About
Dahlia 'Elizabeth Snowden' is a named cultivar of Dahlia in the Asteraceae that flowers from July to October. It grows from tuberous roots and is not frost-hardy, so winter protection is required in colder areas. Plants produce their main display through mid‑summer into autumn and are maintained as seasonal herbaceous perennials. Manage the tubers carefully to carry the cultivar over winter.
About the genus
Dahlias come from the high meadows of Mexico, and somewhere in that heritage is the explanation for how they behave here: tender to frost, hungry, generous beyond all reason. No other plant gives you quite so much for so little. One tuber, planted after the last frost, becomes a shrub's worth of flowers by August — and the more you cut, the more they come.The range is faintly ridiculous. Tight pompoms, spiky cactus types, singles the bees adore, dinner-plates the size of your face. Whatever your garden's mood, there is a dahlia that agrees with it, which is probably why every generation falls out of love with them and then, a decade later, falls straight back in.They're at their best when much of the garden is winding down — late summer into autumn, flowering hard until the first frost calls time. I think of them as the encore. And they always play it.
Written by Henry
In the garden
Dahlia 'Elizabeth Snowden' is a cultivated dahlia (genus Dahlia) within the Asteraceae. Dahlias develop from tuberous roots and produce their peak flowers between July and October, giving an extended presence through summer into autumn. As a tuberous dahlia, it is not frost-hardy and needs protection where UK winters are cold. Lift tubers after the first hard frosts and store them dry and labelled in a frost-free, ventilated place; in milder areas a thick winter mulch can offer protection. Plant tubers after the risk of hard frost has passed and keep an eye on soil moisture during the growing season to support steady flowering. Use Dahlia 'Elizabeth Snowden' where a long summer-to-autumn flower period is wanted — for mid- to late-season borders and mixed herbaceous displays. Because the cultivar is carried through by tubers, make a point of labelling divisions or stored tubers carefully so the same cultivar can be replanted and identified the following year.
More in the Dahlia genus
- Dahlia 'Clearview Cameron' (C)
- Dahlia 'Croydon Jumbo' (D)Dahlia
- Dahlia 'Katie's Velvet' (Col)Dahlia
- Dahlia 'LB Michael Braithwaite' (D)
- Dahlia 'Amazing Grace' (Misc)
- Dahlia 'Aurora's Kiss' (Ba)
- Dahlia 'Black Diamond' (Ba)
- Dahlia 'Bonanza' (D)