To see the full original newsletter with all the photos click here to get the pdf: September 2025 Newsletter
NEXT MEETING: NOVICE ONLY MINI SHOW!!
Erik has contributed $50 to sweeten the awards! Besides $1.50 for first, $1 for second, and $0.50 for third, we will pay out $10 each for Best Large, Best Small, and Best Open Center; Best of Show will reap yet another $20! Bring your contenders! September 9 at 7:30 at 9th and Lincoln. Please come early to stage your dahlias. We’d like to start the judging at 7:30. There will be a few extra containers for a first come, first use opportunity. All forms plus x3 and x5. You may enter TWO per category but NO MORE (Two AA, 2A, 2B, etc.). Let your post-show beauties dazzle our membership. Please fill out an exhibit card per entry. These can be found on the website: https://www.dahliadell.org/exhibitors-info-2025-show. Who will bring goodies for this wonderful event? Bring cameras!!
SHOW PREP
Erik outlined the timing of our 3 busy days and Deborah filled in the details by going over the show schedule, especially clarifying CLASS and SECTION. Sarah walked everyone through where to find all the show forms. Sarah also debuted her amazing 8-page booklet explaining ALL THINGS DAHLIA SHOW! Mini bailed us out multiple times when our fingers exceeded our technical prowess. Tim stunned us with an amazing Auggie White, grown on the Hillside at the Dell. Wow! It would’ve been a contendah!
GOODIES FOR GOOD GARDENERS
Yummy thanks go out to Alex and Allison for their walnut-chocolate cookies, and to John and Annette for their Kona coffee shortcakes. Anita baked a delicious plum cake which went splendidly with Brigid’s ginger cookies. Oh Pat, those English cookies and toffee chips were too wonderful! Quadratic? Grace, Steve! And who brought two boxes of Andronico’s best oatmeal cookies? Jeannie! Thanks to all of you for contributing to our dahlia community!
MONTEREY DINE AROUND
MBDS outdid themselves again. Sarah and I toured 4 private gardens with snacks, salads, main courses, and finally desserts: such a delicious itinerary.
#1. Brian and Kristine Albrecht’s Farm
Just keeps getting better! Despite picking 2000 stems twice a week, the garden seemed magnificently in full bloom. Designers like balls and formal decs, so only a couple of waterlilies and NO open-centered dahlias blossomed behind. Beautifully laid out with raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry bushes interspersed with bee hives, the raised bed dahlias led us to the cutest chicken coop with 13 cooing hens. A splendid bathroom overlooked its own garden! Sarah spotted a pink dahlia that shimmered like it was sprinkled with pixie gasps. The homegrown cherry tomatoes popped sunshine goodness as we crunched them in our mouths. I could have crawled into a corner and eaten all the caramel sticky buns.
#2. Dynamite Farms, Markus Hutnak
In the middle of a quiet neighborhood—who would think from the outside that a whole “You Pick” farm of dahlias grew right to the sidewalk? With 5 bags of steer manure per raised bed, their dahlias look well fed. Cute ID tags. Lots of little nooks to dine on scrumptious roast beef and fresh lemonade.
#3. Mike and Talisa
What a charming Beach Victorian with support cages. People gasped at the stalks on Blomquist Finlandia—like soldiers’ thighs! Besides some monstrous AA’s, there was a radiant Eden Lillian. Ah, desserts! Glorious finale to a wonderful day.
#4. Alan Woertink and Jennifer Bruckner
Despite still remodeling the kitchen, the whole property welcomed us including 3 distinct growing areas under 100-year-old oak trees. Alan upcycled rebar and wood for dahlia dust. Many visitors bought honey and eggs. Delicious fresh salads, including toothpick shishkabobs of tomato, mozzarella, and basil dripped in balsamic. And chocolates? Cacao is a fruit, right? So surely chocolate qualifies as a salad—my favorite salad.
UPDATE FROM UP NORTH
John B writes:
“You may remember that we started distributing weekly bouquets to homebound seniors at Luther Burbank last year. Word got around, and there are now a plethora of regular contributors, allowing us to also provide buckets of free flowers for the larger community at their regular Friday or Sunday markets. Dahlias pictured include Improved Orange Cushion, Black Beauty, Tempest, Karma Chocolate, and River’s Spikey Norm.”
SUN SHINES ON DELL PICNIC
Although most of us were prepared with parkas and vests, the sun shone all day at our annual picnic! A welcome change from the drizzly days of July. Jenna set up an information table with Erik’s cool triptych, and Joe handled all forms of membership payment. She laid out sandwiches, salads, and specified potluck tables. The secret to that fantastic cake? Whiskey! Wow! Erik and Deborah alternated Walk n Talks, leading large groups around our Dell and Hillside. One attendee said, “They were completely different, but really interesting.” So nice to see family members and folks from other dahlia societies. After disbudding and deadheading with Jenn T for over an hour, Lucy finally sat down to lunch. “Great to relax with good people.”
FLORIBUNDA!
Crowds poured in! Our best attendance ever, with more volunteers engaging the public than ever before. Despite fewer blooms, the quality and presentation were outstanding—nearly 1000 entries with over 2000 dahlias on display.
FRIDAY SET UP
Signage and class numbers went up. Jenna and Erik picked beauties from Sisterhood Gardens and the Warden backyard. The Visual Team—Jenna, Marissa, Mini, Paul, and Matt—created massive orange and pink photo op walls! Thoughtful touches like a cement brick under the wreath allowed shorter guests to pose. Thanks to the whole Tobiason family and their workout friends, and Bruiser Nicholas and pals who hefted tables. Jenn T, Lucy, and others rolled out tablecloths. Irene and Chelsea, young Dell interns, helped visitors snap lasting memories. From 6:30 PM, exhibitors arrived to stage blooms. Frances and John built a special plank for transporting micro dahlias. Heather J installed pegboard in her car to stabilize big buckets for the drive from SLO. Ingenious!
FUN ZONE
The Galleria’s back quarter became our FUN ZONE. Artist Rachel Perls live-painted a realistic red dahlia. Kids and adults made petal mosaics. Coloring sheets from Julia were a hit. Paul and Jeff represented the Orchid Society. Kauna’s Photo Booth created custom fun photo strips. We exhibited the most—and most creative—arrangements ever. Brigid used lemons in a silver truck; Sarah’s Spaghetti and Dahlia Meatball was a crowd-pleaser. Jenna’s tall orange grove arrangement was beautifully balanced. Allison cleverly used just citrus tops. Artichokes, peppers, even Snoho Storms in water dispensers became inspired design elements. Julie’s Best of Show arrangement featured strawberries on skinny sticks—utterly charming. Security guards from last year enjoyed the event so much they joined DSC!
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JUDGING
Promptly at 9 AM, judging teams began assessing 2000+ gorgeous dahlias. The overall quality of blooms made the task challenging. Curtis turned Bench Evaluation into a hands-on educational experience. John Morton brought three of each of three new introductions to be evaluated. Kristi again ran electronic clerking with four navigators per team, two to catalog wins, Taylor to photograph EVERY entry with a colored dot, and Julie to RUN wherever glitches occurred.
Steve shares his experience: Deborah asked me early if I’d be a Navigator. I missed the Zoom trainings, so I was nervous, but Guy got me on track. It became smooth and fascinating. I learned a lot from Kathy, Guy, and Ed—discussing, disagreeing, asking senior judges for input. Flashbacks to Judging School returned, where I had once doodled through the second session. Now that I know more, I’m considering taking the next steps online and maybe becoming an apprentice judge. The best part? The beauty of the blooms. Lou’s 13 Porcelains and 7 Sunday Steves are burned into my brain. On Sunday, I had a blast taking pictures and talking about “dots and attitude.”
WINNERS AND MORE WINNERS!
Congratulations to Cathy Bettencourt for her yellow Miniball that won Best Small, then beat Lou’s Best Large Kenora Jubilee and the Kawaguchi’s Best Open Kelsey Radiance to be crowned BEST IN SHOW! Open Sweepstakes went to the Soderstroms; Amateur Sweeps to Lou P; and Novice Sweeps to Francis and John K. Julie Lanesey took Arrangement Sweeps.
Young Levi’s Skip to My Lou won Best Jr. Bloom. When he was 4, he insisted on growing it and can now ID cultivars by name! Matt’s x5 anchored the awards table as Best Large 5—a feat for a first-time shower. Iris won Largest Dahlia in the World with a 13.5” Emory. Heather Jamison’s Aggie White and Lou’s Sunday Steve were standouts on the Court of Honor.
Matthew, a first-time grower, asked Deborah what to do with his whole bush of spectacular Blomquist Birdnest and a vase with a frog that only held one. Her answer: “NO! We’ll find something for your big bruisers.” Julie won Best Photo. Kristie nabbed Best 5 Colors and Best Almand with Show n Tell. Deborah triumphed with Best Eden Alice and Best BiColor, Jessica. For full results, see the website.
NEW AND COOL
Brigid’s first dahlia, Maldini, came from Costco and still beguiles. Iris’s x5 Nicky—named after her piano-playing purple-loving son—and her x3 orange Blenny and Ruthli x5 wowed. John Morton’s Hollyhill DPT and RNX Proud dazzled. Soderstrom’s River’s Watermelon radiated orange. Heather’s second-year seedling? Water lily? Orange cappuccino? Centaur? Cooool. Lou P’s second-year x7: firecrackers! And a wee colorette photographed like a painting.
MEMBERSHIP TABLE
Marathoner Don reeled them in; Maggie signed them up. Nicole engaged younger crowds. Erik, Peggy, and Mini took turns behind the tuber clump, explaining root mysteries. Erik’s triptych drew a crowd. Sarah’s 8-page “Bible” answered deep questions. One visitor searched for a vintage sweatshirt that matched Erik’s. Jerrod earned his chair by helping with EVERYTHING all weekend.
SUNDAY
Lou awarded prizes to 36 different winners—a new record! Deborah received the Washington State Silver Medal and the People’s Choice for Kelgai Ann. Usually big stunners win, but this time people loved the quiet nacreous perfection. When the last check was handed out, pandemonium! What took hours to set up took 30 minutes to tear down.
Rachel Perls collected winners for the NICU, while Julia gathered many buckets for UCSF. On Monday, Julia delivered 39 bouquets from “The Dahlia Society of California.” The Tobiasen and Gaensler families collapsed tables and swept the Galleria.
MILL VALLEY GROWERS
Katey sent photos from Anita’s visit to the middle school dahlia yard. Anita gets HUGE blooms in her grow bags!
HAPPY HILLSIDERS AND BUSY TEAR DROPPERS
Sarah’s section is blooming wildly. Sue’s labeled beds are in full spate. Tim’s seedling tier keeps surprising us. He loves gifting big Auggie Whites to the Science Academy. Lou’s tear drop is perfectly primed with plump Eden Sunday Steves and a row of For Robins. Tinnee and Jerry’s section: near perfection. Deborah’s section benefits from young interns. “Carry this Copper Boy around your house to catch the metallic glint,” she advised Adam. Nicole fearlessly transplants giants. Young volunteers love taking home deadheads.
Steve writes:
“I love talking to the public at the Dell. There’s beauty on both sides of the fence. A natty couple posed their stylishly dressed bird on the fence for Instagram photos. I hear amazing stories all the time. A family was admiring the hillside, and one woman turned out to be Sara Smith—the beloved 3rd-grade teacher of their kids! Another man told me this story:
‘I just wanted to thank those of you who work on the garden because when my sister died, I was grieving a lot and I found great solace visiting the Dahlia Dell and just thinking about how she was a flower in my life—beautiful like these. I also want to say, I’m part of Indivisible SF, and I told our group: if you’re burned out from the news or fighting, go visit the dahlias for rejuvenation.’
COMMUNITY JOY
A 100-person walking tour passed the mic to Deborah for a quick genetics/history loop. A marriage proposal occurred in the tear drop—ring, kneel, YES! Kevin Woodson returned to capture our blooms in watercolor. Sue’s Asahi Chohji (Japanese for rising sun) dates back to the 1880s! Her Eden Tie Die dances in the wind.
SUMPTUOUS SEPTEMBER
September’s bounty is overwhelming—I feel like sleeping in the aisles to disbud and deadhead. Dahlias sense waning light and start open-centering and weakening. Time to cut back to new growth to keep producing into October. Don’t fertilize late; old hands say it weakens tubers. Water less. Mark your best clumps if you grow multiples.
Remove any cruddy dahlias—into the garbage, not compost. Recheck your labels and make notes. Don’t fertilize more! Mildew is the biggest issue this year—my current cocktail includes baking soda, milk, Stylet Oil, and a commercial fungicide. I’m pulling infected leaves. Sigh.
PARTY HEARTY
After the stress of the shows, throw a party. Share your bounty with friends, neighbors, or your local library. Dahlias make everything better.
Yours in dirt,
Deborah
Winners of Eden Introduction Namers
Sunday Seminar with Sensei Lou
Photo Credits: Dietz, Dibner, Gaensler, Hunter, Kaiser, Korischenko, Kurhan, Leinger, Mellon, Moore, Shepard, Smith, SmiTanlimco, Tobiasson, Wallace, Woodson, Wu
URL Magician: Mini