![]() ![]() ![]() There are tens of thousands of dahlia cultivars, some as tiny as shooter marbles and others that easily eclipse a dinner plate. "Once you grow them and have a bit of success, you're hooked," she says.Īnd once you're hooked, the sky's the limit. The sheer abundance and variety of blooms that popped up a few months later blew her away. One fall day, she helped a friend dig up her tubers, took some home as a gift, and planted them in her vegetable garden the following spring. Says Benzakein, "We wait all year for this window of time."įifteen years ago, Benzakein was just a novice gardener. That's the wonder of Floret Flower Farm, a family-run operation focused on seed production, breeding, research, and education that is also a thriving seed-and-bulb business (and a 2014 Martha Stewart American Made winner). "When you're in the middle of it, everything else fades away." As she strolls through 93 rows of the plants, harvesting, taking notes, and snapping pictures of specimens, she often comes across bumblebees sleeping right inside the blossoms. She's describing the sea of dahlias she grows in Washington State's Skagit Valley, where late-summer days start foggy and cool, with plants covered in dew, and the sunrise seems to sprinkle everything in glitter. "If there is a heaven, this is what it would look like," says farmer and florist Erin Benzakein. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |