Bonny Blooms

03/09/2026

Building mother stock for this year’s dahlia cuttings. I’m on course to have around a thousand plants by mid March.

It started with about 100 cuttings taken from the garden back in November. Since then I’ve been adding more from tubers as I divide them through winter.

The trick this year has been finding the right balance. Enough plants to cut from and keep the pipeline moving, but not so many that I can’t stay on top of the farm, the lab, and tuber dividing.

The lab experiments are paused for now. Tissue culture will likely wait until after shipping season, when things settle down and I can get back to it properly.

02/13/2026

How to care for rooted dahlia cuttings. The grow room is filling up with mother plants and soon enough I'll be taking cuttings for the first shipments towards the end of March!

Growing Dahlias from Rooted Cuttings Growing dahlias from rooted cuttings is one of the most rewarding ways to bring these stunning flowers into your garden. At Bonny Blooms, I take extra care to ensure every cutting is set up for success, not just for vibrant blooms but for strong tuber production....

01/07/2026

Last August I took Night Silence on a tour of the seedling patch to meet her offspring. She might make the worst tubers I’ve ever worked with, but she definitely makes cute kids - and so far the kids are making good tubers.
Night Silence is the one I’m holding :)

11/29/2025

A little throwback to those bright and lazy late summer days.

10/06/2025

Some of the new dahlias released this year.

The season’s starting to wind down, and my days have gradually shifted from hand-crossing dahlias to preparing for tuber harvest - selecting and tagging favorites, gathering seeds, and taking cuttings to overwinter.

I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy some fall color and sunshine before the season ends.

09/27/2025

Late September 🍂

09/19/2025

September scenes

A little overgrown, a little messy – that’s September on my little farm. The dahlias grow so fast in the tunnels that I have to cut them down every few weeks. The new growth is perfect for taking cuttings. Seems a little early, but I like to start preparing for tuber harvest – gathering up all the crates and clearing out the barn for curing tubers.

It’s also hand crossing season and I spend late afternoons wandering around gathering pollen into envelopes and dusting it onto prepared blooms in the tunnels. It’s probably my favorite time of year in terms of farming – there’s plenty of work to do, but the pace is gentle and the evenings cool down quickly.

Hope your September is treating you kindly too – what’s been growing in your corner of the world?

09/18/2025

Magic season is here.

09/13/2025

Beautiful things.

09/09/2025

Happiness is…

09/07/2025

Bell’s Soprano - a new release this year. The first time it bloomed Jana said it reminded her of Paulie’s hair from the Soprano’s and so it was instantly nicknamed Soprano. Probably the fastest name any of my dahlias has received.

08/24/2025

Last hot weekend? Not sure if it hit 100 today, but I do love late summer heat here in the PNW. We joke that 98 degrees in August is easier than 78 degrees in May.