How to Start a Dahlia Farm

Melissa Stewart Grew Five Mystery Dahlias into 4,000 Plants at Sweet Bloom Farm

Ep. 86: From Backyard Dahlias to 4,000 Plants: Building Sweet Bloom Farm with Melissa Stewart

It was a regular Tuesday at Home Depot.

Melissa Stewart wasn’t looking for anything that would change her life. She and her husband Mike had just bought their first house together in Northern California, and she was excited to finally have a sunny yard to plant in.

Then she saw them. Three and four-foot-tall dahlia plants in full bloom, sitting right at the front of the garden center.

She didn’t even know what they were called. She pulled the tag out of the pot, and it just said “Dahlia.” No variety name. No growing instructions. Just that one word.

She bought as many as she could fit in the car.

That was 2013. And those five mystery dahlias? They planted a seed that would eventually grow into Sweet Bloom Farm, a boutique dahlia farm in Battleground, Washington, where Melissa and Mike now grow around 4,000 plants on two acres.

I got to sit down with Melissa on Episode 86 of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast, and her story is one that so many of us in the dahlia world will recognize in our bones.

How a Backyard Obsession Became a Dahlia Farm

That first summer, Melissa cut her blooms with six-inch stems because she couldn’t bring herself to sacrifice the side buds. (Every new grower knows that feeling.)

She tucked them in mason jars. She Googled “dahlia” and fell straight down the rabbit hole. Giant ones with twirly petals. Little ones like ping pong balls. Everything in between.

“It was not a gradual love affair,” Melissa told me. “It was like being hit by a train. A dahlia train.”

The next year, she ordered tubers from Swan Island and a few other farms. Planted about 20 varieties. The year after that, 50. Then 100. Every season, she kept expanding, digging up new beds in their suburban backyard, swapping tubers with friends, sharing flowers with coworkers.

And then they ran out of space.

For a while, Melissa thought that was it. This was as big as the dahlia garden would get. She and Mike both had careers. They had two little kids. Land in Northern California was dominated by wine grapes and priced accordingly. A flower farm just wasn’t in the cards.

Until everything shifted.

Mike retired early from the fire department on a medical retirement. Then the pandemic happened. Suddenly, Melissa was working from home full-time, and their future felt wide open in a way it hadn’t before.

They took a trip up to Oregon and Washington. They fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. And they found a modest two-acre property in Battleground, just north of Vancouver in the Portland metro area.

Mike told Melissa that if they moved, they could have the farm she’d always dreamed about.

She said yes.

How To Start A Dahlia Farm: Lessons from the First Season

Melissa planted 600 tubers that first season in Washington. She’d brought every tuber from California, kept them safe during the move, and got them in the ground as fast as she could.

She didn’t have high expectations. New climate. New soil. New everything. Going from California to Washington meant learning to grow dahlias all over again.

But the flowers did a thousand percent better than she expected. The soil was good. The blooms were gorgeous. They did a farmers market that first summer. And something clicked into place.

“That first season was so fun,” Melissa said. “It really solidified. Like, this is what we do now. This is where we’re meant to be.”

If you’re dreaming about starting a dahlia farm, that feeling of knowing is what carries you through the hard parts. Because the hard parts are coming.

The Reality of Scaling Up: From 600 to 4,000 Dahlia Plants

The second year, Melissa went from 600 plants to 4,000. If you just did the math in your head and felt your eyes go wide, you’re not alone.

That’s seven times as many flowers in one season.

They expanded the field, tilled in the rest of the pasture grass, and brought in material to build raised beds above the rocky soil. And that’s where things got challenging.

The material they brought in? They didn’t soil test it first.

Their plants started struggling. Hard.

“If I could, I will sing forever the praises of getting a soil test,” Melissa told me. And she means it. That second season taught them everything about soil health, microbiology, and how plants actually take up nutrients.

They found a resource in Portland called Concentrates (a fertilizer and farmer supply house) that helped them read their soil test, understand what was going wrong, and course correct. By the third season, everything was back on track.

The lesson here is one every dahlia grower needs to hear, whether you have five plants or five thousand. Know your soil. A soil test is not expensive. Skip the ones from the garden center (they’re not that accurate) and look for a university extension program in your area. Many offer free or very low-cost testing. You put some soil in a Ziploc bag, send it off, and they tell you exactly what you’re working with.

No-Till Farming and Regenerative Practices for Dahlias

One of the things I love about Melissa and Mike’s approach is their commitment to growing without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Their farm is completely no-till (after that initial first-season tilling), and Mike has a deep interest in regenerative agriculture.

They built six-inch raised beds using fence boards to get their dahlia plants growing above the rocky layer in their soil. It’s not the most common method, but for their land and their challenges, it works beautifully.

This is something I’m passionate about on our farm too. We worked with a soil agronomist who helped us read our soil tests and develop a plan using amendments instead of truckloads of compost. And I shared on the podcast that the USDA, through the Natural Resource Conservation Services (NRCS), has a new pilot program for regenerative agriculture grants that can help with soil testing, cover cropping, and water management practices.

If you have a farm and you’re already implementing regenerative practices, it’s worth looking into.

Nature really does take care of itself when we learn to listen. We talked about a book called What the Weeds Tell Us that explains how different weeds show up because they’re trying to serve a purpose. The napweed and thistle covering our 20 acres? Deep tap roots trying to break up compaction and bring calcium to the surface. Our soil tests confirmed we were lacking calcium. The weeds were doing exactly what they were supposed to do.

The Heart Behind the Tuber Sales

When Melissa talks about her annual tuber sale, her whole face lights up.

“It’s one of my favorite days of the year and not because of the money,” she told me. “Just to see the excitement, see the orders come in, it makes my heart explode.”

She remembers telling Mike on the morning of their first online tuber sale that nobody was going to buy the tubers. She doesn’t have a massive social media following. She doesn’t post as consistently as she’d like. She was nervous people wouldn’t be able to find them.

That first sale blew her out of the water. They shipped tubers to every state in the country except Hawaii.

And the messages she received from customers? People sharing their excitement, sending photos of her tubers growing in their gardens? That’s the part that makes all the early mornings and hard work worth it.

“If it was just about selling tubers, it wouldn’t be worth it to me,” Melissa said. “But when you factor in the connection, the community connection, and the love that other people have for gardening, for being in nature, for growing these plants and you’re able to help them do that, that makes it worth it.”

Is the Dahlia Market Oversaturated?

I asked Melissa the question so many growers are wondering right now. And her answer was clear.

No.

Sales are still selling out quickly. The interest in dahlias continues to grow. There are 300,000 people in just one of the dahlia growing Facebook groups. And if anything, having more small farms means more choices for people who want to support local growers.

Her advice for anyone on the fence about selling their dahlias? Put out some bouquets at the end of your driveway. You’ll be surprised at how many people are excited to buy flowers from you.

“Our flowers were cut yesterday, wrapped in craft paper, and handed to you,” Melissa said. “It doesn’t get any fresher or safer or more local, and no one appreciates your support more than we do.”

Quick Fire: Melissa’s Favorites and Advice

Favorite dahlia to grow: Cornell Bronze. (Mine too!) It’s beautiful, prolific, vigorous, makes tons of easy-to-store tubers, and the blooms last longer as cut flowers because of their ball shape. If you’ve never grown dahlias before, this is the one to start with.

Why local flowers matter: The community connection. When Melissa moved to Washington, she didn’t know anyone. The flower farming community and her local customers became her social circle. “The flowers are beautiful, but the connections you make because of the flowers is really special.”

One thing she wishes more people understood: There are dahlias for every budget. You don’t have to chase the $50 unicorn varieties to have a stunning garden. The tried and true varieties are tried and true for a reason.

Listen to the Full Episode

There’s so much more in this conversation, from the sound of rocks hitting a tiller to Mike’s business card that reads “Chief Equipment Operator.” Melissa’s warmth and passion for what she does comes through in every word.

And if Melissa’s story stirred something in you, if you’ve been thinking about turning your backyard dahlias into something more, maybe it’s time to plant that seed.