Dahlias: The gift that keeps on giving
Why Dahlias:
Flower crew mid-July cutting some of the first bunches of Dahlias for farmers market. Both Dahlia beds are staked with trellises to help support the tall plants from toppling over.
It’s easy to spot the most colorful couple of acres in the middle of our ranch. Short 250 foot beds lined with every color in the rainbow snatch visitor’s focus and pull in our favorite pollinators from every direction. Our flower farm is filled to the brim with faithful perennials, exciting spray fillers, bold summertime annuals, and the sturdiest stemmed, strongest workhorse of them all: Dahlias.
Dahlias are an incredibly unique flower, claiming the throne to over a thousand varieties. And each year, the number increases as gardeners and large scale growers play with the cross-breeding and pollination of dahlias. The flowers can be categorized into 5 main types: decorative, ball, dinner plate, cactus, and pompon. Last year we tried out some decorative and ball types, and this year we’re starting out with a bang- all 5 categories!
Pictured here are the different pink, red, and orange dahlias we grew in 2021. Not surprisingly, they became the best focal for all of our peak-season mixed bouquets. Throughout the late spring, summer and fall, they cushioned themselves between changing seasonal color pallets to make each month shine special. They’re the main reason we were able to start selling weekly bouquets to New Leaf Community Market and start our “design your own bouquet” tent at the Mountain View market. Can you guess which season each bouquet is from?
The long process from bulb to sale:
We started growing dahlias when we began planting on the new Van Dyke ranch. It felt like a right of passage to order and plant one of the world’s most popular flowers- and also a terrifyingly expensive and patience-requiring risk! The decision fatigue (we don’t say this lightly) was relieved after a week of flipping through catalogs to choose between thousands of varieties. Perhaps we should’ve just closed our eyes and pointed! The whole shed was giddy with excitement when Fedex delivered the long awaited pallet of cardboard boxes, straight from the Netherlands. For the next two weeks, nearly every Spade & Plow employee had a hand in helping to separate and plant these rugged, sweet potato looking tubers.
Hopeful signs of the first bud on our earliest blooming variety, ‘Peaches.’
Understandably, Farmer Mike and Farmer Sam were quite skeptical about the proposed watering schedule: only once a month until sprouts were visible. Bulbs, we learned, can be prone to root rot when they are waiting to be ‘awakened’ for spring time. So we patiently counted down the weeks hoping that we followed all our tutorials and research correctly. Anticipation turned to sighs of relief when farmer Sam found our first happily sprouting tuber.
Now, amidst our second year of dahlia growing, we’ve tripled beds from 2 to 6 so we can share more with you this summer! Dahlia sales towered high above any of our other flower varieties, making it hard to say no to serious expansion. Once again, our team is hopeful and expectant for the dahlia impact: increasing wholesale outlets (floral shops here we come!), CSA interest (get ready for the add-ons folks), and farmer’s market sales (from 2 tents to 4). Keep your eyes out for these bold beauties coming your way soon folks.