SUMMER WEEK 7

BOUQUET INGREDIENTS

dahlias, goldenrod, eucalyptus, sunflowers, amaranth, zinnias

With our wet spring, hot summer, and a few beginner mistakes early in the season, our dahlias have been limping along for months. We’d planned to have them for you weeks ago, but alas—farming keeps us on our toes, we make do, and we’re so excited to finally be bringing you dahlias in your bouquets this week!

No matter how you pronounce their name (doll-ia? day-lia? I say dah-lia, like my pal Al), dahlias will steal your heart. They’re easy to breed and incredibly genetically diverse, which means you’ll find them in a wide range of colors and forms. Their genetic complexity also means they don’t grow true to form from seed. Each seed creates a unique bloom, so growing from seed is like genetic roulette.

To preserve specific varieties, dahlias are most commonly propagated through tubers. Dahlia plants form underground tuber clumps that look a bit like sweet potatoes (and are actually edible). Since they don’t reliably survive our winters, growers dig up their dahlia clumps each fall and divide them into individual tubers. From one plant, you can usually get 5–10 viable tubers to replant in the spring. In just a season or two, your dahlia patch can grow exponentially. These tubers are often sold or swapped to expand collections. We added three new varieties to ours this season and hope to add more in the seasons to come.

They may be (fashionably) late, but we hope the dahlias bring a little extra joy to your homes this week. Thanks, as always, for letting us share our flowers with you!