February Digest 2023
Dear Dahlia Friends,
Please read below for a note from our president, details about upcoming events, survey results, and profiles of two DSO members.
Meg
If you'd like to be featured in future issues of the Digest please email me at digest@dahliasocietyofohio.org.
A Note From Our President
Hi All!
As we creep into February I’m sure many of you are like me and scoping out the various tuber sales that have begun to open up. If you’ve tried shopping you’re probably aware of how quickly tubers are selling out, especially the most in demand varieties.
The good news is that the DSO will have our annual tuber and plant sales coming up in a couple of months. If you’re like me and want to save the date, the tuber sale will be on April 21 - April 23, and the plant sale is May 12-13. We will be posting more details as we get closer to the date on the website.
We’ll also be holding our first meeting of the year on February 17th at 7:00 pm via Zoom. We’ll send the link out to you via email. If you’re new to the DSO or haven’t hopped on a zoom meeting before, we usually have a speaker at the beginning of the meeting and then a Q&A session. So if there is anything you want to ask some of the more experienced growers, please feel free to join and ask!
Lastly, if you’re interested in helping out with the Dahlia Society of Ohio, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to send me an email at president@dahliasocietyofohio.org. We’re always looking for members to get involved and will have opportunities to help starting with the upcoming sales.
Jess
2023 American Dahlia Society National Show
The Portland Dahlia Society is hosting the ADS National Show this year from August 24-28 in Portland, OR. Details on the show can be found on the PDS website as well as information on how to register both for the shows and the various tours.
If you are interested in attending you’ll be joining a number of other DSO members who are planning to go, so you’ll be sure to see a number of friendly faces there.
Survey Results
I just wanted to thank everyone who took part in the survey that went out earlier this year. It was great to get some feedback on what you’d like to see from the society and activities that you’re interested in participating in this year. I thought I’d share some of the results with you all.
The majority of responders, 32.6% would like to have hybrid meetings, followed by 28.3% who prefer zoom and 19.6% who prefer in person meetings. I’m currently looking for a meeting location that offers a good wifi connection so in person meetings can also be recorded for those who live further away or can’t come for one reason or another. If you know of a meeting location that the DSO could explore, please let me know at president@dahliasocietyofohio.org.
For the monthly topics a number of things were suggested including how to improve your soil/soil health, dealing with pests, learning about flower farms and cut flowers, and growing in containers among others. I’ll do my best to try to find speakers that will cover some of these topics but these are also great topics to cover in our Q&A sessions during the monthly meeting.
There is still an interest in members wanting a mentor this year, so we will continue that program. I’ll send out a separate email about mentorship sometime in March.
A large number of you are interested in an informal get together. I’ve tried to find something central between the east & west side and it looks like Independence might be our best bet. I’ll plan the first get together sometime in March at the Winking Lizard.
Cut flowers - I love seeing the interest here! We will end up holding a few informal get togethers this season, both via zoom and in person. I’ll follow up with details on this as well.
Lantern Court Estate
The DSO was contacted by the new owners, Red Oak Camp, looking for volunteers to help with the gardens on the estate.
Thanks to Elizabeth Hamilton for taking the lead, the DSO will be Adopting a Bed. If you’re interested in helping with this, please contact Elizabeth directly at secretary@dahliasocietyofohio.org.
Online Judging Workshop
Join Ron & Tony as they lead discussions on the new ADS Judging Curriculum. It’s a great way to learn more about dahlias, their characteristics and how they are judged in exhibition.
There’s already a good number of members signed up for these meetings so we’d love to have you join.
Please RSVP to president@dahliasocietyofohio.org.
Introducing New Members!
Name: Tracy Gardner
City/Town: Columbia Station
Tell us a little about yourself: I’ve been in the floral industry for over 30 years - everything from wholesale cut flower sales, building artificial trees, event designer, owning a flower shop to now flower grower. The flower farm, Shady Acres, keeps me beyond busy but in any spare time I love hiking with my dogs and getting into way too many crafting projects.
Number of years growing dahlias: 12 years. Growing on a larger scale this will be 4th season
How did you get into the world of dahlias? On a trip to Seattle back in the '90’s we bought armfuls of $5 dahlia bouquets at Pike Place Market for our hotel room. Obsessed ever since!
What is your favorite dahlia to grow? Too hard to pick just one! Valley porcupine was one of my favorites this past season
Social media profiles: Instagram @tendrils and @shadyacresfarmohio.
Name: Chris and Quinn Bryant (Father/Daughter)
City/Town: Solon
Tell us a little about yourself: In regards to our dahlias, my 10 year old daughter, Quinn, is my tag team partner, so I'll introduce "us".
I was a middle school math teacher for my first 10 years out of college. I became a "stay at home Dad" when the first of our two kids, Deaglan, was born.
He is now a senior in high school. (He does not share Quinn and my love of flowers, as he is allergic to bee stings and must carry an epipen! He helps us if we ask and the bees are at a minimum, LOL.)
I always coached something while I was teaching, and have continued to coach travel baseball for the last 10 years. If I have to be indoors, I would want to be playing a family board game, or cards.
Quinn is a 5th grader that loves ANYTHING colorful, artistic, or has a good beat! This Winter, Quinn and I have been taking some tech classes/lessons so that she can use her creativity to possibly get into some content creation. If nothing else, it will allow her and I to document some of our adventures and experiments to reflect on, but also allow her to hopefully get exposure to how social media can be used for GOOD and make people smile! Quinn recently created social media profiles for her and my flower adventures, and maybe some other fun we can get into! She would love for you to follow her, but hopes you all can be patient as she hasn't posted any content yet . . . . to be continued, LOL!
Number of years growing dahlias: This will be our 3rd year we are growing dahlias, but Chris has grown day lillies for over 25 years.
How did you get into the world of dahlias? This is probably the question we are asked about the most by our friends who are in awe of the flowers we give them, and I am ALWAYS proud to answer. When Quinn was 7 or 8, it was late October, very early November. It was close to Election Day, where every commercial is this candidate slamming their opponent and vice versa. Quinn needed to ask me a question about something and I couldn't find the remote to change the channel quick enough. When she jumped into my lap to ask me her question she got hooked into the ugliness that was on the TV, trying to distract her from the TV content, she said, "Dad, you know what this world needs?" Full well knowing I was about to get some Quinn wisdom, I asked, "What's that?" "The world needs to see more pretty things!" When I asked her did she mean like her artwork on the kitchen fridge? She made it very clear, "No, like flowers, Dad. The world needs to see more flowers and things that would make them happier."
She and I had met members Mark and Cynthia Druckenbrod earlier that previous summer and they had told us about dahlias, and that "if you like day lillies, you guys should try a couple dahlias." That day, with the ugliness that was constantly on the TV, I said go get my laptop and lets order some of those plants Mr. and Mrs. Druckenbrod told us about.
This past Fall my son and a few of his teammates have had the opportunity to hang out a little with Tony Evangelista, and I'm convinced his phrase, "we meet over the flowers, we remain close because of the people that grow them" is proof her wanting the world to be happier has come full circle!!!
What is your favorite dahlia to grow? The one I first looked forward to growing was Bee Happy . . .but, now, I can't pick a favorite. I really enjoyed CV Danielle last year. A couple of Quinn's favorites are Giggles and Pooh.
Social media profiles: Instagram: qdflowergardens
