Sept. 15 Column: Spokane Dahlia Festival
It’s always exciting when a new event comes on the scene that holds a lot of promise. This is the case with the Spokane Dahlia Festival, which will take place at Northland Rosarium on Sept. 21. This event is the subject of my garden column, which you can read in today’s edition of The Spokesman-Review: Celebrate late bloomers at Dahlia Festival. (or you can read it lower in this post)
What’s the Spokane Dahlia Festival all about?
The Spokane Dahlia Festival is a collaboration between local flower farmers and the rosarium and is sure to bring smiles to everyone who takes part in it.
The flower farmers are Tall Grass Farms, In Bloom Spokane, Bloom Flower Farm, Cabbage Hill Farm, Snapdragon Flower Farm, Prairie Sky Farms and Fleur de Provence Lavender Farm.
The festival will include an informative talk on growing and dividing dahlias, a display of a wide variety of these amazing flowers, fun craft classes, and a make-and-take dahlia table arrangement class. While the festival is free, there are charges for most of the classes, which you can pre-pay for on Northland Rosarium’s website.
One other thing you might be interested to know: beginning on the day of the festival, the end-of-the-season plant sale at Northland Rosarium features a 40% discount. That’s very tempting!
Festival hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the rosarium is located at 9405 S. Williams Lane in southwest Spokane County. I hope you can come because it will be a wonderful way to celebrate this magnificent flower as well as this year’s growing season!
And now for this week’s “Everyone Can Grow a Garden” video. What’s the topic? How about September garden tasks? There’s a lot to discuss this time of year.
Spokane Dahlia Festival garden column:
by Susan Mulvihill
Dahlias are one of the most prized late-summer bloomers. With their incredible array of colors and types, it’s every gardener’s dream to have a garden filled with these lovely flowers.
It seems only fitting to celebrate dahlias with their own festival. And if you’re feeling discouraged that the garden season is wrapping up for the year, a festival just might perk you up.
Spokane Dahlia Festival news
On Sept. 21, Northland Rosarium will host what is being billed as the “first annual” Spokane Dahlia Festival. It will feature a dahlia display, an informative lecture and demonstration, vendors, fun craft classes, kids activities, live music and giveaways. There will even be food trucks on hand with tasty offerings for hungry festival-goers.
I recently spoke with Carol Newcomb, owner of Northland Rosarium, and her daughter, Amy Newcomb Rowe, about how the festival came about.
“It has been my intent to partner with Inland Northwest flower farmers,” Carol Newcomb explained. “Kim Lango, owner of Prairie Sky Farms, has been instrumental in the planning of this event.”
“We wanted to promote this amazing group of women in agriculture who are growing cut flowers for farmer’s markets,” Newcomb Rowe added.
Spokane Dahlia Festival presenters and co-sponsors
Brian Desautel and Susan Stephens of the Inland Empire Dahlia Society will give a presentation on how to grow dahlias and demonstrate how to divide and store tubers.
Co-sponsors of this event are Tall Grass Farms, In Bloom Spokane, Bloom Flower Farm, Cabbage Hill Farm and Snapdragon Flower Farm — all local flower-growing businesses. Many of them, along with Fleur de Provence Lavender Farm, will teach craft classes (refer to schedule).
“We’d like to invite non-gardeners to the festival so we can introduce them to the flower farmers,” Newcomb Rowe said. “This will be an educational, fun, and family-friendly event where kids are definitely welcome in the garden.”
Visitors will enjoy strolling through Northland Rosarium’s beautiful display gardens and checking out the end-of-season plant sale.
As a longtime fan of dahlias, Carol Newcomb is looking forward to seeing some beauties during the festival.
“Dahlias are such spectacular fall flowers because of their many colors and sizes,” Carol Newcomb said. “They are well worth the effort to grow.”
“If you want to grow a cut-flower garden, dahlias are the way to go,” added Newcomb Rowe.
“What I love about this festival is that it’s women-led,” she continued, referring both to her mother and the flower farmers. “It’s woman-power: these hardworking multi-taskers will make this event so special.”
To spread the word about the upcoming festival, Northland Rosarium will sponsor giveaways on their social media accounts prior to Sept. 21. Watch for posts on Instagram under @northlandrosarium and on Facebook at facebook.com/northlandrosarium.
Susan Mulvihill is co-author, with Pat Munts, of “Northwest Gardener’s Handbook.” Contact her at Susan@susansinthegarden.com. Watch this week’s “Everyone Can Grow a Garden” video on youtube.com/c/susansinthegarden.
IF YOU GO: SPOKANE DAHLIA FESTIVAL
When: Sept. 21 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Northland Rosarium, 9405 S. Williams Ln. in southwest Spokane County, (509) 448-4968.
Details: Event is free and open to the public. To learn more about the festival or purchase tickets for craft classes, go to northlandrosarium.com.
SPOKANE DAHLIA FESTIVAL EVENTS SCHEDULE
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. _ Dahlia display
10 – 11 a.m. _ Inland Empire Dahlia Society guest speakers will present on how to divide and grow dahlias and demonstrate how to divide the tubers.
Choose from the following craft classes. Where noted, prepay fee through northlandrosarium.com:
11 a.m. to 1 p.m. _
Succulent pumpkin class: prepay $20.
Children’s floral jewelry-making: free.
2-3 p.m. _ Make-and-take dahlia table arrangement class by Bloom Flower Farms: prepay $35. Email questions to Andi@bloomflowerfarm.com. 2:30-4 p.m. _ Flower crowns for adults and children: prepay $10.