Sarah Raven's new dahlia collection with Cath Kidston guarantees a designer-worthy cut flower garden, even for beginners

If you're aiming to grow your own cut flowers for the first time this year, or you’re a seasoned gardener looking for a brand-new scheme of blooms, we have one answer for you: the stunning dahlias from Sarah Raven's new The Collective collection are available to shop now.

Gardening expert Sarah Raven has shared her cut flower garden tips with us before, and she’s just launched The Collective, a dahlia project involving five leading tastemakers from the world of fashion, floristry and interior design, including Cath Kidston MBE.

The experts have handpicked their favourite dahlia varieties, each bringing a slightly different style and colour palette to the table (and vase). Once you’ve chosen your favourite look, you can buy the tubers as a collection and grow the arrangement yourself for a bespoke cutting garden experience.

I spoke to Sarah and Cath about the story behind the collection, and why they think everyone from garden to interior enthusiasts should plant dahlia tubers this year.

The collections

I explored the five collections with Sarah — which you can order in as tubers now — and spoke to Cath Kidston MBE about the inspiration behind her scheme of dahlias, too.

1. Cath Kidston's patterned blooms

Sarah first met Cath around 10 years ago, as a fellow eponymous brand-owner. Cath doesn’t consider herself to be a gardener, but she fell in love with her greenhouse and scented-leaf pelargoniums during lockdown, which led to the creation of her bath and body brand, C. Atherley.

Alongside geraniums, Cath is also a huge fan of dahlias.

‘I have grown dahlias for a long, long time,’ she said. ‘The thing is, I'm not a gardener — I'm not very good at my flower beds and the outdoor garden and so on, but I absolutely adore having plants in the greenhouse and plants that I can pick.

‘For me, it's about what can I bring into the house throughout the year to make lovely arrangements. It’s very much home more than garden-based, I think.'

Like Sarah, Cath is captivated by the flowering potential of dahlias.

‘Dahlias are one of those magical plants that flower and flower — the more you pick them, the more they flower,’ she said. ‘It's really dependent on the weather, but from around the end of July through to the first frost, I can pick dahlias for the house, which is like heaven.’

Cath’s dahlia collection involves showy, pattern-like blooms. I asked her more about her variety choices.

‘Sarah's got this divine collection where I can get the energy of primary colour that I adore,’ she said. ‘When I chose mine, I mixed a sort of clear orange with a dustier lilac-pink, which I loved together, and then a deeper red, which was really gorgeous but not too scarlet.

‘And then Sarah has this magic one with speckles called Dahlia ‘Dutch Delight’.’

Cath used Pelargonium ‘Attar of Roses’ as a foliage base, a nod to her passion for scented-leaf pelargoniums. The crushed leaves provide the signature scent of C. Atherley's collection of soaps and lotions, which I tried when I visited the store. They smell divine!

2. Shane Connolly's jewel box

Shane Connolly, royal florist to The King and Queen, is a renowned floral designer who Sarah describes as ‘the main protagonist for sustainable floristry’. His dahlia collection is perfect if you’re looking for a jewel-box colour scheme — it’s full of 'historical-looking' single flowers and deep, silky reds.

‘When he put them together, it just felt to me like a sort of pirate’s treasure trove because they were jewel colours and starry like a brooch,’ Sarah said.

The dahlias Shane picked are brilliant choices for a wildlife garden, too. ‘Shane’s collection is great for the bees and butterflies, and also good for the birds, because the dahlias he chose form seed after they’ve finished flowering,’ Sarah explained.

3. Savannah Miller's timeless romance

British bridal and fashion designer Savannah Miller is another eponymous tastemaker whose dahlia collection reflects her bridal collection.

It’s full of soft textures and romantic pinks, yellows and oranges. ‘Tonally, they really speak to my soul, and there is a subtlety and femininity in the softness of my collection that makes my heart sing,’ Savannah said.

Sarah connected with Savannah after spotting her dahlia post on Instagram. ‘I said, ‘They're so like your wedding dresses, so feminine and sort of curvy, but also stylish and classic,' and she just said, 'Yes, I just love your dahlias,’ so we started a social media relationship and I asked her if she would consider putting a collection together for The Collective.’

4. Milli Proust's vintage palette

Like Shane, flower grower and florist Milli Proust teaches at Perch Hill, so it was only natural that Sarah asked her to select a dahlia collection for The Collective.

If you’re up-to-date with the latest garden trends, you’ll like Milli’s collection: Sarah says its vintage tones of smoky watermelon, peach and raspberry are fashionable at the moment.

‘Millie is a florist who's absolutely pushing the boundaries — she's out there at the forefront, so hers is more fashiony,’ Sarah said.

5. Willow Crossley's mad mix

If you’re after a bold display with a richer colour palette, you’ll love Willow Crossley’s dahlia collection.

Willow is a celebrated floral stylist and long-time fan of Sarah Raven based in West Oxfordshire. She describes her garden aesthetic as ‘romantic, wild and abundant,’ and her arrangement for The Collective defines this style.

It includes the maddest, stripiest dahlias and bicolour blooms in deep purple, pink and orange tones, perfectly capturing the ‘unadulterated joy’ Willow set out to achieve.

Why dahlias?

I asked Sarah why dahlias are a great choice for a cut flower patch.

'There’s a dahlia for everyone,' she said. 'The last four or five years have really transformed the range of dahlias that are available. Some are as subtle and delicate as a sweet pea or a rose, and others are as flamboyant as a fascinator.

'Whatever style or taste you have, there is a dahlia for you, and that's what's exciting.'

Dahlias are Sarah's favourite plant, so they were the natural starting point for The Collective.

'They’re my favourite plant in the world because they're just so easy, whether you have a tiny garden, balcony or massive garden,' she said.

That's good news for those of us looking for small garden ideas, and if you're working with a balcony or terrace, you can learn to grow dahlias in pots, too. Plus, they're prolific bloomers, offering an abundance of gorgeous cut flowers throughout summer and autumn.

Sarah's passion for dahlias very naturally led to The Collective, a curated group of 'tastemakers' who are pioneers in their respective fields — Cath Kidston MBE, Shane Connolly, Savannah Miller, Milli Proust and Willow Crossley. Sarah asked them each to create a collection of dahlias that customers could buy as tubers to grow the arrangement in their own gardens.

‘They're like-minded people who cover the different areas of creativity, whether it be fashion or interior design,' Sarah said.

'For me, it's just complete joy because they put something totally different together — people coming in with a new set of eyes, who have a very strong eye anyway, and strong opinions about looks and creativity.'

Which dahlia collection is your favourite? If you'll be giving Sarah's dahlias a go this year, we'd love to see the results. Tag us on social media!