At the end of the day, Bernie Wilson came over and invited me to stop by his garden in Snohomish on my way home. He didn't need to ask me twice! Bernie has a beautiful piece of property overlooking a lake (his cultivar prefix is "Lakeview"), amply planted with many of the best varieties of dahlias available, many of which were hybridized by Snohomish County originators. His blooms were crisp, strong and beautiful, well on their way to ending up on a head table in Seattle, Mount Vernon or maybe even Wenatchee! One of his blooms of Alfred C caught my eye, with its perfect shape, size and clear orange color. At 14" across, this would have been a strong contender for Best in Show at any show in the Federation. But, it is only July, and we need to be patient, confidently nurturing our eager "children" until the day comes to appear in their Sunday best, on some Saturday, in some everyday city, among the other beauties on the head table!
While at Bernie's, I spent a bit of time looking at his seedlings. This includes his 2nd, 3rd and 4th year plants. By the time these show up on an ADS seedling bench, I have no doubt that some will be among the keepers that so frequently come out of Lakeview Gardens. I took the opportunity to bend Bernie's ear a little, talking about my own foray into seedlings in the past couple of years. I remembered picking Dick Parshall's brain about this very topic last year when visiting his gardens in Clearview. Both Bernie and Dick stressed the importance of removing the plants producing below-standard blooms as soon as possible, a process that Dick called "roguing out." He showed me what he meant with his own first-year seedlings, and I actually winced as he methodically pulled these eager young plants out of the ground, destined for the compost heap! My first seedling this year was one that I originated, using some seed that had been given to me by Dick Williams (Skipley Gardens), and I so very much wanted it to be a "keeper." But is wasn't. At best, it was a poor single, with a wild open center, with some small and irregular petaloids here and there, and in a golden-yellow color that is all too common among first year seedlings. I knew I had to "rogue" it out, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. When I mentioned this to Bernie on Saturday, he got very serious, looking me in the eye and telling me that I had to uproot it and get it away from the others. He said that open centered rogue seedlings like this are especially likely to pollute the other dahlias in the garden, since the bees love these bright yellow open centers. For this reason alone, it is important to remove this bad influence as soon as I can. He said he understands the difficulty of doing this, especially for novices like me, but that I just need to "close my eyes, and do it!" So first thing on Sunday, I went to the garden, closed my eyes, and yanked the capricious rogue out of the ground - and it didn't hurt half as much as I thought it would.
This weekend caused me to consider my relationships, both with my flowers and with the people in my life. Sometimes these grow early but never really produce anything worth keeping, other times, they start slow, and end up producing something of great beauty, capable of nurturing my soul simply through its existence. These are the keepers. However, the rogues need to be eventually removed in order to allow space for the healthier and more promising varieties to grow, develop and mature. It is important to surround ourselves with positive and nourishing relationships. I will get better at this with time, I promise. Sometimes it is just so hard to let go, since each one possesses unique and individual charms, drawing me to them and messing with my intellect. As I age, and hopefully gain in wisdom, I will eventually get the hang of this process - and the most important thing is learning what to keep, and what to discard. Both the rogues and the keepers have much to teach me, and I am constantly learning.
Bernie Wilson's bloom of Alfred C
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