Autumnal colour - but from Dahlias?

For most of us the autumn means a splash of red, gold and yellow foliage, windy days and cool or frosty nights.

In Holland Park, however, it is the last gasp of riotous colour in the Napoleon Garden that catches my attention. This small corner is so-named as it once housed a bust of the famous emperor who was much admired by a previous Lady Holland. Sadly the bust disappeared and many an hour has been wasted trying to guess where in the park it might be buried. 

The colour I refer to is from the dahlias that flower so prolifically there late in the summer each year before being cut down by the frosts of the autumn. The display is no accident and from 2012, as a part of the official diamond jubilee celebrations of the park, the plants will be supplied by the National Dahlia Collection.

Dahlias are natives of Mexico, Central America and Colombia and were first recorded by European explorers in 1615 (Francisco Hernandez, published this record much later, though, in his book on medicinal plants in 1651) and again in 1787 by Nicolas-Joseph Thiery de Menonville while looking for cochineal insects. Named after Anders Dahl, a Swedish botanist, seeds were sent back to Madrid and flowered in October 1789. These plants were called Dahlia coccinea and it is from them that Lord Bute obtained seeds to try growing in his garden in England. These failed.

The Dutch imported a box of roots around about this time and their sole surviving plant named Dahlia juarezii was crossed with the D. coccinea to produce a long line of hybrids that we now enjoy in our gardens today. 

A second species of dahlia - believed to be the dark petalled D. variabilis was successfully grown from Spanish seeds in 1804 by the head gardener in Holland House (now Park). 

Once only known and cultivated by the Aztecs for food and decoration, today we know of at least 36 species and on account of the dogged determination of garden plant breeders, enjoy a rich palette of dahlias.