Dahlia Hawaii

The 'Hawaii' Dahlia, with its large multicoloured flowers that appear to be painted, possesses an irresistible tropical charm. The soft pink, raspberry red, vanilla, and lemon yellow blend together in its petals, creating a harmony of colours that is reminiscent of the Impressionist style. They attract all eyes in the garden and allow for trendy bouquet arrangements. With a beautiful stature, the plant will charm in large flower beds, among bushes or tall grasses.

Dahlias belong to the Asteraceae family and are originally native to the high plateaus of Mexico. Currently, the approximately 25,000 horticultural varieties obtained by humans have invaded, to our great pleasure, gardens all over the world.

The 'Hawaii' variety, recently introduced to the horticultural market, is classified among the Decorative Dahlias, which is a horticultural category defined by the flower shape. In this group, the colourful ligules of the capitulum are regularly arranged in a spiral, they can be curved towards the stem or even fringed, for example. In this variety, the inflorescences in capitula are approximately 14-15cm in diameter and their ligules or petals are more or less tubular. The flowering period is from July to October. The habit is bushy, upright, and the plant reaches approximately 1.20m (4ft) in height when flowering, with a width of 70cm (28in). The highly branched stems are hollow and the leaves are opposite, pinnately divided into 3 or 5 deeply toothed lobes. The leaves and stems are quite light green in this variety.

To promote repeat flowering, take care to remove faded flowers, or even better, regularly create large colourful bouquets by combining it with other varieties. 'Hawaii' alone creates the backdrop for a dedicated flower bed, but its flowers will be enhanced by lighter and more discreet blooms, such as those of paniculate gypsophila, chamomiles or a linaria (Linaria purpurea 'Alba'). In flower beds, this dahlia pairs well with white paniculate phlox, tall pink or white foxgloves, and white, blue or purple autumn asters, for example. This variety with highly flowered stems allows for the addition of bouquets well into the late season. 

As a star plant for borders and herb gardens, Dahlias confidently accompany the most beautiful flowers but are also appreciated alongside vegetable plants. In Mexico, this tuberous plant was initially cultivated as a root vegetable for consumption. However, its poor taste qualities assigned it the rank of an ornamental plant.