Dahlia 'Kiss Me' (D) — Bushy, clump-forming, tuberous perennial

Overview

Dahlia 'Kiss Me' (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 'Kiss Me' (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 'Kiss Me' is a tuberous, clump-forming herbaceous perennial in the Asteraceae, grown for bedding and cutting. It forms well-branched clumps of green, occasionally dark-leaved foliage and carries flowers from July to October. Position it in a south-facing, sheltered site in neutral loam kept moist but well drained and provide full sun. It is rated H4 (average) for UK hardiness and suits borders, containers and cut flowers.

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 'Kiss Me' is a tuberous herbaceous perennial developed for garden bedding and cutting use. As a member of the Asteraceae it grows as a clump-forming plant with well-branched stems and green, sometimes darker, foliage, producing its flowering display through July to October. Grow it in full sun on a south-facing, sheltered aspect where soil is loam and neutral in pH. The plant prefers conditions that are moist but well drained; avoid heavy, waterlogged ground. The UK hardiness rating is H4 (average), so it tolerates normal seasonal conditions for this grade — choose a site that gives some protection from strong driving winds to preserve the stems and blooms. Use Dahlia 'Kiss Me' in mixed borders where late-summer and autumn colour is needed, in large containers on a sunny terrace, or as a source of cut flowers. Its flowering span from July to October makes it particularly useful for extending bloom into the later season and for supplying stems for arrangements during that period.