SOME of our homegrown Dahlias have been bursting to get out of the polytunnels and into your gardens! Now, I know that some of you are not fans... images of rows of ‘em in the allotment or down the bottom of the garden, then the shrieking that accompanied the occasional wayward and lost earwig that fell out of the multitude of petals. And, yes – there are plenty of those stonkers available... but we have concentrated hard on the fact that single flowered dahlias offer pollen and nectar to our beleaguered bees so we have grown a lot of them again this year.

The other thing that may put you off is the fact that some of them really are whoppers in that they are very tall and, in an exposed site, will need staking and you can’t be bothered with any of that. Fair enough... so we are growing some short ones that are totally perfect for growing in pots.

There are a couple of ‘series’ of dahlias to know a bit about here. ‘Series’ is just a way of grouping the plants that basically come from the same genetic stock so have the same characteristics. Any that you find with ‘HAPPY’ as the first word in the name, means that they are all single flowered and all 60cm in height, making them perfect for growing in pots. ‘Happy Single Wink’ is pink, ‘Happy Single Party’ is yellow and ‘Happy First Love’ is light orange with red tints.

The ‘Dark Angel’ series is very similar to the ‘Happy’ series in that the flowers are all single and they also grow to only 60cm. The difference is that the leaves are dark rather than green. ‘Dark Angel Braveheart’ is a dark crimson and ‘Dark Angel Pretty Woman’ is a soft pink.

Moving to slightly taller ones, we come to the ‘Classic’ series. These are one of my favourites in that they are tall enough at 100cm, but not too tall. They have single or semi-double flowers, still making them bee-friendly. I am particularly fond of ‘Classic Giselle’ which is a lilac/red and also ‘Classic Summertime’ which is a pale primrose – lovely!

Once Dahlias get going, and providing you deadhead and feed them regularly, they make brilliant additions to borders and pots and also are good as cutting flowers (minus the earwigs, of course!) And once they are over and the first frost has whacked the leaves, you can lift them, dry them off and store them to start them up again next spring.

A quick word about another great plant for pots – patio roses. These are about 60cm high and the same in width and have thinner but more densely packed stems than other rose types. The flowers are generally smaller but they are incredibly floriferous and tough little things, needing no fussing with serious pruning techniques. Again, deadheading and feeding is important, as is the use of a good potting compost – in this case, because the plant is to be permanently in a pot, use a John Innes No 3 mixed with about 25% either garden compost or peat-based compost to lighten it a little. Mix in some slow-release rose and shrub fertilizer granules at the time of planting as well to give it a good start.

If you have got your hanging baskets outside now, water daily (morning or evening) and deadhead like mad. Feed once a week with tomato feed to keep it tip-top.