WAITING FOR A BUS

Home again, back in the garden, for a few days of "real life"  before I head out to Bellingham for the next show! I had a great time in Portland at the ADS National Show, and it wasn't just the dahlias, although they were spectacular. It wasn't just those very comfy beds at the Red Lion, although I slept like a baby each night. It wasn't just the garden tours, the workshops or the banquet, although those experiences were certainly unforgettable.  No - more than anything else - it was the people - many of whom I already knew, but many of whom I'd known in name only, or just in passing. As a "people person", I had my appetite for interaction with creative and energetic men and women amply fed, day after day after day. An example of this came after I checked out of my room on Monday morning.  I was looking forward to the bus tour to Ted and Margaret Kennedy's Hollyhill Gardens in Oregon City. Realizing that I had over an hour before the bus would start loading, I thought this might be a perfect opportunity to use my time wisely and post to my blog. I found a table in the hallway, where I opened my laptop, and started to write. The  entry, titled "Waiting for a Bus",  would focus on my observations while killing a little time. I had barely written the title, when Rosemary and Brad Freeman walked by, greeting me, and chatting a bit. Then there was Kevin Larkin, incoming president of the ADS. He was able to answer some of the questions I had about some problems I'd had in my garden this season, and also visited a bit about his plans to take his time going home to California, driving down the Oregon Coast highway and taking in the beautiful weather and great sights on the way. Then my old friends, Dick and Danielle Parshall stopped by, followed closely by Bob Schroeder, who got a big kick out of surprising me as he took my picture with my glasses slipping down my nose. Mark & Laura Oldenkamp from Portland were there too, as was David Brown from the UK, and Jerry Landerholm, outgoing ADS president. Viv Connell also stopped by and gifted me with a warm hug to take home to our NCW Member Beth Miracle, who is recovering from serious injuries sustained in a bike accident in May. Person after person stopped to say "hi," or engage in conversation with and around me. By the time the bus arrived, I still had the title of the entry at the top of the page, but little else written. However, my soul was filled to overflowing with the joy and excitement around, where people from around the world could be brought together through the power of this shared passion of growing and showing the dahlia. It was electric!

The visit to Hollyhill was truly a feast for the eyes and the soul. Today, the Kennedys are among the top suppliers and hybridizers of dahlias in the Pacific Northwest. Their cultivars are perennially on the head table, garnering top honors among dahlias from all over.  However, prior to the 1990s, their love for gardening had been focused on vegetables and a few flowers for cutting. They started taking baby steps into dahlia growing after expanding their cutting garden, and picking up a few tubers at GI Joe's. By 1994, they were saving seeds and growing enough seedlings to name after their kids and other family members. But most importantly, as is so common among dahlia growers, they were the beneficiaries of mentoring by a member of their local dahlia society, Bob Bloomfield, as well as the expertise of dahlia breeder Wayne Holland. Armed with this support,  there was no turning back, and Hollyhill Gardens is now known far and wide as a source of incredible and unique varieties of dahlia.

When I think of my few years of dahlia growing and showing experience, the one word I keep coming back to is "generous." Starting with the humble tuber, it multiplies each year to gift us with many babies, each ending their life cycle with the potential for a dozen or more plants. Then, of course, there are the flowers, which in the Northern Hemisphere, can begin blooming as early as mid-May and continue to produce beautiful flowers through the month of October, all from the same plants. To top it off, growers have the option of increasing tuber stock by taking cuttings from pot roots, plants or seedlings, producing even more potential for this year's crop. But as generous as the plant itself it, it pales by comparison with the generosity of the people who grow and show the flower. Thinking back to my childhood, in the dahlia gardens of Western Washington,  I remember the people like Alice and Jess Cavender, Nick Gitts, Herman Droppert, Mae Evans and Pablo Abellero, all of whom regularly came around to walk through Dad's gardens or whose gardens we would visit. We shared many meals, as well as ideas, labor, tubers and plants.  Later, when we relocated to North Central Washington, we came to know Bill and Lucille Campbell, Kenny & Bernice Keiser, and friends from Snohomish County, Bill Bonneywell, Bernie Wilson and Dick Williams. These people, and many others like them, have provided support, ideas, mentoring and welcome to anyone interested in improving and raising the bar in the wonderful world of dahlias.

If you have ever mentored anyone trying to learn more, THANK YOU so much.....you and people like you cause my heart to swell with gratitude and joy, and your continued presence and accessibility keep me in the game, no matter how discouraged I may get with things beyond my control, such as weather and climate. And if you are ever waiting for a bus, maybe you will be as lucky as I was in Portland on Monday, where the generosity of others caused my plans to change in such a wonderful way.