Darling dahlias

MOSES LAKE — Everything you always wanted to know about growing dahlias will be on display Monday.

Valerie Parrott, owner of Pieces by Parrott in Moses Lake, held a dahlia tour on Sept. 25, and has another coming up on Monday. Parrott’s nursery supplies several local florists as well as her own flower-arranging business. In the course of that, she’s built up a reputation over the years for her skill with the finicky flowers and has invited the public to see her dahlia patch. About 50 people came out last week for the tour.

“I've been having a lot of people message (me) because they want to come see the dahlias, so I just decided to put a little event together,” Parrott said. “I called it a dahlia tour. I just had people come out and they could walk through the rows. I told them some of the different names and some care tips for dahlias, different dahlias that I've grown over the years, and ones that I recommend for the area and ones that I don't grow as much.”

Parrott’s dahlias are arrayed in a colorful space next to her house on Road N Northeast. She has a pretty diverse variety in all colors and shapes, ranging from tiny button dahlias to enormous blooms roughly 14 inches across called dinner plate dahlias.

“I don't grow a lot of dinner plate dahlias,” she said. “Because I do floral arranging with mine, and when you get a big old dinner plate dahlia like that it’s pretty hard to get that into a bouquet.”

Most of her arrangements are done with ball dahlias, she added, which are 4-6 inches across.

Dahlias are the national flower of Mexico, where they grow wild. They actually begin life as tubers, and not very durable ones, as they can’t survive freezing temperatures. Parrott has to dig hers up every fall and store them until spring when it’s safe to divide up the tubers and plant them.

“In about February or March and get my tubers out,” she said. “They grow in what looks like a potato. They have eyes on the top of their crown, and that's what's going to sprout and be the stalk of the dahlia.”

The dahlia isn’t much to look at at this stage, she said.

“I put them in a seed starting tray with just a little bit of moist potting soil under grow lights, and I start letting those pre-sprout,” Parrott said. “I let them grow to about six inches. Then I come through and I pinch my dahlias and then I get them ready to plant outside. Around Mother's Day weekend generally is a good time; fear of frost is usually gone by then. And after I plant, dahlias are pretty easy to take care of. I have them on either a soaker hose or a drip line.”

Most growers use a stake to keep the stalk from bowing, according to the American Dahlia Society’s website. Tomato cages are also a good way to keep the plants straight.

“In the fall is when it gets not fun,” Parrott said. “That's when you have to dig your dahlias. Dahlias grow in a big clump; they'll have anywhere from three to 12 tubers that they've grown over the years. So they can be small, or they can be up to a basketball (size).”

Dahlia tubers can’t be left outside over the winter, she said, or the tubers will turn to mush.

“I dig them up and I divide them in the fall,” she said. “What I'm looking for is a healthy tuber (with) no rot on it. I make sure I don't see any signs of diseases because dahlias are prone to different diseases.”

One common one, she said, is crown gall, which causes a cauliflower-like growth on the top of the tuber.

“If I find that that's immediately in the garbage,” Parrott said.

“After I divide my tubers from the big clump, then I wrap each of them in Saran wrap,” she said. “And I put them in a shoe box or any kind of cardboard box and I store them in my pump house between 40 to 45 degrees for the winter.”

Dahlias are lovely flowers, but they do take some forethought and effort, Parrott said.

“They are work,” she said. “People come in, they see the flower and they think, ‘Oh, can I just throw out some seeds and these are going to grow?’ I encourage people to grow one or two but don't try and grow, like, 50 your first year. Just try and grow one or two, get used to them and then start growing more.”

Parrott’s dahlia field tour takes place 5-7 p.m. Monday at 7275 Road N NE, Moses Lake. Admission is free.

Joel Martin may be reached at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.