Dazzling dahlias

I It’s the day of the village agricultural show and the paper-covered benches of the produce marquee are lined with cakes and jellies, honey, eggs and marrows. But it’s the explosion of colour that dominates the display, as huge blooms of dahlias are supported singly in glass jars. The most perfect specimens have a red card in front of them – a prized ‘First’ in their class.

Tall and flamboyantly coloured, these stars of the village fête and plant show are an unmissable late-summer staple of cottage gardens, humble allotments and grand stately homes alike. Dahlias draw visitors to country gardens in early autumn, including thriller-writer Agatha Christie’s collection at her Greenway garden – now managed by the National Trust – beside the River Dart in Devon. You may even spot fields full of them, grown for the cut-flower industry.

Quintessentially British? In a way, and yet dahlias originate on the other side of the world – in the mountainous regions of Mexico.

SHAPE-SHIFTER

The first wild