Letters from Guild Members on COVID Te Art of Growing Dahlias

not necessary but may protect your tubers during winter if you don’t dig them up. Jennifer saves her tubers from year to hear and digs up the tubers and stores them in a cool dry place around 40 degrees. Cold winters can damage the tubers and you’ll lose them but if you dig them up and store them, when spring arrives you can separate the new healthy tubers from the parent tuber and make more. This is where Jennifer shines. She has done this year after year and she sells her tubers. This year she planted over 200 in her garden! That is a lot of hole digging! One of the many interesting things that she shared with Cindi and I is that once your fowers are done blooming you can cut the fowers that remain off at the top and put then on newspaper while they dry. You can then harvest seeds by rubbing the fowers center back and forth between your forefnger and thumb. The seeds will fall out and you can save them and plant them in the spring. What you’ll get is a one of a kind Dahlia that no one has ever seen. Why? Well thank the bees, they pollenate all of the fowers and combine a bit of each one to the other creating a one of a kind. After your seeds germinate and grow you’ll harvest the resulting tuber and voila another Dahlia is born. No wonder that there are over 60,000 named varieties of this plant. I neglected to mention that the soil must be above 60 degrees and danger of frost past before you put your tubers in the ground. Don’t add water to the holes because this encourages rot, you wait until they poke their beautiful heads through the soil to water them. The Almanac shared this bit of “Wit and Wisdom” about the Dahlia:

• In the 16th century, dahlias grew wild on the hillsides in parts of Mexico. There, they were “discovered” by the Spanish, who remarked on the plant’s beauty. • Both dahlia fowers and tubers are edible. The tubers taste like a cross between a potato and a radish. As my little Dahlia bed grew at my house last year I found that each morning I was waking up and looking out to see how many blooms I had. Remember when I said that Dahlias are a giving fower, well this is how God made this lovely plant a sure way to make friends, the more you cut your Dahlias, the more they bloom. If you don’t cut them you limit their potential (there’s a life lesson). If you cut them and enjoy them or share them you are rewarded with more (another life lesson). Their uniqueness and beauty are astounding and they will bring more joy than you can imagine! I found this descriptive online at www.gardenerdy.com and had to share it with you it explains why these fowers are so unique and it parallels my friend Jen. “Dahlia fowers are often associated with various meanings that may range from messages of enduring grace to signals of warning. They symbolize elegance, inner strength, creativity, change, and dignity. They are also known to represent one who stands strong in his/her sacred values.” If you take the Dahlia plunge and start your own Dahlia bed, please share photos with us. We’d love to see them! Cindi left our planting day with some of Jen’s tubers and planted her bed. I’ve included some photos of Jennifer’s and my own Dahlias from last year. Stop by our offce and Sunshine & Sawdust and watch our garden grow! If you want some unique tubers or a gorgeous arrangement this summer, my friend Jen’s the one to call 828-200-0188. Jennifer also recommends visiting www.swanislanddahlias.com as a good resource for tubers and Dahlia planting and care.