I had the absolute joy of visiting Philippa Stewart of Justdahlias last weekend. Dahlias have always been one of my very favourite flowers and Philippa was sharing her plant story with me which we will come to later in the series. However standing in her greenhouse looking at the trays of tiny dahlia seedlings and looking at her dahlia field which will of course turn into a riot of the colour later this year, I couldn’t resist doing some recording for now. So if you are thinking shall I have a go at growing dahlias this year then this is the episode for you. Philippa’s enthusiasm is infectious and she shares her knowledge gained from growing these wonderful plants since 2016 when as she puts it “her passion for dahlias became something of an obsession”. You can follow Philippa on her Instagram account - Justdahlias.

There are two aspects to Philippa’s work that I find particularly fascinating and exciting and you can see both in the photographs below. Philippa dries her dahlias and has them hanging from ceilings literally all over her house and as you can see the flowers keep their vibrant colours and she sells them to florists and floral designers all over the country. I have never tried this but would love to have a go. The second thing is that she collects seeds from her dahlias, knowing that each seed will grow into a unique dahlia and you can see a photograph below of this year’s seedlings. She’s hoping to find new colours that will fit into the colour pallet she loves.

So in this episode Philippa shares with us when to plant the dahlia tubers and gives us some suggestions of her favourites. She suggests how we can all go to the garden centre this Spring and pick three tubers to put in pots - they like being in pots and it can help to protect then from the slugs and snails. Then when we come to her plant story later in the series she’ll share with us how to collect the seeds from those plants so that in future we too can have that ‘Christmas moment’ of growing unique dahlias and just seeing what we get!

Philippa’s suggestions of Dahlia’s to grow in your pots this year.

A large decorative also known as dinner plate variety - such as Cafe au lait which she describes as ‘an all rounder’ - it’s already gone on my wish list.

A decorative variety called ‘Sweet Nathalie’

A waterlily dahlia called Carolina Wagermans which has a beautiful shape and colour

A white mini pompom - she loves Snowflake very productive with straight stems or Small World

A cactus dahlia - Josudi Mercury

But remember if you can’t find these specific ones you could perhaps select a cactus and a mini pompom and a waterlily, there are so many to choose from, plant them in pots, collect the seeds and see what happens next year.

“I am not a professional breeder, so my scattergun approach is that, in this vegetable garden area here I grow all the dahlias that I really love. So there's one called Carolina Wagermans which has got the most fantastic shape, it's a water lily dahlia, beautiful, beautiful shape and beautiful colour. I grow another one called Snowflake which is a white mini pom pom. It's incredibly productive, the stems are straight, it's got attributes that I love. There's another one called Josudi Mercury, which is a dark corally colour, and it has like an inner glow to it and that's a cactus dahlia. So I grow lots of different dahlias that I love in a small area, and a bit like having children, I hope that they will propagate and also produce dahlias that I love. And it's a scatter gun approach. If you were being a professional grower, because dahlias have eight sets of chromosomes, there's a lot that can go wrong. So if for instance you really wanted a cactus dahlia, what you should only grow in your plot are cactus dahlias. That way you've got much higher chance of getting a cactus dahlia out of your seedlings. But as I said my endgame is completely different. I'm sort of liberated from any confines. I'm not specifically trying to generate a cactus dahlia. It's completely different for me. And I have to say I've had a lot of success considering that is my approach. I also let the bees do the pollinating. We're here in Cheshire in the UK and notoriously bad for wet weather here. So I found when I tried to cover the blooms with organza bags to prevent bees getting in and then with the hope of being able to harvest the pollen myself, the blooms would go soggy in the bag. I never actually managed to be able to harvest. Maybe I'll have another go at that later on in a couple of years or something, but at the moment, as I say, I'm getting really lovely results just by letting the bees do the work and only growing the varieties together in a small area whose attributes I like. And that, that is the joy of it from my point of view. Every morning during the summer, I will come out and inspect the beds. in my dressing gown and slippers and look for that Christmas moment of, oh look at you! And you know it's just Christmas every day.”