About
Dahlia 'Kathryn's Cupid' is a tuberous, herbaceous perennial dahlia that flowers from July to October. It belongs to the Asteraceae and follows the genus' seasonal cycle of summer growth and autumn dieback. The cultivar survives winter only as stored or protected tubers, resprouting the following season. It provides extended summer-to-autumn flowering for beds and borders.
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 'Kathryn's Cupid' is a cultivated dahlia in the Asteraceae and shares the genus origin in Mexico and Central America, where tuberous perennials evolved to die back and regrow each year. As with other dahlias, this cultivar produces its display through the summer into autumn, with flowering from July to October. Plant it as a tuberous perennial and treat it as frost-tender (H1) in the UK: the above-ground growth will be killed by hard frosts and the plant survives only via its tubers. These tubers resprout after winter dormancy, so lift and store them or protect them in situ in regions with cold winters. Labelled storage and gentle handling of the swollen roots reduce loss between seasons. Use Dahlia 'Kathryn's Cupid' where long summer and autumn colour is needed: it suits mixed borders and any location where tubers can be lifted or insulated over winter. Because it flowers through to October, it extends the season of summer beds into autumn; lift its tubers after the first hard frost and store them dry until spring.
More in the Dahlia genus
- Dahlia 'Clearview Cameron' (C)
- Dahlia 'Croydon Jumbo' (D)Dahlia
- Dahlia 'Elizabeth Snowden' (Col)
- Dahlia 'Katie's Velvet' (Col)Dahlia
- Dahlia 'LB Michael Braithwaite' (D)
- Dahlia 'Amazing Grace' (Misc)
- Dahlia 'Aurora's Kiss' (Ba)
- Dahlia 'Black Diamond' (Ba)