Garden Visit With Dorset Dahlias
Meet Anna from ‘Dorset Dahlias’ who lives just down the road from me in West Dorset. Anna has created a flower field of dreams filled with a joyful rainbow of Dahlias. I hope you enjoy Anna’s interview below. Her enthusiasm for Dahlias is infectious, and it is easy to see why they bring her so much joy as it is so incredibly magical what she has created. A huge thank you to Anna for letting me take photos on a rainy early September evening, which after such a long hot Summer the rain was very welcome indeed xx
You live in the beautiful West Dorset countryside, what brought you to Dorset?
My Grandparents lived in Ryme Intrinseca which is between Sherborne and Yeovil. I spent a huge amount of my childhood there (I grew up in Yorkshire) and so when we left London we came here. I think Gerald was hoping to head about 6000 miles further south back to South Africa but we love it here, the combination of countryside and the sea would take some beating.
What inspired you to start growing Dahlias?
About seven years ago I bought a dahlia from a stall the Beaminster Horticultural Society had in the square one Saturday. It was a glorious bright pink and I was enchanted by both the colour and shape. The next year I had ten, then thirty and now over six hundred. There is something if not addictive then certainly compulsive about building a dahlias collection, however many I grow there always seems to be just one more that I need or a colour I simply don’t have.
Have you always loved gardening?
I am not a natural gardener. My grandmother had an astonishing garden with borders of flowers and a proper kitchen garden which I always hoped to emulate but I am entirely lacking in green fingers. That said, dahlias and I just seem to hit it off. It may simply be how much I enjoy growing them that somehow rewards me in fantastic flowers or more prosaically that dahlias just really want to grow.
What do you love most about growing Dahlias?
There are so many things I love about growing dahlias, I could rabbit about them for days, and I do. Make no mistake, growing dahlias is hard work, the lifting at the end of the season from heavy, muddy soil in cold, possibly rainy November. Potting hundreds of tubers in March and having to drive my family demented by finding places around the house for the pots (650+ last year). Heaving trays of them out of the house so they can enjoy the April sun then lugging them back in as they can’t endure the cold nights. The back breaking planting that goes on for days and which I couldn’t manage without my husband’s help. However, when you see the rows of glorious colours, all the different shapes with that geometrically astonishing petal structure then all that hard work becomes worth it, completely worth it. So that I love. Dahlias are hugely generous, not only do they really want to grow – I’ve found discarded tubers on the compost sprouting and wanting to flower – but they will produce hundreds of flowers from the end of July until the first frost in November. Dahlias are the most supremely jolly flowers, they almost shout fun. There are all the colours you could imagine, from deepest dark burgundy through scarlet and flame orange to sunny yellow, acid yellow, cream, soft pinks and white. The rich smoky terracotta tones to the crushed raspberry and my favourites, the corals with hints of pink and apricot. A colour or shape for everyone.
What are your favourite varieties of Dahlia?
Great Silence has been astonishing this year, taller than me with perfect long, straight stems. Fabulous pinky coral flowers, definitely a keeper. I adore the little poms, perfect almost mesmerising structure the size of ping pong balls and colours like sweets. Caitlins Joy, a perfect ball dahlia, purple over pinky coral is stunning. Edith Jones, a bright pink collarette that the bees can’t leave alone. There are too many favourites, to pick a number one is impossible, I simply love all the ones I grow.
Your Flower Field is stunning, how did you plan it all?
We are lucky enough to have some land around our house so when the kitchen garden couldn’t take any more dahlias we created a new patch in the field. This year it has moved and is bigger than before. We planned the rows to maximise sun but minimise damage from wind. I laid out the rows in colour order, the dark reds together, reds leading into oranges and then yellows etc. Bright pinks have one row, soft peachy and baby pinks another. My white and cream row was rather messed up by two Honka dahlias which should have been white coming up bright pink – nature’s way of laughing at my colour planning.
Tell us a bit about being a member with ‘Flowers from The Farm’?
Flowers from the Farm is an organisation which brings together and champions British flower growers. There are online forums for members where you can ask any flower related question and know you will get the answer you need. I have met other growers and shared information, made friends and received many enquiries and orders for dahlias. There is huge support the growers and a network across the country, wherever you are there is probably a FFTF member near you.
Anna kindly gifted me a huge bunch of stunning bronze & peach dahlias, which of course I took lots of photos of, and enjoyed them at home too. The biggest bunch of joy in a vase!
What are your Top Tips for growing Dahlias?
Dahlias love the sun but not the cold. They essentially want to grow, are not difficult or capricious. I grow mine initially in pots so they have really got going before they get planted out – if you want to plant tubers directly in the ground you must protect them from slugs and snails. The delicate bright green first sprouts of a dahlia peering through the soil are like crack to slugs. Don’t be tempted to plant out too soon, we get surprisingly late frosts here – early June last year – and frost, even in Spring, could kill them. Water them really well on planting to encourage the roots to grow downwards in search of water and then only water when they really need it. Too often and the roots will sit just under the surface of the soil and won’t get a good grounding. Feed them but only once they have started to flower or you may just encourage leaves.
As a flower grower what gives you the greatest joy?
Aside from the joy the dahlias give me, there is absolutely nothing better than the look on someone’s face when they see them. Whether it is a bunch, a bucketful or walking across the field and seeing them all, people truly light up when they see the dahlias. For me an evening spent picking or deadheading, wandering through the rows is an absolute pleasure. Putting a combination of colours together for a customer or simply choosing a few dahlias to put on my kitchen table – these are joyful activities. Although I love to take pictures of the dahlias, often I will put my ‘phone in my pocket and just enjoy them, really look at them and revel in the extraordinary colours and petal formation. And wonder at the creative genius that is nature, I mean how does a tuber which looks like a potato produce these astonishing, intricate, vibrant flowers.
You can see Anna’s website here: http://dorsetdahlias.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorsetdahlias/