Last fall my daughter and I decided we wanted to give growing flowers a whirl. Since she was able to grasp a flower she has been picking them, creating arrangements and bouquets. So we ordered lots of zinnia seeds, wildflowers, cosmos and dahlia tubers.
Have I ever grown a dahlia? Negative.
What a learning curve there!
We bought the raised beds, and the multiple kinds of dirt and created beds made out of special dirt where the conditions would be favorable for these finicky beauties.
We planted the tubers but it was a wet and cool spring and many days I would have to go out and cover all the raised beds with tarps so the tubers didn't rot. My husband would chuckle and ask if it was going to be worth it. Most days I promised him it would, but some days I groaned it wasn't. Sometimes I had to go out multiple times a day and cover, uncover, and cover again, until these plants got established and could handle the soggy wet season soil.
Then we had a very dry, hot summer. Oh the watering I did then! Twice a day, everyday. There were days they seemed stagnate, they didn't seem to be growing at the pace I thought they would. They were late, but when they arrived, what a harvest!!
My daughter wanted to sell bouquets and we came up with the idea that she could sell them and use the profits towards her dance competition fee's this year. What we didn't know was that she would do so well that she would pay her full fee's in FULL!
With extra blooms to spare we gave many away, and found little ways to put a smile on a teachers face or a spruce up a table or two.
The best part of the experience was watching her technique improve, grow and flourish over the season.
We are getting ready to cut the beauties back and for another first, attempt to over-winter our tubers. Jury will still be out on how successful we are on this.
However we also have submitted next years flower seeds and tuber order and I can't wait to see how things grow for us next year in this journey!
Lastly, we couldn't have accomplished this without the amazing support from her teachers, mentors, friends, and family!