PHYLUM, CLASS, ORDER, FAMILY

BY ANNIE B. COPPS

If the flower world is one of fashion as much as horticulture, with varieties competing against rival “brands” for their spots in the bridal bouquet or Instagram still life, then dahlias are surely the “it” blossoms of the moment. Blooming in time-lapse videos, they explode in early fall like fireworks in a stunning range of hues: from scarlets and inky purples to vibrant oranges and yellows to the palest blush pink. In size and shape they come as pompoms and Spirographs, from quarter-size minis to blooms as big as dinner plates, with perfectly shaped, tightly packed, repetitive petal arrangements that draw the viewer—mandala-like—into something of a trance.

Dahlias can be fickle beauties, a bit tricky to grow, but at Fivefork Farms in Upton, Massachusetts, a team of five media-savvy siblings has nurtured a business using sustainable practices to grow head-turning, long-lasting blooms, while bringing a new agricultural model to their customers.

The story of how the Lam siblings came to flower farming begins with one sister’s radical change of course, which led to a familial domino effect. In 2012, Grace Lam jumped ship from her budding career as a stock trader in New York and returned to her childhood home in Randolph, Massachusetts. Heeding an urge to begin growing things, she interned for a season raising vegetables at Dragonfly Farms in Pepperell, and then “ripped up” her parents’ lawn to experiment with selling flowers as a business. Soon, brother Lyh-Hsin, who had just wrapped up work with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans, took note of her project, as did brother Lyh-Rhen, sister Lyh-Ping, and twin sister Joyce.

The desire to work together and live closer to the land became a gravitational pull for all five, and soon Grace was writing up a business plan. With a few calculated risks, the Lams bought a farm in the rolling hills of the Blackstone Valley—land that the family of cotton-gin inventor Eli Whitney had farmed for four generations— and began growing flowers.

“We knew we wanted to farm, and we considered all sorts of vegetables,” Grace remembers. “We also knew we wanted to grow sustainably and do something healthy for the land and for ourselves. After a lot of research and trial and error, we saw that there was a hole in the market for fresh, locally grown flowers.”

“Almost everything we knew about the wholesale flower business,” Lyh-Rhen adds, “was that [the flowers] were coming from very far away—Holland or South America—and weren’t grown organically, let alone with an eye to sustainability.”

Inspired by the thriving CSA (communitysupported agriculture) model, in which consumers buy upfront shares in exchange for produce throughout the growing season, the Lams saw an opportunity to apply the same model to flowers. Now they’re part of a nationwide “farm-to - vase” movement that encourages people to trade hothouse roses for local blooms.

Grace Lam’s Tips for Growing Dahlias

1 TEMPERATURE: “Planting time is the trickiest. You can’t plant dahlias too early, when ground temps are still too cold. If it’s looking like a very damp, wet stretch, tubers are prone to rot. In the Northeast, early to mid-May is probably the best time, when the ground temp is about 60 degrees.”

2 LIGHT: “Dahlias like sunlight and should be planted in a sunny location: a minimum of 6 to 8 hours of sunlight a day. Any less and your plants won’t yield as many blooms.”

3 MOISTURE: “Because dahlia tubers are prone to rot, it’s important to make sure that the soil isn’t too heavy. It should drain freely and easily; if not, amend it with peat or sand. If the amended soil is damp, you won’t even need to water until the shoots start emerging.”

4 SOURCING: “Dahlia tubers are readily available from many growers online. Tubers are essentially the root stock of the dahlia plant and, once planted, will multiply in the ground every season. A dahlia plant grown from one tuber will yield multiple tubers once dug up in the fall.”

5 KEEPING: “In the Northeast, our winter temps are just too cold, and dahlias’ thinskinned tubers will freeze. Tubers can be pulled each fall, cleaned, and stored in a cool, dark room until next spring. It’s best to dig them up a couple of weeks after a frost, when the tubers have hardened o .” Packing them in peat moss, wood shavings, or vermiculite in a plastic bag punctured with fine holes will keep them clean and dry.

For more information about growing dahlias, contact the American Dahlia Society: dahlia.org

Dahlia Arranging

Lyh-Rhen Lam, right, does the flower arranging for Fivefork’s CSA deliveries and some private clients. His creativity is tempered by his respect for the plants he spends so much time with. “I prefer arrangements that aren’t too ‘tight’ but let the dahlias show their wild nature,” he says. He also likes to keep colors within the same general family.

STEP 1: Consider where the arrangement will be displayed, and from what angles it will be viewed. For example, for a dinner-table arrangement such as this one, he suggests a wide vessel rather than a tall one.

STEP 2: To support an arrangement and to give it structure, Lyh-Rhen often forms a ball out of chicken wire, places it in the bottom of the vase, and threads the stems into the holes. Alternatively, he creates a lattice at the opening of the vase using floral tape. “Duct tape will work, too,” he notes.

STEP 3: Next, Lyh-Rhen builds the shape in “pleasing proportions,” as he describes it, with special attention to height. “Imagine placing your bent elbow on the table where the flowers will be displayed,” he says. “The majority of the work should be below the wrist so that you can see your dinner companions.”

STEP 4: Larger blooms go in first, such as the dinner-plate-sized beauty ‘Café au Lait’. Then he fills in the gaps with smaller pompom-sized dahlias, as well as shiso, sage, hydrangeas, rose hips, and geraniums. “The trick is to stop before it gets crowded or busy,” Lyh-Rhen advises. “You want to be able to see each flower.”

Fivefork Farms officially launched in 2012 with production on five of the Lams’ 38 acres. Today, they grow 100 dahlia varieties—the Lams’ star flower—but also provide all manner of blooms throughout the growing season, beginning with tulips and ranunculus in May to summer’s brown-eyed susans, zinnias, foxglove, and sweet william.

Grace, the youngest sibling, is the lead farmer, managing planting and harvesting. She and her father, Daniel (“Papa Lam”), manage their booth at Worcester’s Canal District Farmers’ Market on Saturdays; he handles deliveries, as well, and serves as Fivefork’s de facto brand ambassador.

Grace’s mother, Helen, tends the greenhouse and helps with the seeding and starting of plants. Lyh-Hsin spends most of his days in the field with Grace but also wears the infrastructure-andoperations hat, developing irrigation and fertilization plans. Creative projects and branding go to Lyh-Rhen, who does graphic design and creates arrangements for the CSA and farmers’ markets. Joyce and Lyh-Ping aren’t currently involved in day-to-day operations—they have jobs off the farm—but most weekends they’re in the fields.

“There was definitely a Green Acres vibe when we first started,” says LyhRhen. “This,” he adds, pointing to the many rows of flowers and the hoop house, “is much different from the experiments we did at Mom’s.”

“We’re really happy that our flowers are in demand,” Grace says. CSA shares sell out quickly weeks in advance of each season’s first delivery date. “We work really hard, and it’s stressful,” she notes. “There are so many variables in farming, and you need to be on your toes, responding daily to a host of challenges—some that you can control and others that you just can’t. But we owe a large part of our early success to so many of the other CSAs and small businesses at the farmers’ market that we started with.” Not to mention the power of family and the simple pleasure of a beautiful bouquet. fiveforkfarms.com