, Preference

Cafe Au Lait

We grew this amazing dinner plate dahlia (names because of the flower’s huge diameter) in the Bloom garden last year. I said to myself, “if I grow just one Cafe Au Lait this year, I’ll be chuffed to bits”. And, oh man did that plant produce some blooms. Each flower was exquisite and intricate with beautiful pale pink petals varying between every flower. The flowers can be up to 20cm in diameter, so just a couple of these in a vase look amazing. The Cafe Au Lait is very popular with florists and is often seen in bridal bouquets.

David Howard

This dahlia will bring an amazing tropical pop of colour to your garden. This decorative dahlias produces large, fully double flowers with rounded petals throughout the summer. Ideal for planting in borders and will produce masses of flowers, perfect for cut flower displays. It produces unusual orange-bronze petals, fading to plum purple towards the centre. This dahlia will grow to about 80-100cm tall.

Otto’s Thrill

Otto's Thrill is a gorgeous Dinner Plate Dahlia, producing huge pink blooms. Perfect for a garden border or to grow in patio containers. We chose this dahlia because of the fun colour, and we thought it would look amazing in a bouquet teamed with ammi majus and sweet peas. What a perfect summer combo! They will grow to a height of 125cm, so will really make a statement in the garden.

Palmares

Palmares is a variety of pompom dahlia which produces round, ball-like flowers. The blooms are quite compact so are great if you want to use your dahlias in a bouquet. The flowers are peach with a magenta underside, and the petals create a stunning pattern. We love the orange and pink combination!

Bishop of Dover

This is our only single-flowered dahlia in our collection. They are called this because of the single petals around the outside, compared to the numerous petals seen in other varieties. Single-flowered dahlias are excellent for pollinators because the bees have easy access to the flower’s pollen and nectar. We also love the dark foliage on this dahlia that contrasts to the light petals that have a hint of lilac towards the middle of the flower. So delicate and so beautiful. This is slightly more compact and will grow to about 70cm in height.

Preference

This fella is a prolific bloomer! Dahlia Preference is a cactus dahlia, which means it has very narrow petals from the tip to the base, that curve inwards slightly. This dahlia is a gorgeous salmon pink, which gets richer towards the centre. The flowers are nice and compact and look stunning in a bouquet or vase.

We hope you love our collection as much as we do. If you have any questions about the varieties we’ve chosen, leave us a message below. We will be posting regular blog posts about how to grow, harvest and use dahlias soon!