Dahlia 'Jack Hood' (D) (Dahlia) — Bushy, clump-forming, tuberous perennial

Overview

Dahlia 'Jack Hood' (D) is a bushy, clump-forming, tuberous perennial bedding in the genus Dahlia, part of the Asteraceae family, with green, occasionally dark-leaved foliage. Dahlia 'Jack Hood' (D) grows best in full sun, and tolerates loam soils and neutral pH. Its UK hardiness is rated H4. Suggested uses include borders, containers and cut flowers.

About

Dahlia 'Jack Hood' is a clump-forming, tuberous herbaceous perennial in the Asteraceae prized for its summer–autumn display, with flowers from July to October. The plant carries green foliage and can occasionally show darker leaves. It performs best in full sun on loam with a neutral pH and soil that remains moist but drains well, sited south-facing and sheltered. Suitable for borders, containers and for cutting, it is rated H4 (average) for UK hardiness.

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 'Jack Hood' is a bedding, herbaceous perennial in the genus Dahlia (family Asteraceae) that forms clumps from tubers and produces its flowering display from July to October. The foliage is typically green, with occasional darker-leaved forms appearing, and the plant presents a multi-stemmed habit suited to dense planting schemes. Position the plant in full sun on a south-facing, sheltered site where the soil is loam with a neutral pH and remains moist yet well drained. The H4 hardiness rating translates to average winter conditions in the UK; choose a protected aspect in cooler areas. Good drainage on loam reduces the risk of waterlogging while the sheltered siting lowers exposure to cold winds. Use Dahlia 'Jack Hood' in mixed borders and large containers where its summer-to-autumn flowering fills the season, and harvest stems for vases while blooms are open between July and October. It pairs with earlier-flowering perennials to extend colour through late summer into autumn, and its clump-forming habit makes it straightforward to group for a strong visual block in beds or tubs.