Grow, Cut, Colour: Sarah Raven on Dahlias
Few flowers command a garden quite like the dahlia. With over 51,000 varieties registered with the Royal Horticultural Society, ranging from elegant waterlily forms to tightly packed pom-poms, these bold, flamboyant blooms have captivated gardeners for centuries. Native to Central America and Mexico, where they have been revered as a national symbol and used for everything from food to medicine, dahlias arrived in British gardens in the late 19th century and have never truly left. Today, after years of quiet loyalty from devoted growers, they are experiencing a joyful, full-colour renaissance.
Tania Compton preparing a dye bath with fresh dahlias. As featured in Selvedge Issue 130, Flower.
And as Katerina Knight reveals in Dyeing with Dahlias, featured in Issue 130, Flower, their talents extend far beyond the border or the vase. Dahlias are emerging as one of the most exciting prospects in the natural dye garden, offering a remarkable spectrum of colour, from vibrant oranges to deep, earthy greens, from spent blooms that might otherwise meet the compost heap.
But unlocking their full potential takes knowledge and a little know-how. Sarah Raven, who has been growing cut flowers at her farm at Perch Hill in East Sussex for decades, shares her tips on cultivating dahlias for dye use — and, if you find they are too gorgeous to dye with, cutting and displaying these flowers at their very best.
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How to Get the Most from Your Dahlias
Sarah Raven’s top tips for beautiful and long-lasting display
Dahlias are a stalwart of so many British gardens, known for their striking colours and opulent flowers. Expert gardener and author, Sarah Raven, has been trialling and testing new dahlia varieties for years and is a respected trendsetter when it comes to new colours and collections. She is admired for her abundant dahlia displays and gardeners take great inspiration from her Sussex home in Perch Hill. Sarah has shared her top tips for creating the abundant dahlia look, to inspire and help others to enjoy the same beauty in their gardens.
Dahlia 'Sissinghurst'. Image courtesy of Sarah Raven
Sarah said: “The misconception that dahlias are high maintenance comes from age old advice telling gardeners to lift their tubers. But as we come to experience warmer weather year on year, this is no longer required. Instead, we have been mulching our dahlias deeply in the ground at Perch Hill over winter, which we find to be just as effective and a lot less hassle. As one of the best, high production cut flowers, dahlias are the highlight of so many late summer and autumn gardens. And thanks to their extraordinary length of flowering and abundance of colours and forms, a dahlia display can create a very striking look while being popular with pollinators or in the vase too.”
Dahlia 'Tom's Choice'. Image courtesy of Sarah Raven.
Sarah has offered her advice to get more from your dahlias in the garden and create an incredibly beautiful display:
Step 1: Planting tubers in pots
“One of the fastest and most reliable methods to get more from your dahlias is planting your tubers in pots. It reduces the risk of frost and encourages flowers to develop quickly, increasing the likelihood of early blooms and abundant cuttings. Plant these pots out in the garden during late May and June. The first dahlia I trialled with this method at Perch Hill produced 30 buckets of cut flowers per square meter in just one season.”
Step 2: Propagating plants
“Dahlia cuttings can easily be propagated to produce more flowers. Start by removing all but the top pair of leaves and pinch out the tip. Place each cutting at the edge of a pot mixed with compost and grit, sitting the leaves just above the compost. After watering, place somewhere bright but out of
direct sunlight. In about three weeks, carefully pot each cutting individually before planting out. With regular feeding and watering, the plants grown from cuttings will flower later and form tubers.”
Dahlia 'Molly Raven'. Image courtesy of Sarah Raven.
Step 3: Raising the stakes outside
“When the time comes to plant dahlias outside, insert a stake to support each plant. Dahlias grow very quickly once they get going and easily break off at the base, so tie them in securely. You can encourage more branching by pinching out each plant’s tips once three pairs of leaves have grown.”
Dahlias are such a fruitful plant to have in the garden and can produce at least ten new plants from each tuber every year. Sarah recommends three of her favourite varieties, Dahlia ‘Molly Raven’, Dahlia ‘Tom's Choice', and Dahlia ‘Sissinghurst' as the perfect additions for late summer and autumn colour, especially as these are all perfect for cutting too.
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Further Information:
Read more about Dyeing with Dahlia's in Selvedge Issue 130, Flower
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Image Credits:
Lead: We Are KAL floral arrangement, displaying dahlias in their home before they are used as dye materials.
All further images as credited in captions.