09 May 2026
St Albans’ popular Aylett Nurseries garden centre has decided to call time on its homegrown dahlias after more than 70 years.
Changing customer tastes have seen sales of the flower declining substantially in recent years, resulting in the decision to stop propagating the plants, leading to the end of its Autumn Festival and closing down of the Dahlia Celebration Garden.
When founder Roger Aylett set up the company in 1955, the first crops included his childhood favourite flower, the dahlia.
He exhibited Aylett’s dahlias for the first time at the Royal Horticultural Society in September 1957, before winning a gold medal in August 1961, the first of many over the years.
The first Autumn Festival took place in 1959, initially providing an opportunity for local flower arrangement societies to indulge in a friendly competition, but later a showcase for the nursery’s dahlias.
Roger Aylett went on to become a valued member of RHS Shows and dahlia committees, and was regularly seen assessing the dahlia trials at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey. In 1999 The Royal Horticultural Society awarded him the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal in recognition of services given in the advancement of the science and practice of horticulture.
But now sadly the long-standing tradition of Dahlia Festivals has come to an end.
Director Adam Wigglesworth said: “We have decided to stop propagating our A-Z of dahlia varieties. For many years, the sales of these traditional varieties have been declining, with sales last year 25 per cent of what they were in 2019.
“For propagation we needed to grow the plants in our dahlia field to produce the tuber that we required for the next season’s crop. Hence the fantastic display that the dahlia field provided, and the reason behind the Autumn Festival and Celebration Garden.
“As you can imagine the time, cost and energy required to produce the tuber in the field and then propagate true to form plants in February/March can only be supported by enough sales and sadly this was not the case. The fact that we have stopped propagating dahlias together with the ongoing costs of maintaining the Celebration Garden has meant that we have also had to close this to customers.
“For over 70 years we have been growing plants in our production unit, over that time we have seen changes in customer choices and have always moved with the times.
“Today, our nursery is very much alive and growing significant quantities of summer bedding, hanging baskets and newer dahlia varieties grown from young plants that customers can grow easily at home in containers or the garden. Our cropping programme will continue to include our stunning poinsettias, cyclamen, primroses, polyanthus and other autumn crops as we have always done.
“Change is something we have always embraced , the family and Aylett team have morphed the business from a wooden shed in 1955 growing tomatoes, chrysanthemums and dahlias to an award-winning garden centre and nursery in 2026, always with the customer at the front of our minds.
“Dahlias and growing will always be part of our heritage as a business.
“As a family this was a particularly difficult decision because all our lives have revolved around dahlias but we also recognise that, as we see across the country in these challenging times, what you did in the past does not guarantee a future.
“We have made some exciting changes to the plant sales area, bringing the garden into the garden centre, we have incorporated new plantings, themed displays and seating areas which we hope our customers will enjoy.”
