Dahlia Kelsey Annie Joy

The 'Kelsey Annie Joy' collarette dahlia is a particularly refined dahlia, and its endless flowering seduces with its dawn tones. This former winner of the American Dahlia Society offers beautifully formed flowers from summer to frost, with petals of a slightly salmony yellow, very soft, adorned with a central crown of tiny petals finely edged and shaded with pink, surrounding a golden heart. Of medium stature, this plant works wonders in borders or large beds. And its flowers are very beautiful in a vase.

Dahlias are part of the Asteraceae family and are originally from the high plateaus of Mexico. At present, the roughly 25,000 horticultural varieties obtained have invaded, to our great pleasure, gardens all over the world. The dahlia is a perennial herbaceous plant with a tuber, a reserve organ that allows it to survive the cold season at rest when kept relatively dry.

The 'Kelsey Annie Joy' variety was introduced in 2013. It is a dahlia classified among the Collarette Dahlias, which is a horticultural category defined by the shape of the flower. In this group, the coloured ligules of the head are regularly arranged in a crown around a collar of tiny petals surrounding the central disk. The 'Kelsey Annie Joy' flowers are about 10 cm (4in) in diameter. They show outer ligules of a soft salmony yellow, and those in the centre are tinted and edged with pink. The golden heart of the flower makes it very bright. The flowering takes place from July to October. The habit is bushy, with the plant reaching an average height of 1m (3ft) and may require staking. The very branched stems are hollow and the leaves are opposite, pinnately lobed, meaning they are divided into 3 or 5 very toothed lobes. The leaves and stems are dark green.

To encourage repeat flowering, be sure to remove faded flowers, or better yet, regularly make large colourful bouquets by combining it with other varieties. 'Kelsey Annie Joy' pairs particularly well with purple flowers (Dahlia 'Obama', 'Duke Duweno') or mauve flowers (Nepetas, Agastache 'Serpentine', Anchusa 'Dropmore') and the dark foliage of physocarpus or Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing'. In borders, this dahlia will create colorful spots alongside echinaceas, for example, which bloom at the same time, as well as daylilies or asters.

A star plant in borders and cottage gardens, Dahlias confidently accompany the most beautiful flowers but are also appreciated alongside vegetable plants. In Mexico, this tuberous plant was first cultivated as a root vegetable for consumption. But its poor taste assigned it the status of an ornamental plant. Since then, interest in their beautiful exuberance has never waned.