Preserving Dahlias… So sooooo many of us long to see the beautiful dahlia blooms all year long! Dahlias (in Terrace, BC, Canada) can bloom from June + or – until first frost, but bloom time is highly variable and dependent on the variety and your growing location, growing conditions and weather. The earliest I’ve had blooms from any of my dahlias in Terrace has been mid-June. More blooms start coming on in July and they are in their full glory in the months of August and September. Come fall, when the temperatures start to dip, we start watching the weather forecast with keen eyes for any indication of frost that will put a quick end to the dahlias for the season…
So how do we preserve dahlias so that they can be enjoyed all year? They are not an “everlasting” flower like strawflowers and statice which hold their colour and shape really well when dried. Dahlia blooms tend to fade to brown and wither away into a crumpled unappealing fragile ugly mess. But that doesn’t stop folks from trying to dry them! I’m not one of them! But, some folks claim to have success drying them with silica… Its just not my jam, but if its yours, give it a go and let us know how it turns out!
My jam is preserving the beauty of dahlias through photography. During dahlia season, I spend hundreds of hours out in the patch with the camera (and iphone – remarkably powerful) snapping photos of our dahlias and then more time downloading them. Then in the off-season I spend a whole bunch more time gazing at all my beauties, choosing photos that I’ll use for the online dahlia tuber shop, editing them, documenting them, and uploading them to the website in preparation for the dahlia tuber sales over the winter. Most recently I commissioned a very talented artist Emily Gagnon of Three Cedars Studio (FB) to paint the dahlia “Good Day” pictured above and I’m just thrilled with her work! I provided Emily with a photo that I captured of “Good Day” for inspiration. Painted on a 12″ x12″ wood board – Emily used a piece of locally milled Yellow Cedar that was an off-cut/scrap piece from The Barn renovations @ Hidden Acres Farm and Treehouse Resort …We’ll be enjoying the beauty of this dahlia all year round for years to come! Thanks so much Emily!