Dahlias for Seniors Project 2019 a huge success - free tutorial Monday on overwintering tubers

Text and Photos 

by John Hibbs, ND

aka Dr. Dahlia

With our cold and wet September-October the dahlia season ended in Shoreline a little early.

But, with the early, warm start we got this summer and our perfect gardening weather, at final tally the Dahlias for Seniors Project 2019 generated $4185 for our very own Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Senior Center!

This beat all expectations and eclipses last year’s success by a large margin.

Front desk volunteers at Senior Center

We began our fundraising season with a hugely successful dahlia tuber sale at the Senior Center in early May (and we’ll do this again next May – watch the SAN), exchanging nearly 450 tubers for almost $800 in donations in under 2 hours. 

And in the garden, remember that wonderful, sunny April-May we had? It led to mature dahlia blossoms available for donations by mid-July, and the plants continued to luxuriate in the not-too-hot and occasional rain of summer 2019, blooming prolifically.

Thank you so very much to all the people of Shoreline that bought flowers at the Senior Center and at the Ridgecrest Public House between mid-July and the end of September.

John with Chef Janice at the Foss Home market
The table was donated - and they sold out the flowers!

Thank you to Foss Home and Village on Greenwood for donating a table at their annual August Farmer’s Market – we sold every flower, some 230 blossoms. 

Thank you to two citizens of Shoreline who wed, and decorated their joyous event with Dahlias for Seniors pinks, yellows and whites. 

Thank you to my wonderful Shoreline neighbors, who watered, weeded, cut and delivered when I was on vacation. 

And special thanks to Megan Kogut, proprietor extraordinaire of the Ridgecrest Public House, 520 NE 165th St in Shoreline. 

Ridgecrest Public House has sold bouquets
and matched sales for four years

This year was the 4th that Megan and her RPH partnered in Dahlias for Seniors, and they sold 128 bouquets during our season, then matched all donations! 

If you haven’t visited the Ridgecrest Public House, stop in. It’s charming, neighborly, and has fast become a community center in this neck of the woods. 

Finally, by popular request I’m giving a one-hour tutorial on caring for your dahlia tubers overwinter, both in and out of the ground, and preparing your soil for spring planting.

Please come to the Shoreline-Lake Forest Park Senior Center this Monday, November 25, 2019, at 9am. 

It’s free, donations to SL-LFPSC accepted. (And I’ll do a follow-up in April on planting and growing wonderful dahlias – again, watch the SAN.)

All the best, and I’ll see you next season.