Amateur Gardening

Find a new favourite with Undiscovered dahlias

SIX and a half thousand different dahlias are listed in the Royal Horticultural Society’s plant database. That’s a lot of dahlias. And while many of us are familiar with the most famous of them all, ‘Bishop of Llandaff’, an awful lot of the remainder are just not on our radar.

But here’s the thing: the vast majority of these dahlias are great plants. It’s all really a matter of taste. Some of us only grow varieties with flowers the size of dinner plates; others won’t have them in the garden. A florist friend of mine has banned yellow dahlias from her shop, but I love their vivid brightness.

The point is that there are a wealth of different dahlia varieties, with more new ones being released every year, so

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