Dahlia Aspen

The 'Aspen' Dwarf Cactus Dahlia astonishes with the size and width of its flowers on such a low plant, with particularly compact vegetation. They are double and offer a pleasant contrast of pastel colours between the pure white ligules with curiously undulating edges and the white-green centre. These strange petals radiate around a small yellow centre. It is a beautiful plant to cultivate in a pot on the terrace or balcony or to plant on sunny borders for an endless season of flowers.

Dahlias belong to the Asteraceae family and are initially from the Mexican highlands. Currently, some 25,000 horticultural varieties obtained by humans have invaded, for our greatest pleasure, gardens all over the world.
The 'Aspen' variety is a dwarf Dahlia, belonging to the horticultural family of "Cactus", which will not exceed 40 cm (16in) in all directions. It is a horticultural category defined by the shape of the flower. In this group, the flowers are double heads, composed of long, narrow and pointed ligules, recurved over more than half of their length. The 'Aspen' flowers have ligules with very undulating edges, measuring about 10 cm (4in) in diameter, in a harmony of pure white and pistachio green. The flowering takes place from July to October. The habit is bushy and very compact, requiring absolutely no staking. The very branched stems are hollow, and the leaves are opposite, compound, dividing them into 3 or 5 very toothed lobes. The leaves and stems are dark green.

To encourage flowering, remove faded flowers, or even better, regularly make large colourful bouquets by associating them with other varieties. Dwarf dahlias bring dynamism to borders or pots. 'Aspen' pairs particularly well with the Park Princess and Snow Princess varieties, with the purple-flowered verbena, with the pink-red flowers of the 'Whirlybird' Nasturtium (annual), or even with asters.

As 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 qualities assigned it the rank of ornamental plant. Since then, the interest in their beautiful exuberance has never waned.