Dahlias: Perfect Plant Combinations for Your Garden

To add depth and character to a mixed border

Dahlias are a boon for gardeners looking to brighten up a sunny spot all summer long with minimal effort. With their strong presence, just a few Dahlia plants are enough to add depth and character to a flower bed, creating wild and colourful scenes.

Dwarf varieties, which can be grown from seed, such as Happy Single, Dwarf Cactus Dahlia, or Landscape Dahlia, are perfect for the front row of naturalistic beds alongside mini gladioli or small lilies.

Mini Pom-Poms or Honkas with their pointed petals will add a touch of lightness.

Taller varieties, such as Cactus Dahlias or those from the Decorative group, are best suited for the second or third rows of beds, where they can be surrounded by a skillful mix of tall ornamental grasses (Molinia, Miscanthus) and hardy, low-maintenance perennials that grow effortlessly, becoming more lush and floriferous each year: Heleniums, Daylilies, Echinacea purpurea, Crocosmias, Salvias, Garden Lychnis, Sanguisorba, Oriental Poppies, Lupins, or Daisies.

Sage ‘Icing Sugar’ – Dahlia Honka ‘Pink’ – Oriental Poppy ‘Clochard’ – Echinacea purpurea ‘Razzmatazz’ – Lupin ‘My Castle’

Dahlia ‘Jescot Julie’ – D. ‘Karma Choc’ – D. ‘Corbel Brons’ – Echinaceas

Spicy pairings and exotic touches

This warm and luminous flower bed is best suited for the sunniest corners of the garden. It truly reveals its splendour in mid-summer but sets the garden ablaze until early autumn. Dahlias in spicy hues, such as Pompon Dahlia or Dahlia ‘Mel’s Orange Marmalade’, will compete in the most vibrant tones, surrounded by orange Echinaceas that bloom simultaneously, red shrubby salvias, Oriental Poppies, Crocosmias, Heleniums, Phlox paniculata, Rudbeckias, Zinnias, Daylilies, Sunflowers, and Gaillardias. These fiery-coloured dahlias will be perfect in the foreground of Love-Lies-Bleeding or a Castor Bean Plant. A contemporary pairing with upright, very stylish Red Hot Pokers and the linear foliage of a New Zealand Flax will enhance this exotic-themed display. We can rely on the shimmering plumes of Miscanthus or the silvery foliage of Artemisias (Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’, Artemisia arborescens ‘Little Mice’) to temper the fiery display.

Crocosmia – Helenium ‘Short Sassy’ – Dahlia cactus lace – Hemerocallis ‘Ruby Spider’ – Kniphofia ‘Minister Verschuur’

Contrasting effect with ornamental grasses

What a wonderful idea to use these tall, wild grasses to highlight the bold character of dahlia flowers! In a flower bed, ornamental grasses are both highly structural and wild. The well-defined shapes of the flowers and the sometimes slightly coarse foliage of dahlias introduce strong accents in a bed that the airy grasses balance by adding texture, movement, and infinite lightness. All dahlias integrate beautifully within a profusion of straw-toned grasses, enhancing the graphic and ethereal appearance of a Pennisetum or fountain grass with its large silky plumes, a Miscanthus sinensis ‘Malepartus’ with its pink plumes, a Stipa pennata, a Molinia arundinacea ‘Windsaule’ with its silvery spikelets, or a Hordeum jubatum or foxtail barley with its silky inflorescences. A mix with subtle charm from early to late summer.

Dahlia ‘Ridel’ and Hordeum jubatum or Foxtail Barley – Pennisetum

Harmonious Vegetable Garden

If dahlias are the stars of borders and cottage gardens, their colourful and opulent flowers are also a must-have alongside vegetable plants. Dahlias make stunning bouquets: a few rows of these cut flowers in a corner of the vegetable garden will be enough to break the monotony of those rows of vegetables! Tall dahlias (Giant Dahlia ‘Barbarossa’, ‘Bristol Stripe’) will pair beautifully with low-growing plants, such as courgettes: a harmonious coexistence that will also help keep the base of the dahlia cool during the summer. Consider placing a Lace Dahlia ‘Encore’, with its large, tousled, bright chick-yellow flower heads, near an Artichoke with its gigantic metallic blue leaves. Complementary in nature, they will enhance each other, creating a truly spectacular effect as September approaches.

Fennel – Dahlia ‘Barbarossa’ – Artichoke ‘Vert de Laon’ – Dwarf Nasturtium – Gladiolus ‘Handel’

In the vegetable garden, dahlias can be perfectly mixed with Rudbeckias, Gladioli, or Zinnias. They will rise in mid-summer amidst the bronze or green leafy haze of Bronze Fennel or form a magnificent backdrop for a border of Indian Carnation, Red Orach, or Dwarf Nasturtiums.

Requiem in Shades of Pink!

Embrace monochrome by mixing roses: soft pink or magenta pink. They will harmonise effortlessly, creating a poetic or voluptuous display. The infinite colour palette of dahlias allows for endless variations. Romantic version featuring a Waterlily Dahlia ‘Gerrie Hoek’ with its soft silvery-pink blooms, an Anemone Dahlia ‘Take Off’, or the mauve-pink Ball Dahlia ‘Wizard Of Oz’. Perfect for a central position or the third row in a flowerbed or border, they pair beautifully with cool-toned cosmos, old-fashioned roses, Phlox paniculata ‘Violet Flame’, the delicate heads of tall Verbena bonariensis, or tall Lavateras. Turn up the pink! This festival of saturated colours is perfect for late season: dare to combine bold tones with the fuchsia-pink balls of Ball Dahlia ‘Purple Fox’, the deep raspberry pink of Cactus Dahlia ‘Urchin’, the purplish-pink of Ball Dahlia ‘Rocco’, Amaranths, Cleomes, Asters, Cosmos, and Echinacea purpurea ‘Vintage Wine’. The beauty and richness of these magenta hues will be enhanced by plants with purple or dark foliage, such as a Purple Smoke Bush. So much pink could be overwhelming without the counterpoint of silvery artemisias, young eucalyptus, and glaucous grasses (Panicum virgatum ‘Dallas Blues’) or chalk-white spiked grasses (Pennisetum villosum).

Dahlia ‘Senior’s dream’ – Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ – Aster ‘Dumosus Jenny’ – Phlox ‘Early Red’ – Panicum ‘Dallas Blues’

For a hot/cold idyll

Dahlia Cactus ‘Friquolet’ – Aconitum ‘carmichaelii Arendsii’ – Ornamental Tobacco ‘Cuba Red Bright’ – Phlox ‘Blue Paradise’

The incandescent globes of the Dahlia ‘Red Fox’ or the fiery, ruffled blooms of the Cactus Dahlia ‘Friquolet’ or the Fimbriata Dahlia ‘Red Fubuki’ will pair beautifully with vivid blue lupins, azure Phlox paniculata (‘Blue Paradise’, ‘Chattahoochee’), intensely violet aconites, or the gentian-blue Salvia patens for a stunning, contrasting bicolour display. The red gains opulence when paired with the Ornamental Tobacco ‘Cuba Red Bright’ or the dark, purple foliage of a purple smoke tree.

To brighten up a terrace or balcony

Some fairly compact, small-sized varieties (40-60 cm) such as the Dwarf Cactus Dahlia ‘Red Pygmy’ or ‘Park Record’ are very well-suited to summer containers. The brightly coloured Gallery Art Deco Dahlias, as well as the Happy Single ‘Juliet’ and ‘Princess’ with their simple, vividly coloured flowers, will provide continuous blooms until the first frost. These miniature dahlias will look wonderful mixed with the plumes of small, feathery ornamental grasses (Pennisetum villosum, Hordeum jubatum, Stipa pennata) and the starry blooms of Asters, Dianthus, Moss Phlox, or Echinacea.

Dahlia – Hydrangea Limelight- Carex-Geranium- Cosmos

For oversized bouquets

A must-have for summer or end-of-season bouquets, with their XXL flower heads or mini pom-poms, Dahlia flowers are so generous and make excellent cut flowers. Whether in a lush round bouquet, a soft composition, or a very rustic arrangement, Dahlia flowers are less suited to structured bouquets. Dahlias mix wonderfully with each other and with all sorts of flowers, and why not even with mini vegetables like ornamental cabbages, for monochrome or polychrome creations. Soft pink Dahlias (‘Nenekasi’, Camellia Dahlia ‘Offshore Dream’) are perfect for romantic pastel compositions paired with lilies or rose buds, while pompon Dahlias (‘Fatima’) work well in more contemporary mixes, and Honka Dahlias add a touch of originality to bouquets. Pairing them with foliage (eucalyptus, artemisia, ferns, fennel, sedum) creates a lovely contrast in shape and tone, but it’s not essential: the Dahlia flower often stands beautifully on its own. In a vase, it lasts about a week.