{"id":7672,"date":"2021-03-20T12:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-20T17:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/?p=7672"},"modified":"2021-03-20T12:00:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-20T17:00:53","slug":"move-over-zinnias-and-cosmos-here-come-dahlias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/2021\/03\/move-over-zinnias-and-cosmos-here-come-dahlias\/","title":{"rendered":"Move Over Zinnias and Cosmos, Here Come Dahlias"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Photo by Chris Benzakein, Floret<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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THEY<\/span><\/strong> have names like Brown Sugar and Cupcake, Honeydew and Caf\u00e9 au Lait. There\u2019s a Zippity Do Da and a Gitty Up, a Bumble Rumble and a Poodle Skirt. Throw in a Lover Boy, an Irish Blackheart, a Foxy Lady, and a Platinum Blonde, and it sounds like the cast of\u00a0Toy Story<\/em>\u00a0took a wrong turn on the studio lot and wound up on the\u00a0Outlander<\/em>\u00a0set.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u201d are dahlias, and I think I\u2019m in love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just those names, though seriously, who doesn\u2019t want a Lucky Ducky or a Ferncliff Dolly hanging out in the yard? It\u2019s much more. Much, much more. Starting and ending with color. With shape, size, stature, and abundant generosity in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Chris Benzakein, Floret<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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If I\u2019d only known. Oh, I must have known dahlias. They towered in late summer in Edgartown front yards, giant fiery blooms tipping over genteel cap-rail fences. Perhaps I dismissed them for their acerbic shades of carnation red and \u201chighlighter\u201d lemon (more on that in a minute). But I was in the dahlia dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Chris Benzakein, Floret<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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By chance, in my last year of growing cut flowers as a farmer, I planted a few tubers next to my rows and rows of zinnias and cosmos and sunflowers. I had no idea what I was doing, and waited patiently for the shoots and leaves to appear above ground. (Staring at the ground? Yes I was.) Even when they showed up (and actually grew tall!), I wasn\u2019t convinced they would bloom. At last, late in the summer, a raft of perky coral, ball-shaped flowers appeared to bounce on the breeze \u2013 and kept right on bouncing through October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Susie Middleton photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I harvested my first dahlias, popped them into my flower bunches, and thought, hmmm, I wish I had more. (More is the story of my life.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But it has only been in the last few years, since I discovered\u00a0Floret Farm<\/a>\u00a0and the fabulous\u00a0Erin Benzakein<\/a>, that my awareness of dahlias has really blossomed. I bought Erin\u2019s first book,\u00a0Floret Farm\u2019s Cut Flower Garden<\/a>, and then the next,\u00a0Floret Farm\u2019s A Year in Flowers<\/a>. I soaked up page after page of gorgeous photos, expert planting tips, thoughtful arranging advice, and detailed variety information. From daffodils to peonies, lilacs to sweet peas, I began to learn how not only annuals, but shrubs, perennials, tubers (dahlias!), bulbs, vines, flowering trees, and grasses could also contribute to gorgeous flower arrangements.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Chris Benzakein, Floret<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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As a farmer, I\u2019d been so unsure of my bouquet-making ability (and so short on time when I went solo), that I rarely sold anything but bunches of one type of flower. Having never worked on a flower farm, I didn\u2019t know the tricks of the trade. Now I wish I had been bolder, less insecure, and more willing to learn.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last summer, thanks to Erin\u2019s books and\u00a0videos<\/a>, I took a stab at the kind of lush, natural arranging she does. I plundered my small cut-flower garden (which includes a few dahlias I\u2019ve managed to divide, store, and regrow) and foraged branches and stems of various leafy and flowery things lurking in the woods and along the roadsides near my house. I made a flower frog out of chicken wire, don\u2019t you know! My efforts were hilarious. But I didn\u2019t care. Flower arranging is so intentional and meditative (as long as you\u2019re making just one, not 400, at a time) that it\u2019s an ideal distraction for the busy-brained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Chris Benzakein, Floret<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And then Floret Farm\u2019s brand new book,\u00a0Discovering Dahlias<\/a>, arrived in the mail last week. At first I put it aside, knowing it would be such a treat to sit and savor it that I didn\u2019t want to spoil the experience with a cursory look. (I\u2019m sort of weird that way; my sister always found the secret hiding place for Christmas presents, but I never wanted to look.) I told myself I\u2019d wait until I got through the busy back-to-back deadline days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Chris Benzakein, Floret<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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But one of those can\u2019t-fall-asleep nights came along and I broke the spine. And I was off to the races. I think somewhere between learning there are eight sizes, twenty shapes (or forms), and literally thousands of varieties and seeing the astonishing range of colors, I went from charmed to hooked to officially obsessed. (As if anyone couldn\u2019t guess that was coming.) Even before I started reading, the photographs by Erin\u2019s husband Chris got me at hello. Just stop, I wanted to say, when looking at them. How can there be so much beauty between two covers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly dahlias are a geeky flower gardener\u2019s dream. The permutations of color, shape, and size are seemingly infinite, as illustrated by the second half of\u00a0Discovering Dahlias<\/a><\/em>, where Erin and Chris have thoughtfully profiled\u00a0and<\/em> photographed 360 of their favorite varieties. 360! And that\u2019s less than half of the 800 varieties they grew on the farm last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos by Chris Benzakein, Floret<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The varieties are grouped by color (just as they are planted in the \u201crainbow\u201d dahlia field on Floret Farm) \u2013 white, yellow, blush\/champagne, peach, orange, coral, raspberry, pink, purple, red, and maroon\/black. Seeing them segue together this way is a revelation. Those garish hues (including what Erin calls \u201chighlighter\u201d yellow, though she takes care not to dismiss it, only saying it can be difficult to pair with other shades) that I once associated with dahlias recede into this captivating new spectrum of subtly shifting color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The photos \u2013 in the signature style Chris has developed of shooting bunches of flowers in Erin\u2019s arms, often with her looking away from the camera \u2013 are illuminating. Showing a bunch, rather than just one blossom, gives a sense of how one dahlia variety can manifest itself in blooms each slightly different from the next. I just wish the pictures were larger!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Chris Benzakein, Floret<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I am currently in the “orange” chapter of the book, and I think I may stay there awhile, though I feel like I\u2019m dissing my pal pink. There\u2019s just something about the ambers and pumpkins and tangerines and butterscotches. In fact, last night, around midnight, I may or may not have placed an order to a dahlia farm for three (more) dahlia tubers in orangey hues (Brown Sugar<\/a>,\u00a0Ice Tea<\/a>, and\u00a0Maarn<\/a>). These are in addition to a just a\u00a0few<\/em>\u00a0others I ordered in January. I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m afraid to look in my email and find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight I will return again to the comforting world of\u00a0Discovering Dahlias<\/em>, knowing there\u2019s more to learn, more to admire, more to feed my pursuit of color and beauty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Take note!\u00a0<\/strong>All photos from\u00a0Discovering Dahlias<\/a>\u00a0and of Floret Farm were taken by Chris Benzakein and provided, with permission, by Team Floret. (Thank you Team Floret!). Follow\u00a0@floretflower<\/a>\u00a0or visit\u00a0floretflowers.com<\/a>for more. And here is the link\u00a0to purchase any one of the three books<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo by Chris Benzakein, Floret<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pretty flowers need pretty vases.<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>Check out\u00a0@farmhousepottery<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0@francespalmer<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>for dahlia-friendly pottery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIf we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.” \u2014\u00a0Buddha<\/em><\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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LOOKING FOR NEW RECIPES? <\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Visit cookthevineyard.com<\/a> <\/strong>and sign up for the free weekly newsletter<\/a>. (Something I do as part of my day job.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you arrived here from the internet and would like to subscribe to the Sixburnersue blog, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THEY have names like Brown Sugar and Cupcake, Honeydew and Caf\u00e9 au Lait. There\u2019s a Zippity Do Da and a Gitty Up, a Bumble Rumble and a Poodle Skirt. Throw in a Lover Boy, an Irish Blackheart, a Foxy Lady, and a Platinum Blonde, and it sounds like the cast of\u00a0Toy Story\u00a0took a wrong turn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[168,181,182,149,163,45],"tags":[178,177,124,46],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7672"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7672"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7699,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7672\/revisions\/7699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sixburnersue.com\/cooking-fresh-eating-green\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}