Changing fashions in dinner-plate dahlias

If the world of floraculture has its rock stars, then the dahlia variety known as ‘Café Au Lait’ is definitely one of them. This summer Instagram is abuzz with flower farmers and wedding florists the world over proudly posting dreamy images of its extravagantly-ruffled blooms, each one as big as a dinner-plate and as befits its name, the colour of a milky coffee, but with subtle hints of blush-pink.

Indeed, so hugely popular is this particular dahlia that most American and European specialist suppliers of its fleshy tubers (which are planted in late spring) quickly sold out of it this year, resulting in anguished online pleas from gardeners.

The seeds of its global popularity were sown a few years ago when the flower featured in Martha Stewart Weddings, the American bridal magazine. Nowadays you'll see its larger-than-life blooms featuring in countless bridal bouquets (just one flower is large enough to form a spectacular solo bouquet) as well as swanky wedding table arrangements.

So where did Dahlia ‘Café au Lait’ come from? And is some clever, modern plant breeder getting rich on the profits of its worldwide sales?

To find out, I contacted UK dahlia tuber suppliers, Peter Nyssen, wh which is always on the look out for interesting varieties. It turns out that this great big show-off of a dinner-plate dahlia has been knocking around since the late 1960s, and was bred by the Dutch firm Bruidegom. Nyssen’s chief buyer, Karen Lynes, first saw it in a Dutch grower’s plot about 20 years ago and fell instantly in love with it: “It has all the characteristics you want in a dahlia; great flower shape, size and colour and a strong, bushy growth habit.”

It’s since become one of Nyssen’s bestsellers, its dreamy-coloured flowers the perfect accompaniment to the nostalgic shades of ivory, peaches, apricot and cream that are all the rage amongst brides in recent years. Flower fashions come and go, of course, and already there are mutterings of dissent from some florists who find its huge flowers too unwieldy or too insipid in colour. Are there, I asked Lynes, any new or emerging dahlia stars that might take its place? Turns out there are.  Move over ‘Café au Lait’, there’s a new dinner-plate dahlia with some serious va-va-voom in town. Its name is ‘Belle of Barmera’.