NCW Dahlias and Other Growing Things in North Central Washington: HARVEST

Harvest – for many people, including the farmers and orchardists here in North Central Washington, this word implies a sort of ending. The tilling, planting, tending and reaping have begun, indicating the end of yet another season. It is the time for a reckoning – What has this season’s labor produced, how many and how much will pass from our fields into the waiting hands of others? As a general rule, I think a lot of people automatically connect harvest to Autumn, with the golding of the maples, the dropping of the horse chestnuts, and the nuding of the branches as the winds carry the leaves to rest on fields, lawns and sidewalks. For NCW dahlia-folk, however, “harvest” begins the first week in August, smack dab in the middle of summer’s harshest heat. We grab our garden shears and plan our treks into our gardens during the cool of each day to snip, groom and stage the fruits of our labors.

Across the country and throughout the world, the maturity level of blooms varies widely, depending on a variety of local conditions. In the North Central Washington region, we are often several weeks behind the growers from Western Washington, Oregon and British Columbia. Ironically, however, a common phenomenon in many of our gardens is the early bloom that looks almost good enough to show, often in late July, that blooms out and blows its center just a few days before the first show of the season. At the Kitsap County show the first weekend in August, I talked with several growers who identified what they called “Wednesday blooms,” – those flowers that were perfect for show in mid-week, but past their prime by Saturday, which is “judgment day” for exhibitors – frustrating to be sure, and prompting us to take deep breaths while chanting the mantra “Timing is everything, timing is everything.” As growers, we can only control so much, and the strategies that many people employ to do so this reflect a great range of creativity and resourcefulness, with varied levels of success. With shows coming up this weekend, I have been critically assessing my garden, trying to guess what might be ready by the time I cut, what will be “bloomed out,” and what will become next week’s “Wednesday bloom.” This process will repeat itself over and again as summer rolls into fall, and once in a great while, the planets will align, and we will have a near-perfect bloom just in time to exhibit and share. We all live for that experience!

For me, the concept of harvest extends beyond the garden. It reaches into the many aspects of life, where we are always “gathering in” one thing or another. Many of these intangibles help us to be stronger, better people. Over the past several months, I have harvested freely from many of your figurative gardens. My bushel basket has been filled to overflowing with things like opportunities to walk through your dahlia beds; guidance and teaching, in judging classes, trial gardens and dahlia shows; working with a show committee and dahlia club that supports our mission and shares the responsibilities; mornings in my backyard garden, where I always find shelter and a refuge; and people who forgive me when I mess up, embrace me with hugs and encouragement just when I need it, and give me many reasons to smile. Thanks to all who provide such bounties to others – this mutual nourishment makes us all stronger, filling our buckets, ensuring that we can continue planting and tending our fields and gardens.