Meet My Flower Friend, Katya

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How did dahlias find their way into your garden and heart?

I brought home a bouquet full of dahlias from a farmers market in Penticton and I was never the same again.

I killed my first batch of tubers, half of them struggled through spider mites, one I over watered and whatever survived that didn’t get pulled from the ground in time. The following year Bleutiful sprouted from the ground in a glorious victory dance. I have not had any successfully over winter in the ground since.

My next round was a large batch of mystery tubers, which yielded, Hollyhill Black Beauty, Ferncliff Spice, Nicholas, Valley Rust Bucket, Cornel and Small World which I still have now. After that I was doomed, 3 years later I was at 200 and now this season I will be close to 500!

What are some of your future garden goals?

We are looking for a large property where we can have a flower garden and create a venue for events.

A place where people can come and enjoy the flowers.

What has been the hardest challenge growing dahlias?

Space has been the biggest hurdle, we have a pretty standard city lot with a pool in the back yard.

I have a small field that I rent off of a friend and because we have a landscape / garden business I often dahlia bomb my customers gardens.

The other challenge with space is of course pest pressure, I plant closer together so : powdery mildew, spider mites and earwigs. I clear lower leaves, I let my chickens roam the paths and use a lot of DE and diluted milk.

What has been the most rewarding part of growing dahlias?

I love sharing flowers.

I list my flowers on Faceboook Marketplace and I often supply flowers for weddings in our friend and family group. Also, regularly picking them and handing them to our maintenance customers.

Do you have any tips to share that you’ve learned along the way?

Everyone seems to have a slightly different method of storing and planting. It has to work for you. If it takes away from the joy the flowers give you, try something that fits you better.

The dahlia community is filled with some wonderful people that are very helpful.

I plant in April because May is too busy, I cover everything to prevent rot and frost damage until I see shoots or the weather is warm and dry.

I plant 6″-9″ spacing or in pots if the variety is new to me, and fertilize the first couple of months with a variety of different things. I foliar spray mid-season, ending fertilizing by the first week of August.

When digging up the clumps, I let them dry for a day and store them in a mix of coco coir, peat and vermiculite. I divide over the winter when there’s time to go through them all. This year, the tubers that stored the best for me were the ones I was too tired to go through and I folded them into a large garbage bag… go figure.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Flowers are a beautiful journey and many paths will get you to the same destination.

Sometimes everything goes really smooth and sometimes nothing does. When they bloom they are always worth it.

Katya

To learn more about Katya’s flower journey, you can visit : Website | Facebook | Instagram