September 17, 2005
by Deborah Dietz
First
Stop Corralitos Garden:For the last 10 years the Monterey Dahlia Society has organized an annual Dine Around whereby members potluck a meal course at each of 5 private gardens. This year Tinnee, Rose, Ted and their son Kevin, DJ, Diana, and Deborah were privileged to participate. For breakfast we visited Kevin Larkin and Karen Zydner at their Corralitos Gardens where they erected a tent “garage” for our dining pleasure.
Planted
from March through July, 1,100 plants produce 25-1500 cut flowers per
week. Instead of individual stakes, they employ 3 rows of longitudinal twine which they buy in commercial 5000’ “balls.” Predatory
mites & drip systems keep many problems in check. Some eye catchers
were: Ryecroft Gem, MB Pk; Leota Mace, WL scarlet; Ayers White Knight,
13” humongous SC’s which thrive in the hotter weather; Vista A Rod BB FD
dark luscious red; and Stephanie which Kevin said, “Not a great show flower, but
fabulous substance and staunch stems. We sell a bundle!”
Devil Liam from
Grahm Carey in England; and Vera’s Elma, that rare and elusive category
AA FD, lav. Some of the enticing new seedlings are a bronze BSC from Joe
Ghio, JG02-3; fuchsia and white BB FD; and a red single with dark foliage
and a dark center. Corralitos Gardens has 4 long rows of pot roots so
they can start cutting production in heated beds in the greenhouse at
Christmas time in order to fulfill your orders by March. Walking
through the Corralitos 1500 seedlings is like walking into the future:
so many possibilities for the dahlia germ plasm.
SECOND
STOP -- THELEN HACIENDA:
Carved out of the middle of strawberry fields and apple orchards, Janet
and Erik Thelen have built an glorious oasis. Erik, a soil engineer, rucked precise raised beds in long lines where Janet tends 170 manicured
bushes. I can’t decide which I need more: Janet’s Janken Jubilee, BB LC
W or her Wedding Vows, BB LC W . I MUST have Wannabee, a pr/gold
anemone. Her Nenekazis and Nargolds LC Y/Or caused quite a
stir.
After
noshing appetizers by the koi pond, Erik led us on an expedition through
3 warehouses from which they use to run a bean sprout factory. Now they
house projects past, present, and future. “Man Art is not allowed in
the house, so I have it all over here,” Erik explained, pointing to the
artistic collages of paint brushes, stirring sticks, hammers &
amalgamated tools. The men’s outhouse features toilet paper emanating
from a Cadillac grill. 
Janet's Dahlia Shrine!
Janet's tuber storing system
Janet's hedges
Wannabee AN Pr Gold
Wedding Vow, BB LC W
Perhaps so robust from a previous incarnation as a pig farm, Doris Wilson’s 350 dahlias grow in heavy duty brick raised beds. Her seedless blackberries, each the size of a big thumb, tasted heavenly. Doris uses pure vegetable oil to fuel her truck. She saturates sawdust in the oil, forms it into logs & heats her house all winter. Pretty resourceful.
FOURTH STOP -- APTOS AVIARY: Twenty years ago, George built a house on a hillside for Sharon Lucchesi and his two girls. This year he built her a smaller house for dahlia cuttings right next to the bird complex he built a few years back for the button quail, canaries and parakeets. Sharon, recently bitten by the dahlia bug, has already expanded to over 50 plants. Out in the country, gophers are rapacious, so all her tubers are planted in heavy wire gopher globes which extend 4” above the ground. Moreover, Sharon grows totally organically, using Orange TKO d’limonene spray.
FIFTH
STOP -- DAHLIAS & HEIRLOOM TOMATOES:
Next to
her 1880’s graceful home,
Cynthia Geske grows 145 varieties of
heirloom tomatoes on her estate as well as on a tomato farm, called
Love Apple Fram. Her tree house features running water and
electricity. Cynthia provides space in her garden for Ozzie to
grow his spotless dahlias reaching for the sky
from a nearby hammock. In the shade of the redwood forest, Holly hill
Dark Victory is especially deep red. What a graceful place to scarf
down luscious deserts or shop for exquisitely unusual tomatoes.
Cynthis
The Gang from DSC San Francisco Ghio and
Hollyhill Dark Victory
DJ in Cynthia's herb wheel.
Ozzie and wife with his
dahlias
Dahlias in a Redwood
grove
Dahlia Society of California, Inc., San Francisco, CA -- Copyrighted
Chief Editor: Deborah Dietz
eNewsletter Editor: Ted Marr
Acknowledgement: Photos by Deborah and Ted