Dahlia Pompone Double Mixed

Small tight balls of curled petals, five to seven centimetres across, geometrically precise in a way the rest of the family is not. They come on tall plants at 90 to 120cm, so you get the neat little heads on stems long enough to be useful.

Pompones have a particular old-fashioned character. Where a decorative dahlia is flamboyant and a cactus is spiky, this is quiet and exact, and it reads as vintage in a way that suits a rustic arrangement or a cottage-style wedding better than anything showier. The mix runs soft pink, ruby, yellow, orange and cream.

The trade-off is scale. These are small flowers on big plants, so a single specimen in a border does not carry; you want them in a group of five or more, or in a row for cutting. The tightly packed double form also shuts pollinators out entirely, so this one is grown for the vase rather than the bees. Stake early at that height. Like all the seed dahlias it is a half-hardy perennial, flowering July to the frosts, with tubers you can lift and keep.