Aztec Dahlia Workshop 2018

Last night I returned to the scene of the crime- that is; if flowers, and creativity have been outlawed by the current administration..... Whew, they haven't! So it wasn't a crime scene I came upon, but one of a more benign and curious activity. 

I arrived at Aztec Dahlias at 6:30 PM, as the sun was softening in these shorter days. Buckets were filled with water and flower food in preparation for a big dahlia harvest. Yes, 7oo or more blossoms for various orders. E- Gods, could the field give up that many flowers? Kate had been keeping everyone away from her white dahlias for the past two weeks in anticipation for cutting 250 , which was about what the field had to offer. Three of us got to cutting; pausing every so often to look at this or that amazing dahlia and a short pause to watch the sunset. 

But we were not dawdling. We were racing the light of day. That order was done and dusted pretty quickly- next! Then it was on to other colors of the rainbow. Then it got a bit trickier. How to determine whether a color really was coral in the fading light, was that a cool yellow or warm yellow? We finally put on head lamps to continue our harvest. We were more than half done when I took off,  the rest to be picked at the crack of dawn. I took no dahlias home last night, too tired and too dark to dahlia shop. Kate said that we would be surprised how many dahlias would open up during the night to replenish what we had cut. Truly a field of dreams.

I wanted to share that experience with the 12 of you who came out for our splendid 3rd Dahlia workshop at Aztec Dahlias. You have walked those fields and felt the magic. You were newcomers and accomplished designers alike. Always a good mix as the experienced designers help lift the others energetically.

Thanks to Mary, Diane, and Lourdes for providing some photos. I hope we got everyone's in here somewhere. What a special day.