The Fancy Pants dahlia is a novelty of the collarette dahlia group that definitely deserves some attention. It is characterized by intriguing flowers that grow atop strong stems that give a plant a shrub-like appearance. A creamy-white collar made of short, frizzled ray florets rests on the broader pink petals. Disc florets in the centre are yellow and give the flower a girlish charm. The intriguingly bending petals are one of the main features of the 6 to 8 centimetres wide flowers. Petals rolled inwards like tubes make the flower resemble the starfish. Those dahlias are still relatively rare in home gardens. This plant flowers from July until the end of October or the first frost.

Choose a sunny or only partially shady situation for the magnificent, unique dahlia plants. It should be sheltered from strong wind that could break frail and tall stems. Dahlia tolerates almost all types of soil, yet this plant grows best in a fertile, permeable soil that remains moist. Dahlia belongs to species that are planted only in spring, after the last late frost. Forcing dahlias in pots is a good solution - those seedlings can flower even three weeks earlier than plants grown the usual way. They allow you to enjoy the wonderful blooms for an even longer period of time. Dahlia tubers need to be dug out and stored with a short piece of the stem that shoots from them. Excavated and slightly dried rootstocks should winter in a cool room that is however protected from frost. We recommend layering the storage boxes with sawdust, peat or dry sand. We recommend checking on the tubers once in a while and, if needed, remove the specimens that have rotten or fallen to fungi.

Each package contains 1 piece of the Fancy Pants dahlia rootstock of premium quality. Basic growing instructions and key plant facts were printed on the packaging label.

• Variety: Fancy Pants
• Use: ornamental
• Growth form: erect, bushy
• Flower colour: creamy-white and pink with yellow centres
• Vegetation form: perennial
• Flower type: 6 to 8 cm wide
• Site: sunny or partially shady, sheltered; fertile, permeable, moist soil
• Bulbs: 1
• Flowering period: July - October
• Wintering in the ground: no