Dahlias are an excellent choice for the front of your garden borders. With their long blooming season and bold, bright, dramatic blooms, they add a special kind of excitement and visual appeal. Blooming from early to midsummer all the way to your first frost, it’s difficult to beat these beauties for blooming power. 

When constructing your dahlia border, it’s essential to consider aspects such as bloom size and timing, color, and flower form. Most importantly, you’ll need to consider the size of the plant and select varieties that’ll fit well in the space. In general, the front of the border needs to be low enough to complement, but not obscure, the rest of the garden. 

Luckily, there are numerous short and bushy dahlia cultivars that stay close to the ground and produce an incredible bounty of stunning blooms. Plant them en masse, or pair your dahlias with ornamental grasses, herbs, and small flowering plants to soften the edges and create a seamless look with depth and texture. 

It’s essential to pinch your dahlias if you want a short, bushy form that looks lush and finely cultivated. Remember to pinch your plants when they have three sets of leaves to encourage branching and achieve the desired form. Here are some stunning dahlia varieties that are low-growing and perfect for the front of the border. 

‘Gallery Art Deco’

Blooms stay vibrant from warm summer right through frost.

The Gallery series consists of compact, dwarf dahlias that work incredibly well in containers, borders, and small space gardens. They have an attractive, dense, bushy form, and bloom abundantly from mid-summer to frost. The blooms are often fully double or decorative, which is less common in dwarf varieties.

‘Gallery Art Deco’ is a flashy, beautiful, long-blooming dahlia. The blooms are large for the compact size of the plant. At three to four inches in diameter, they rival many taller ones. This is a great short and busy dahlia type, rarely growing taller than 18 inches. The fully double flowers are decorative and eye-catching in shades of coral and salmon with touches of yellow.

‘Happy Single Flame’

Nearly black leaves make bright orange blooms truly pop.

The Happy Single series has single-petaled blooms with open centers that are appealing to pollinators. They have a more natural and quaint appearance than some fancier, double varieties. ‘Happy Single Flame’ is a dramatic cultivar because of its unique color combination. 

 First, ‘Happy Single Flame’ has some of the darkest foliage we’ve seen. The leaves are so dark they’re nearly black. This sets the stage for brilliant, bright orange flowers with a dark eye surrounded by a yellow sunburst. For the goth gardener, there is no finer border variety, and truly, this is an excellent short and bushy dahlia addition to any garden. 

‘Topmix White’

Petite white blossoms invite buzzing visitors throughout the season.

The Topmix series is another excellent short and bushy dahlia collection for the front of the border. These dainty, single-flowered dahlias also make great container plants. They also rarely get taller than 16 inches, so you won’t need to worry about them casting a shadow. They have a long blooming season, keeping your borders looking lovely through summer and fall. 

‘Topmix White’ features attractive, medium-green foliage. Its spread is about the same as its height, making it a lovely rounded shape. The open-centered, white blossoms are attractive and welcoming to pollinators and other beneficial insects. 

‘Dahlegria® Sunrise’

Warm orange tones bring sunshine to cool garden spots.

The breeding behind the Dahlegria® series aims to create dahlias that have a mixture of ornamental impact and ecological benefit. The single flowers are welcoming for pollinators and other beneficial insects. They are slightly taller, growing up to 24 inches, but they also have more significant flowers and are still a good size for the front of the border. 

‘Dahlegria® Sunrise’ is another cultivar with deep, dark, glossy foliage. It’s so beautiful that these flowers are decorative even when they’re not in bloom. The flowers have bright, reddish-orange petals with a ring of yellow at the center, surrounding an orange eye. These short and bushy dahlias are flashy and colorful, a perfect conversation piece. 

Lubega® Power ‘Yellow Orange’

Compact size makes it great for front-of-border spots.

The Lubega® Power series is perfect for its ornamental beauty and pollinator appeal. They are excellent for the front of the border, maturing to about 16 inches tall. ‘Yellow Orange’ has lovely dark foliage and a spread that is about the same as its height, so it has a nice, shrubby form. 

‘Yellow Orange’ features wonderful, large flowers in a reddish-orange hue. When they open fully, there is a yellow sunburst in the center, surrounding a yellow eye. They are an easy, bountiful, and nectar-rich variety for pollinators. 

‘Melody Mambo’

A standout bloom that plays well with other garden friends.

You won’t find a prettier red dahlia for the front of your borders than ‘Melody Mambo.’ The flowers are ball-shaped, with deep, rich, velvety red petals. It’s a rich, lipstick red that stands out beautifully against lush, green foliage. 

‘Melody Mambo’ is slightly taller, growing up to 22 inches, but it’s still small enough for containers and borders. The flowers are large, but not top-heavy, so they won’t flop over when they bloom, unlike some larger-flowered types. 

‘Mystic Spirit’

Garden magic happens with these apricot blooms and dark leaves.

The mystic series has excellent ornamental and pollinator appeal. They’re inspired by wildflowers and have a more natural, organic appearance. Don’t let my description fool you, though. ‘Mystic Spirit’ is as intentional as they come. 

‘Mystic Spirit’ will end up growing to about two feet tall. The foliage is dark purple, almost black, and highly ornamental. These short and bushy dahlias feature soft, apricot- and peach-colored flowers that are ethereal against the dark background. They feature a dark eye, and the petals are lighter at the tips and darker in the center.

‘Pacific Time’

A perfect border star with blooms full of personality.

‘Pacific Time’ is a unique and stunning cultivar that is perfect for drawing attention to the front of your border. When the decorative flowers start to bloom they are typically white to light pink. Gradually, the successive blooms will take on red accents. Each flower is entirely unique with a painterly appearance. 

The plant will grow to about two feet tall. The flowers are small, but incredibly fancy, and bountiful, it’s a great bloomer. The stems are sturdy and dark purple, and the foliage is a bright, dark green. It has a lush, exotic look. 

‘Heatwave’

Compact in size but giant in flower power and beauty.

‘Heatwave’, also called Red Carpet, is an outstanding cultivar with large, flamboyant red blooms. It’s low-growing, making it ideal for borders, and produces an incredible profusion of flowers from midsummer through frost. The flowers are large and bold, in contrast to the relatively compact size of the plant. When in full bloom, they obscure the foliage from a bird’s eye view. 

‘Impression Famoso’ is a delightful orchid pink variety with a bright yellow center and a collar of dainty white petals. It’s one of the most charming varieties I’ve ever seen, and perfect for the front of the border. This is an excellent short and bushy dahlia variety, maturing to a maximum height of 20 inches. 

‘HS Princess’

Open centers invite bees to dance on pale petals.

The HS in ‘HS Princess’ stands for the Happy Single series. If you recall from earlier, these are compact plants with nicely formed, single-petal blooms. ‘HS Princess’ has perfect creamy white petals with a tint of lavender-pink running through them. 

This is another short, bushy dahlia cultivar with dark purple foliage that appears black in certain lighting conditions. The flowers are relatively broad, at three to four inches across. They have a bright yellow, open center that appeals to pollinators. 

‘Kelsey Annie Joy’

Blooms brighten borders all summer and into fall.

‘Kelsey Annie Joy’ is sheer perfection in a collarette form dahlia. This short and bushy dahlia has dark green foliage and deep purple stems that add drama and personality. Not that the flowers need it, they are more than capable of holding their own. 

An outer ring of rounded, apricot to yellow petals surrounds a perfect golden center. The collar is made of the daintiest, most perfect pink petals that fade to gold in the center. It’s pollinator friendly, and blooms from summer until the first frost. 

‘HS Juliet’

Bright pink blooms pop with a sunny golden crown.

I want to add more of the Happy Single cultivars because they truly are great for the front of the border. They’re also excellent for containers. ‘HS Juliet’ is a nice blend of conventional and splashy, with bright pink, single flowers that have a golden crown in the center.

The single-petal flowers in this variety create a beautiful arrangement with the dark stems and foliage. They are apricot colored with a bright ring of crimson, like a kiss, around the yellow center. The contrast between flowers and foliage is remarkable and striking. 

‘Muchacha’

Tall and fluffy blooms that change from rose to mauve.

‘Muchacha’ is a decorative dahlia, and slightly taller than some of the others on the list. But its truly wonderful flowers make it worth considering. It can grow as tall as 30 inches, but that can work nicely as long as the bed can support that height front and center. 

The decorative form flowers make ‘Muchacha’ a special cultivar in this category. They are large and fluffy, and stunningly color changing. They start out a delightful shade of deep rose-pink. As they age the petals fade to lavender and mauve. These are just tall enough to make them wonderful for cut arrangements!