Hello friends,

Today I thought I'd share with you my ten favorite named dahlia varieties of the 2025/2026 growing season. This list is in no particular order, but no doubt you'll probably see a pattern emerging...

First up we have the Polka variety, which is an anemone dahlia with white and cranberry outer leaves, and golden fluffy inner leaves. Honesty, she is probably my new favorite dahlia of all time. Her colouring is just so unusual and happy, that she'll always have a space in my garden.

Number two is my second favorite new dahlia variety of all time, Bumble Rumble, a collarette dahlia with bright pink and white and gold flowers. She's a stunner in the garden with her frilly petals, and the bumble bees do indeed rumble over her all summer long.

Dahlia variety number three is Misses Amy, another anemone dahlia, with cranberry and light pink colouring. She has a huge pincushion top which makes her another favorite of bees and butterflies in our garden.

The next variety, Mambo, is another stunning anemone dahlia in my garden. She has magenta and red and peachy toned flowers, and her inner anemone petals are very unusual, as they lie flat with serrated gold tips.

Dahlia variety number five is Dream Seeker, a collarette dahlia bred by Dr Keith Hammett in New Zealand. This bright orange dahlia also attracts bees and butterflies all summer long, and her florescent colouring brightens our front garden for months and months over summer and autumn.

Cafe Au Lait Rosé is the only dinner plate dahlia to make it into to my favorite dahlia list for the 2025/2026 season. Her flowers are huge, and the deep magenta flower petals are stunning against the green backdrop of the garden. If I were to only keep one dinner plate dahlia CAL Rosé would be the one.

Princess Nadine is another eye catching collarette dahlia I love, and her cranberry shades fading to golden yellow petals are just so pretty. She's probably my third favorite dahlia overall in the garden.

Sweet Sanne is one of the two decorative dahlias which made it onto my favorite dahlias list. Her ombré dark peach colouring is gorgeous against her dark green leaves.

Joal Kaitlyn, is another decorative dahlia which made it onto the list. She was an expensive buy for me, but she is completely worth it in my opinion. Her smoky peach/apricot colouring is just so unusual that she stands out in my front garden. This was hubby's favorite dahlia last season, and that's a big thing for him since he doesn't really care that much about plants.

And finally we have Zahra, a creamy white anemone dahlia. Her poofy flowers may be small, but they stand out against all the other brighter dahlias in the garden. She reminds me a lot of the double white daffodil varieties flowering in my garden each spring.

As you will have probably noticed by now, this list is mainly made up of anemone and collarette dahlia varieties. As the years go on, I seem to be attracted more and more to these fluffy and bright and unusual dahlia varieties.

Already in this coming year, the only dahlias I've bought in pre-sales are collarette and anemone varieties. And I've already made some space for them in the garden by digging out some dahlia varieties which no longer interest me...

Have a wonderful day

Julie-Ann

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Tags: 2026, Anemone Dahlia, Autumn, Collarette Dahlia, Dahlia, Dahlias, Decorative Dahlias, Dinner Plate Dahlias