12 Flower Friends: Companion Flowers We Love

At Flaming Acres Dahlias, our gardens aren’t just rows of blooms — they’re vibrant communities where different flowers work together, creating beauty, biodiversity, and a healthier growing environment. While dahlias are the stars of the show, their supporting cast of companion flowers play important roles in attracting pollinators, deterring pests, and adding variety to bouquets.

Here are some of our favorite dahlia companions — and why they belong in your garden, too:

Chianti

Moonshadow

Copper Queen

Sunflowers

Colors: Creamy pale yellow, buttery gold, fiery orange, and deep velvet burgundy

At Flaming Acres Dahlias, we grow 25 different varieties of sunflowers in our cutting garden, from classic golden blooms to bi-color flame-tipped beauties and dramatic deep reds with chocolate centers. We prefer branching varieties for the cutting garden because they produce multiple blooms over a longer season, giving us a steady supply for arrangements. While single-stem “pro-cut” types are excellent for one-time harvests, branching sunflowers offer extended cutting potential.Sunflowers can reach six feet or more in height, so they need plenty of space and are often best planted along a fence line or at the back of a bed where they won’t shade smaller plants. Easy to grow, they thrive in full sun with minimal fuss, act as beacons for pollinators, and provide vertical drama and structure alongside dahlias.

Zinnias

Colors: Every hue, form, and height imaginable
Zinnias are one of the easiest flowers to grow — and one of the most rewarding. At Flaming Acres, we let the bees freely cross-pollinate our zinnias each summer, then harvest the seeds in the fall. The next year, we plant thousands upon thousands, never knowing what unique and beautiful color combinations will appear. Zinnias thrive in heat, appreciate regular watering, and are best planted in late spring for peak performance. Their bright blooms add cheerful filler to bouquets and steady color in the garden from summer to frost.

Amaranth

Colors: Deep, rich burgundy

Amaranth is the drama queen of the cut flower garden, with velvety tassels that spill and drape like ropes of jewels or upright plumes that stand like feathery torches. Its rich burgundy tones provide the perfect counterpoint to the bright, showy faces of dahlias, creating bouquets with depth, contrast, and a touch of wild romance. Beyond its beauty, amaranth is a garden workhorse—drawing in pollinators and beneficial insects while thriving in the summer heat. Its sturdy stems and long vase life make it a must-have for cut flower growers, whether you’re crafting lush, farmhouse-style arrangements or elegant, modern designs. Plant it alongside your dahlias, and you’ll have a constant supply of texture, movement, and color to elevate every bouquet.

Sweet Peas

Colors: Soft pastels and romantic tones

Sweet peas are the poets of the cut flower garden, twining gracefully up trellises and weaving themselves among sturdier plants. Their blossoms—ruffled, delicate, and butterfly-like—unfurl in shades of blush, lavender, cream, and rose, casting a dreamy haze over the garden. But it’s their fragrance that steals hearts: a nostalgic, sweet perfume that no dahlia can rival. Perfect for filling the air with romance, sweet peas add both vertical dimension and scent to arrangements, softening bold dahlias with their fluttering petals and enchanting aroma. With each stem, they whisper a reminder that a bouquet is not just seen, but also experienced through every sense.

Lavender

Colors: Soft purple, white, blush

Lavender is the timeless classic of the cutting garden, cherished as much for its fragrance as for its beauty. At Flaming Acres Dahlias, we grow varieties not only in the signature soft purple, but also in dreamy shades of white and light pink — delicate tones that pair beautifully with the vibrant palette of dahlias. Slender spires rise above silvery-green foliage, releasing a soothing scent that calms both gardener and guest alike. Beyond its charm, lavender serves as a quiet guardian in the garden, naturally deterring pests like aphids and moths. In arrangements, its airy stems and aromatic blooms weave serenity through the bold drama of dahlias, offering texture, fragrance, and grace. Even in the off-season, its evergreen foliage brings structure and presence, ensuring the garden feels alive year-round. A handful of lavender is never just a cut flower — it’s a breath of peace gathered in your hands.

Cosmos

Colors: Every shade from soft pastels to bold jewel tones

Cosmos are the free spirits of the cutting garden — light, airy, and endlessly generous. Their feathery foliage and dancing blooms bring a sense of motion and grace that perfectly balances the bold stature of dahlias. With a palette ranging from blush pinks and creamy whites to fiery magentas and glowing golds, cosmos slip easily into any bouquet, softening and brightening with their cheerful presence. They self-seed with abandon, gifting you with a fresh flush of blooms season after season, and they keep the garden lively by filling the spaces between dahlia flushes. Beloved by pollinators, cosmos are magnets for butterflies and bees, ensuring your garden hums with life. Whether gathered in handfuls for a carefree arrangement or left to sway in the breeze, cosmos embody the effortless charm of a wildflower and the reliability of a cut-flower classic.

Yarrow

Colors: White, yellow, pastel pink, burgundy

Yarrow is the quiet workhorse of the cut garden, steadfast and full of charm. Its feathery foliage adds a lovely, fernlike texture, while its clusters of flat-topped blooms create the perfect backdrop for dahlias’ bold forms. Available in a spectrum from airy whites and cheerful yellows to romantic pinks and rich burgundies, yarrow weaves seamlessly into bouquets, lending both softness and structure. Beyond beauty, it’s a gardener’s ally — drought-tolerant, hardy, and beloved by beneficial insects like ladybugs and lacewings, which help keep pests at bay. With blooms that last long in the vase and foliage that holds its freshness, yarrow bridges the gap between elegance and resilience, making it a must-have companion for any dahlia-centered cutting garden.

Dara (Queen Anne’s Lace Cousin)

Colors: White and deep burgundy

Dara is the elegant cousin of Queen Anne’s Lace — familiar in form but with a richer, moodier palette. Its airy, lacy umbels seem to float above the garden, adding a touch of meadow softness that contrasts beautifully with the boldness of dahlias. In bouquets, Dara acts like a breath of fresh air, weaving in wildflower charm and giving arrangements that just-picked, effortless style. Beyond its beauty, it’s a hardworking garden friend: Dara draws in hoverflies, whose larvae happily feast on aphids, keeping your dahlias healthier and thriving. With blooms that look as though they belong in both a cottage garden and a high-end florist’s shop, Dara is the bridge between cultivated refinement and nature’s untamed grace.

Bachelor Buttons

Colors: Blue

Bachelor buttons bring a jolt of cheer to the garden with their bright, daisy-like blooms. Their true-blue color is a rarity in the flower world, making them a striking partner for the warm, fiery tones of dahlias. Blooming early in the season, they provide much-needed nectar for bees and pollinators while the dahlias are still waking up, ensuring your garden buzzes with life from the start. Easygoing and prolific, they self-seed readily, so you’ll often find them popping up in surprising spots year after year, weaving charm and continuity through your cut garden. In bouquets, their delicate texture and saturated hue act like a splash of watercolor, setting off the bold forms of dahlias with a painter’s touch.

Baby’s Breath (Gypsophila paniculata)
Colors: White and soft pink

A timeless bouquet essential, baby’s breath lends an airy, cloud-like softness to both the garden and the vase. Its sprays of tiny blossoms create a delicate veil that balances the bold forms of dahlias, adding texture and lightness. In the cut garden, baby’s breath is a workhorse filler, weaving between showier blooms and making every arrangement feel abundant. Beyond bouquets, its gentle colors and ethereal appearance bring a romantic, cottage-garden charm, ensuring your beds feel full even when other flowers are between flushes.

Snapdragons

Colors: Every shade from creamy pastels to bold reds, oranges, yellows, and bicolors

Snapdragons bring a touch of whimsy to the cut garden with their tall spires of dragon-shaped blooms that seem to “snap” open with a pinch. Their upright form adds striking vertical structure among dahlias, while their rainbow of colors makes them one of the most versatile companion flowers. In bouquets, snapdragons lend height, playful texture, and long vase life — a perfect counterbalance to the lush, rounded dahlia blooms. Beyond their beauty, they’re also cool-season workhorses, extending the cutting window before dahlias peak and continuing to flower with steady care. Few flowers bring such charm and personality to both the garden and the vase.

Marigolds

Colors: Sunny gold, warm orange, deep rust, and cheerful bicolors

Marigolds are the cheerful guardians of the cut flower garden. Their bright, sun-soaked blooms not only add a burst of color to bouquets but also serve as natural pest deterrents, helping to repel nematodes and unwanted insects around dahlias. With their mounded, bushy habit, marigolds fill garden borders beautifully, creating a lush carpet of color beneath taller flowers. In arrangements, they bring a playful pop and a touch of rustic charm, often lasting surprisingly long in the vase when harvested at the right stage. Hardy, reliable, and beloved for generations, marigolds weave together practicality and joy — the very essence of a well-rounded cut flower garden.

Wrapping It All Together

A dahlia garden is breathtaking on its own, but when paired with the right companions, it becomes a living symphony of color, texture, fragrance, and function. From the fragrant sweetness of lavender and sweet peas, to the airy grace of cosmos and baby’s breath, each flower plays a role in enriching both the garden and the vase. Marigolds guard against pests, while yarrow and dara invite beneficial insects to keep the ecosystem in balance. Bold accents like amaranth and whimsical bachelor buttons add contrast and charm, while sturdy staples like snapdragons provide structure and height.

Together, these 12 companions don’t just complement your dahlias — they complete the story. They stretch the season, attract pollinators, and infuse arrangements with fragrance and variety that dahlias alone cannot provide. At Flaming Acres Dahlias, we love blending these supporting blooms with our dahlias to create gardens and bouquets that feel abundant, balanced, and alive with personality.

In the end, dahlias may be the stars of the show, but every star shines brighter with good company — and these companions are the friends that make a dahlia garden truly unforgettable.