Transcript
Jennifer Gulizia: Today on the Backyard Bouquet podcast, I'm joined by Melissa Stewart of Sweet Bloom Farm. Sweet Bloom Farm is a boutique dahlia farm located in and Battleground, Washington, just north of Vancouver in the Portland metro area, where Melissa, her husband Mike, and their two children grow thousands of dahlias with a whole lot of heart. Like so many of us, Melissa's journey with flowers started small.
Jennifer Gulizia: Five mystery dahlias from a garden center that completely changed everything. What began as a suburban backyard passion quickly turned into full blown dahlia love affair. One that grew from a handful of plants to hundreds of varieties and eventually into a two acre farm growing around 4,000 plants. Melissa's story is one of following joy,
Jennifer Gulizia: listening to the quiet pull towards something more and building a farm rooted in beauty, generosity, and community. From farmers markets and pop-up shops to neighbors pulling into the driveway just to buy flowers for someone they love, Sweet Bloom Farm has become a place where dahlias truly connect people.
Jennifer Gulizia: And I'm so excited for you to hear Melissa's story today, her lessons from scaling up and what it's really like to turn a backyard obsession into a thriving family farm.
Jennifer Gulizia: Melissa, welcome to the podcast.
Melissa: Oh, thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. Because like, it's the first time like I've ever been like, I've ever heard my kind of like introduction story read out loud. And it makes me like a little bit emotional.
Melissa: um
Jennifer Gulizia: Isn't it fun?
Melissa: It is it just really reiterates. This is my life. Like, wow, to hear it come from somebody else's point of view is is really cool. Thank you for having me.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, it's such a pleasure. We got to meet in person two and a half years ago, and I can't believe you're only like an hour away from me. And it's been that long since we've connected.
Melissa: I know. know
Jennifer Gulizia: so
Melissa: Yeah, wow we got to meet at the National Dahlia Show when it was held in Portland. And that's always going to those types of events is always so fun because you get to see in person everybody that you usually just see online on social media. And um so it's always like a really fun time to connect with people. But farm life is busy. So it's always it's hard. Like, even though you're so close, relatively speaking, um you know, the days just fly by.
Jennifer Gulizia: They really do fly by. Just last night I was dividing dahlias and all of a sudden I'm going, it's seven o'clock and I haven't thought about dinner yet.
Melissa: Yeah. I know that feeling very well.
Jennifer Gulizia: So, well, Melissa, take us back to that very first moment in that garden center. What was it about those first dahlias that made you even buy them?
Melissa: Oh, gosh. You know, it's like a lot of people have kind of their story of like their grandmother grew dahlias or their or sweet peas or kind of this childhood um connection to flowers. And for me, it was like much more sudden. I mean, I've always loved gardening, but after years of living like in rented houses where I didn't really have the opportunity to grow a lot of stuff, um my husband and i had gotten our first house together and i was so excited to have ah a yard a sunny yard where we could plant some flowers we could do a vegetable garden kind of whatever we wanted and so i trotted off to the home depot garden center um and it was like mid-summer this was back in like 2013 so it's been quite a few years um And in front of the of the store, they had these displays of dahlias and they were like full grown plants, three or four feet tall and like a three gallon pot fully blooming. And they just stop you in your tracks. um
Melissa: And I'd grown some like landscape flowers before, but I was not like a cut flower garden person yet. And so I'm sure I had heard of dahlias, but I didn't even know what I was looking at. I just like, wow.
Melissa: So I like pulled the plant tag out of the pot and it just said Dahlia. Like there was no variety name or anything. i had no idea um what I was about to get myself into. So I just thought like,
Melissa: you know, I need these in the yard and they're just, you know, these big luscious flowers, like was just so beautiful. So I bought as many as I could fit in the car, which was probably like four.
Melissa: took them home, put them in the yard.
Jennifer Gulizia: Totally. and totally
Melissa: I think I went back a couple of times. I think I maybe had six or seven plants that first summer and they were just, they just brought so much joy um,
Melissa: um You know, kind of it was kind of like a cheat because they were already blooming, but I just every day would go out and like inspect them. I did cut some of the flowers. I cut them with like six inch long stems because I could not sacrifice the side buds. Every new grower knows that feeling. um But like would tuck them in a little mason jar And, um yeah, I just, I was hooked. And then, of course, like, Adalia, what's Adalia? And i I Googled it and then straight down this rabbit hole of,
Melissa: you know, wait, what? There's, you know, giant ones that have like twirly petals. There's these little ones that are like ping pong balls and everything in between. um So it was not a gradual love affair. It was like being hit by a train, a Dahlia train.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yes, I just did an Instagram live with Marin Mathis of the Farmhouse Flower Farm. And she jokingly said that dahlias should come with a warning label for addiction.
Melissa: Whoa.
Melissa: Absolutely. hundred percent. Um, you know, it's so funny. and Like I, I, I come across like customers are like, Oh, i have a few dahlias in the yard or, you know, i used to grow them, but like, and I'm like, man, I, that was not the case with us. Like it was instant, instant passion for us.
Jennifer Gulizia: Same here. It's funny how similar those stories are. I had the love from childhood, but as soon as I had my own land, it was like, I need something bright and colorful in this garden.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And and when you said that, it made me forget I had bought, I have always tell the story of buying my bags of tubers from Costco. But I forgot that I also bought a Kelvin floodlight from Walmart that was blooming.
Melissa: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: Yeah. Right.
Jennifer Gulizia: and I planted it right in my front yard in between like some lavender bushes. I knew nothing about growing them. And this was 2014.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And I was hooked. I was like, this flower is so big compared to anything else I've ever grown.
Melissa: why Yeah. Yeah. If anyone is wondering what variety that was that I, or the one I was able to identify, it was Nicholas. The first dahlia I ever grew and I still love it.
Melissa: I still grow it. So yeah. Wow.
Jennifer Gulizia: Isn't it funny how we still remember like those first dahlias and when you look.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. And it's just, you know, it's I mean, some of them our favorites that I always grow. Some of them I've grown and I've let go of over the years. But that one will always hold kind of a special place because it was the very first one that started it all.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. When you look back on that moment, do you see that as a turning point or pivotal so moment in your life?
Melissa: For sure. i think at the at the time I had no idea. like you know, I, and because it took another year or two for us to be like, this is something for me to be like, this is something that I want to keep doing, like keep expanding, keep like, this is now my thing. And I'm sure standing there that day, I had no idea like what was in store for us. um And then it even took more years after that to transition to this being a farm and a business. Like for many, for the first handful of years of growing dahlias in our suburban backyard, i had no idea like that this was coming down the pipeline. I would have never guessed. um
Melissa: But definitely like, it's just when we did our first website um to, so you know, sell tubers and stuff from the farm and, And a friend said, you need to have an about me page and so people can connect with you. And then I was like, okay, well, gosh, I should just tell the story of like how this all started and kind of like retracing our steps like all the way back to just wanting some color in the yard to now growing 4,000 plants on a farm in a different state than where we lived back then.
Melissa: um It's been quite a journey. And there's been and been definitely some turning points, but that was the first.
Jennifer Gulizia: Well, I'd love to go through your journey a little bit. I kind of think of this podcast as you were describing that is as a giant about me because people love the stories of the people that are growing the dahlias. We all grow the same flowers, but it's our stories that make each farm so special and so unique. So walk us through how did things escalate for you from those first five or six dahlias that you had?
Melissa: Yeah, so first summer, we just had those ones that we bought from the store, but I loved them so much. And like I said, went down the rabbit hole on Google, discovered this whole world opened up. And so that fall and winter, i ordered tubers, which had no idea, what...
Melissa: what what I was doing, but I, there wasn't as many small farms back then as there are now, but like Swan Island was around, you know, Arrowhead and Connell's and some of the bigger, older farms were around. And so I ordered some tubers, just whatever looked pretty from a few different places. And they arrived in the spring and I had jumped on like the Facebook Dahlia groups and trying to just kind of get my feet under me as far as like, what do I do now? I planted, think, maybe like 20 different varieties that second year.
Melissa: um Very similar to the first year. So much joy. Just loved it. Snipped all these tiny stems, you know, shared them with friends and family, took flowers to work and shared with my coworkers. And, um,
Melissa: And it just continued to escalate. I think that year I tried like dividing my own tubers and storing them um and continuing to like dig up new flower beds to accommodate, you know, the growing collection of like the next week or the next year and the next year. So we went from like six to probably 20 to like 50 to like ah hundred So every year kept getting more and more different varieties and swapping tubers with friends, giving tubers away. Like we weren't a farm back then. Like I wasn't selling tubers, um but definitely wanted to share as much of the flowers as we could.
Melissa: And then at some point, like we're kind of out of space and I know like lots of people, you know, can say like oh, I would, I would have them all, but I don't have very much space.
Melissa: And I remember those days very well. So we kind of maxed out our yard and then kind of thought like that was it, you know, like this is, this is as much space as we have to grow the dahlias.
Melissa: Um, but then another turning point,
Melissa: um, we ended up a couple of things happened. I never would have thought that we would have been a farm or that we would have been able to buy land to grow more dahlias than we had.
Melissa: Um, at the time we were living in Northern California. that's where my husband and I both grew up and land, and California is very expensive and the agriculture is dominated where we lived by wine grapes. So all of the available agricultural land is they're growing grapes on it.
Melissa: And that just makes it cost prohibitive to like be a flower farmer in that area.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: And we also both had careers. Like I still have a regular, my corporate job. And Mike was a firefighter. yeah, He was gone a couple of days a week to the fire station. I had, you know, my job and my office. We had two little kids. And it was like, there's no, there's no space in this life or no time in this life to like be a flower farm. So we just grow at home and and do what we can and and loving the whole journey. But a farm was not necessarily like in the cards.
Melissa: And, um, And then Mike, my husband, retired from the fire department. So he took an early retirement, a medical retirement, and all of a sudden, like okay, you know, this big change in our life kind of brought us to the point where we could consider some other options.
Melissa: And then the pandemic happened. And so that kind of threw another wrench into everything. Now, all of a sudden I'm working from home full time. um And for that whole year was kind of like, it left it left our our future kind of open in a sense.
Jennifer Gulizia: Uh-huh.
Melissa: um And then we decided, to consider relocating. um Mike wanted to leave California because of fire season.
Melissa: And we were open during the pandemic. I was working from home to be able to you know explore other areas. And so we took a little trip up into Oregon and Washington and we fell in love with it here.
Melissa: And we were able to um buy a modest little two acre um property and really consider like leaning into the flowers full time.
Melissa: um So that's how we ended up on a farm.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's amazing. So when you found these two acres, did you say, we're going to start growing dahlias? Or how did it evolve from, let's move, we've got this two acre property to let's build a farm?
Melissa: Yeah, well, yes. So the idea was, you know, was that wasn't necessarily the reason that we moved. But that was definitely the carrot that got dangled in front of us, right?
Melissa: Or in my, for me, it was like, it's hard to leave like your hometown where you've always lived.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: your family, your friends. During the pandemic, was like there was a lot of uncertainty. um And so it was just kind of like a lot of things happening all at once. So it was it was kind of a it was a huge decision. But one of the things that made it a little more palatable, i guess, is that Mike said, look, if we move up to Washington and we can buy a little piece of property, which we couldn't do at home, then we can grow the flowers. We can have the farm that you've always wanted. And I was like, hmm, OK.
Melissa: So it all it all just came together really beautifully. you know um we found the perfect spot for us. And having retired from the fire department, Mike was able to spend you know time on the farm and make this his full time job. um I, excuse me, I still have my, um, my corporate finance job, but I work from home full time now and I have since we moved. So what started as like the pandemic lockdown has evolved to me being able to keep my job and support the family while we build the farm, which is really great. And, um, it's all, it's all come together.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's amazing. So literally buying five dahlias at Home Depot planted this seed that led to this new opportunity.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love how you have to look back to see how it all came together. um It's a beautiful story.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: So Mike now works full time on the farm and you are working full time nine to five job and working on the farm. Is that correct?
Melissa: Yes, we are very busy here. So Mike is just so wonderful. and he'll He will acknowledge that like the dahlias are not necessarily a passion of his, like he's not he's not the one that fell in love with the flowers, but he does really love that we get to steward this land. um He has a really... um great interest in like regenerative agriculture and growing things organically and kind of like everything that goes into it. He loves driving a tractor.
Melissa: So um it's just worked out really well, you know, and and I'm kind of like the creative um dreamer, the Dahlia lover and like the face of the company. um So we're a great team and it's worked out really well.
Jennifer Gulizia: I think he would get along well with my husband. My husband enjoys the stewarding of the land and the driving the tractor as well.
Melissa: Yeah, yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: um
Melissa: Yeah, his business his business card says chief equipment operator. that's what he chose.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, I like it.
Melissa: That is his CEO title. So it's fun. We get to have fun with it and we get to do it together.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, that's awesome.
Melissa: And that's really special.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's so true. When you're having fun, everything just goes so much easier and it's more enjoyable.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: how have you guys made it fun?
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: What do you think allows it to be so fun?
Melissa: You know, we just, I feel like we're, we're a good team and we really like working together. um we didn't have that early on in our marriage, right? Like he was a firefighter, so he was home for a few days, but then gone for a few days. And I'd be home with the kids on my own for a few days while he was at the station. And, you know, I had my corporate job, which I still have, but now that I get to work from home, we get to spend more time together you um You know, we both like being outside. We both like, you know, like I said, stewarding the land um and kind of dreaming things up together, you know, like making plans for the future.
Melissa: It's just, it's really, it's special. And to be able to do that, like with your family is really great.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. Now you said Mike is into the regenerative agriculture.
Melissa: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Are you applying any practices or principles to your farm?
Melissa: Yeah, so our farm is no-till. When we first moved here, we did have to till up what is now the dahlia field. But since that first season, it's completely no-till.
Melissa: He just drives the tractor to like move things around the property. So it's great.
Jennifer Gulizia: huh.
Melissa: Even though it's not the the reason we originally got, a you know, farm equipment, it still gets used, I think, on a daily basis, moving crates of tubers and all kinds of things around the farm.
Melissa: um We don't use any synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, try and keep things as natural as possible. And we're always just delving into, um you know, all the anything we can find about like ways to boost the plants, ways to battle pests. Um, everything that we can do to work with the land and with nature not against it. Um, all the microbial life in the soil is so important. And once you start getting interested in that kind of stuff, it just opens up so many interesting things that you can learn that help your growing journey. um
Melissa: just really, it's just, i we we both find it so interesting. you know and And there's people out there who, you know, feed their dahlias with Miracle-Gro, and that's totally fine too if that works for you. Everybody has their own methods and something different works for everybody. But we've really enjoyed just learning as much as we can about being a farmer.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. Okay, so you said you are no till since your first season. How have you managed to go no till? Did you already have good soil to begin with? Or what have you done to make it manageable without tilling?
Melissa: So we do have pretty good soil, but there's a lot of rock in our soil. So that first season when Mike hooked up the new tiller to the new tractor and We had this just like big pasture area that was going to be our dahlia field and the grass had to be tilled in. We moved to the farm in at the end of February. So it was before the season started, but we didn't have a lot of time to prep.
Melissa: You know, we just had to kind of get our feet under us, get moved in and get to work, you know, making space to put the tubers in because then we'd be planting pretty soon after.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: And, you know, when i I remember standing in the field and he started the tractor and started the tiller and the sound of the rocks like ding ding ding, ding, ding, ding.
Melissa: And it was like so many rocks in our soil and not like not small rocks. They were pretty big and really round like like what you would find in the river.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, interesting.
Melissa: And yeah, so these really round, smooth river rocks, but like we live close to the Columbia, but not that close. So it was really interesting.
Melissa: We have since found out like what prehistoric, you know, flood came through this area that deposited a lot of like river rock here. um But it was definitely challenging. And we grew our dahlias in the ground that first season. And then when we went to dig the tubers, we were fighting the rocks. We were, i was finding that like rocks were wedged up inside of the tuber clumps, making it challenging to like wash and divide. And so we were like, man we really need to kind of figure something else out um to manage this because growing in in the
Melissa: Rock held together by some clay was going to be very challenging. um So what we ended up doing was we put beds above the soil, um We used some like fence boards, so they're like six inch tall raised beds. a lot of people mound beds for their dahlias. That works just as well. um And that allowed us to still utilize the same space, but just get those plants growing at least a little bit above that hard rock layer. and now
Melissa: planting, digging, everything is so much easier. So that's worked really well for us. And of course, like once we laid out this, um this configuration of beds in the fields, um we, we couldn't get a tractor in there anymore. And we don't need one because we kind of have everything laid out the way that we want it. And we just reuse those same beds every year. Um,
Melissa: So yeah, so it's it's definitely not like what, it was definitely not the most common way to plant. um You know, i would say almost everybody has their plants in the ground, but for the space we had and the challenges that we were facing, this has worked really well for us for the last five years.
Jennifer Gulizia: Thank you for sharing that. we are ah it was interesting listening you talk about the rocks because we don't have river rock at our new farm. We have boulders that literally we need like an excavator to take out.
Melissa: Oh man.
Jennifer Gulizia: There's one row. where we didn't fill it when we tilled the first time through. Cause when you, I was laughing as you're talking about the tiller, just like making the noise as it's hitting all the rocks.
Jennifer Gulizia: We've got a ton of broken up boulders that I'm like, I need to make like a rock garden or something.
Melissa: Right.
Jennifer Gulizia: We have so many, but I mean, if you're watching on the YouTube video version of this podcast, I'm pulling my hands out.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: The average size of the rocks are like the circumference of me taking my hands and making a circle. And we're like, we could have little seats all over, but I can't even get my T posts in the ground in certain spots.
Melissa: Oh, wow.
Jennifer Gulizia: So like I had this goal of having perfectly lined up T posts and there's some that are out of alignment and you're like, everything looks so in alignment until this one.
Melissa: Wait.
Jennifer Gulizia: And it's like, well, there's a boulder underneath the ground.
Melissa: There's a boulder there. Oh man, yeah. We don't have any rocks that big, but I feel like I can relate to the broken up boulder part. Like just the amount of rocks is insane. um And I know a lot of i know other farms that have dealt with that also. you know you kind of You have to play the card that you're dealt with the land that you have and find a way to work with that. So whether it's building up instead of planting down or you know your T-post is offset by you know a few inches because there was a big rock there, like we make it work.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. Yes, we have to get creative sometimes.
Melissa: Yes.
Jennifer Gulizia: So going back to starting out with this new field or your new farm in a new state, you how many dahlias did you start with on the farm? Because you had had five and you were growing that to probably a couple hundred. How many did you have when you moved to Washington?
Melissa: So we planted 600 tubers the first year where we were here.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay.
Melissa: um So we had not fully expanded the field yet to what it is now, but we had brought, I had brought all my tubers with us during the move, um kept them nice and safe at the property until we were ready to plant. And I think we put in roughly like about 600 plants. I really did not have high expectations for that first year because it was such a big transition. i'm in a new climate, like going from California to Washington is very different. um
Melissa: the The planting time was totally different. Like it was learning it was kind of learning to grow dahlias all over again. And also, like I said, we had kind of landed here right at the beginning of spring. So we didn't have a ton of time to prep.
Melissa: It was more of like, let's just get the tubers planted so we don't lose them. Right. And then we know we have a lot of work to do to make this a dahlia farm and we'll just...
Melissa: you know, keep keep moving forward with whatever is needed. But the flowers did, you know, a thousand percent better than I expected. Like our soil was pretty good. We got great blooms. We did a farmer's market that first summer that we lived here and were able to share the flowers with people. And it really, for me, like it was amazing.
Melissa: a lot of unknowns going into it, but that first season was so fun. It really solidified. Like, this is what we do now. This is where we're meant to be.
Melissa: So it was a great start.
Jennifer Gulizia: Isn't that such a great feeling when you have that knowing of this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
Melissa: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. and And not without its hiccups. Like our second season, very challenging by in contrast. Um, but as a farmer or even a gardener, like if you, even if you grow flowers in your backyard, you realize like no two seasons are the same.
Melissa: You're always learning something new. And what worked last year is maybe not what is needed now. And you never know like what's coming down, you know, the pipeline for tomorrow. So you have to be flexible. You have to just roll with the punches.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. It's so true that every year is so different. It's like, just because you had such a great season one year doesn't guarantee that that next season is going to be the same. am approaching this year with caution because it's our second year on this new growing space. And someone told me they're like, the first year that you're growing on newul newly cultivated land is like a honeymoon period.
Jennifer Gulizia: And they're like, that second year, all the pests are going to find this space that you've created this haven for them. And all of that seed bed that was lying dormant for 20 years is all of a sudden going to wake up.
Melissa: Yep.
Jennifer Gulizia: And I'm going, okay, what pests, what what weeds are going to come up this year?
Melissa: Yeah. Exactly. Well, that's exactly what our experience was. And part of it was because our second year, we expanded the field. So we went from growing 600 4,000.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh
Melissa: And that's a huge crop.
Jennifer Gulizia: oh my
Melissa: That's like seven times as many flowers. And And, you know, we did. We tilled in the rest of that pasture grass. We woke up the seed bank, right? we um We had to bring in a lot of material because we, like I said, we were mounding those beds to get above the rocks in the field and the material that we brought in.
Melissa: gave us a lot of problems. We didn't soil test it before we brought it in. So then our plants were struggling.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yes.
Melissa: So we learned a lot that second year. And if I could, I will sing forever the praises of getting a soil test, get a soil test.
Jennifer Gulizia: yes
Melissa: um That second year we really learned. That's i think when we really started delving into like soil health, understanding the microbiology and the way that plants take up nutrients from the soil. because our plants were struggling so hard that second season. And it was a lot of work to expand the field that much. And so it was it was really it wasn't obviously was not as discouraging enough to make us quit, but it was very discouraging after putting so much work into expanding then to be struggling for that whole summer season. And we have a great um
Melissa: Fertilizer and farmer supply house in Portland, which is not far. And we ended up getting a soil test, taking it down to them. They helped us read it.
Melissa: They helped us understand it. They made some recommendations and they saved our season. Like they knew exactly what was going on.
Jennifer Gulizia: Amazing.
Melissa: um But with and without them, I don't know what we would have done. so if you're in the Portland, Oregon area, Concentrate is a great resource to help with growing challenges. But um yeah, you know, you you learn new stuff every season. And we were able to understand what was happening, course correct, and the next season, you know, amend appropriately and kind of get things reset. And then the third season was much better. So you just never know what you're going to be dealing with.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. love concentrates also. We hired a soil agronomist for our new farm because we knew that soil health was going to be so important for this field.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And she helped us read our soil test.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: We did like every soil test in the book and the soil analysis. And then she, because we have 20 acres, she's like, there's no way you can buy compost to amend all of this without breaking the bank.
Jennifer Gulizia: And we didn't have that kind of budget, but she was like, but the thing is, is once you know your soil and what it needs, you can add amendments.
Melissa: Sure.
Jennifer Gulizia: And by adding amendments, you need less compost. And so I think we bought two tons of amendments from concentrates and concentrates.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: If you're in the Northwest, they have their public showroom, And then you can buy wholesale also. And so like you can show up to their loading dock and get your order.
Melissa: Right.
Jennifer Gulizia: And I think I made, I took our truck and I forget if I made two or three loads. And every time the truck was weighted so far down, driving all the way back through the gorge, and my husband's like, please be careful, you're you're carrying a lot of amendments.
Melissa: Right.
Jennifer Gulizia: um But it made such a difference to our ah soil.
Melissa: Right.
Jennifer Gulizia: I mean, I had a great first season on our new field because of the soil.
Melissa: great.
Jennifer Gulizia: And I wanted to share for everyone listening, because Melissa, you're practicing regenerative practices. Our farm has regenerative practices. If you're not already aware, the U.S.
Jennifer Gulizia: government with the USDA, it's through the NRCS, which is the Natural Resource Conservation Services. I think I'm saying that right.
Melissa: I think that's right. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: They were just out at our farm on Friday because there's a new pilot program for regenerative ag grants. And so one of them is for helping with soil testing. And there's a five-year program that you can qualify for if you're doing regenerative practices.
Jennifer Gulizia: So it's to help you with soil testing, cover cropping, water management practices. So I'm just throwing that out there. If anyone has a farm, you have to already be growing in that area.
Jennifer Gulizia: But if you're already growing in that area, there are USDA grants that are available to help with the regenerative soil testing, which I thought was pretty awesome.
Melissa: Yeah, that's super awesome. And, you know, the more you know about your soil and what you're working with, even if you're just a backyard gardener, a soil test is not expensive. Don't use the ones from the garden center. They're not that accurate. You can look online often like a university in your area will offer free soil testing or very low cost soil testing.
Melissa: You just put like some soil in a Ziploc bag and send it off and they can tell you so much about what you're working with. And then you know exactly what you need to do to be successful.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. And you know, just noticing can go a long ways too. ah i don't remember what episode it was exactly, but Marian Boswell joined us last year. She wrote The Kindest Garden and she told me about a book called What the Weeds Tell Us.
Jennifer Gulizia: I think that's close to the name. It's right around the corner from where I'm sitting right here, but it's a great book that talks about the different weeds that show up in our gardens and our farms and why they show up.
Jennifer Gulizia: And this book, the main idea is that weeds show up because they're trying to serve a purpose. So like our entire 20 acres was covered in napweed and thistle.
Melissa: Right.
Jennifer Gulizia: And if you look up why those show up, it's because of heavy compaction. They have deep tap roots that try to go down and break up and allow calcium to come to the surface of the soil.
Jennifer Gulizia: Well, our soil tests showed that we were lacking calcium.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And so they were doing exactly what they're supposed to do.
Melissa: It all makes sense.
Jennifer Gulizia: And in our area that we have started planting, I'm not going to say the napweed's gone because it's not gone, but it is drastically reduced compared to the other parts of our property where we haven't been able to apply cover cropping and breaking up the compaction yet. so
Melissa: isn't It's just so interesting. Like you you could look out on ah on a field of thistle and we have thistle here too on our farm and just be like, oh, you know, what a nightmare.
Melissa: But if you dig a little deeper and understand what is going on, then like you said, it it nature takes care of itself once, you know, the the solution presents itself.
Melissa: So how cool.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. Yeah.
Melissa: I'll talk about that book. That sounds super interesting.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yes. I'll link it in today's show notes to ah one of our neighbors. When we bought this property, they're like, you're going to be using a lot of chemicals to get rid of the snap weed if you ever want it gone. And I'm like, Nope, we're going to do this with cover cropping and healing the soil and listening to the land.
Jennifer Gulizia: And it's working. I mean, one of the things our soil agronomist has us doing is we have to constantly be cutting the field down because what we're trying to do is keep the nap weed from setting seed.
Melissa: Right.
Jennifer Gulizia: And this, if we get this grant, they told us that we would actually qualify for our whole property since we've already started implementing cover cropping and soil testing to get rid of the weeds, which would be amazing because then we could get rid of the weeds through cover cropping and amending the soil versus having to use any chemicals because the nice thing about addressing it sooner than later is that it also impacts all of us around us because we're in a windy area and the seeds carry to other people.
Melissa: Right. Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: So sorry, I took us off on a tangent, but I think.
Melissa: For sure. No, it's such good information for for everyone. you know We deal with like a lot of tansy here, tansy ragwort, which is a flowering weed that I was not familiar with before I moved to the Pacific Northwest.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh.
Melissa: And I think the first season we were here, there was a couple plants growing like in the ditch bordering our property. And our neighbor told us about it. and how important it was to pull it.
Melissa: And it's toxic. It spreads like wildfire. it can spread into hay fields and it's toxic to livestock. And so now we're like really diligent about pulling it if it ever comes up around the property. um But yeah, you know, if if your neighbor's not pulling it, then all of a sudden your property is infested with it too, because it produces so many seeds that just carry on the breeze. So it's just the more you know, right?
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. And we all have a responsibility. I think that goes back to when I loved that you use the word stewarding, because that's part of stewarding. It is making sure that we're also protecting it from spreading to other areas or.
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah, definitely.
Jennifer Gulizia: So, um, you scaled very quickly on your farm going from 600 4,000.
Melissa: We did.
Jennifer Gulizia: I was on the opposite track. I went like eight hundred or i went from to to to to which still felt like a leap every time.
Jennifer Gulizia: what were some of the lessons you learned as you scaled really quickly
Melissa: Um, yeah, it was definitely very fast. And would I do it again quite that fast? I don't know, because it definitely was a challenge that first season. But I am not a person who does anything by halves. Like I'm always like all in or not at all. And so anybody who knows me is like not surprised that we went from growing some dahlias in our backyard to being dahlia farmers and sending tubers all across the country because that's just how I do things for better or for worse. But
Melissa: but we learned a lot for sure. Like, you know, so going from 600 to 4,000 was a huge leap. Even getting them planted that first year was like, how are we going to get this accomplished?
Melissa: So we really learned like our limits around like how much can we do? Like this is a small farm, but it's still a lot of work. And I was working my my regular nine to five job. We have two little kids. um So now my kids are eight and 10 years old. So still in school, but a little bit older. But back then they were like preschool age and you know, required a lot more attention. And so it was tough. um But we learned to ask for help. And we met some great people who came and like kind of helped us get started that first year. And now we have a pretty good system in place. You know, you really have to
Melissa: Be able to kind of know the amount of work you have to get accomplished and like, how are you going to do it? And like, what kind of systems can you put in place so that you know that you can get it, you can get it accomplished and get it done. Um,
Melissa: So we have a ah great um few people, like a team of people that help us at planting time and they help us at digging time because those are both really busy times of years, of the year where we know we have only like a limited amount of time to get like all of this physical work accomplished.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: And we maintain the field during the season ourselves, like we're we're, you know, able to harvest the flowers, keep the weeds and, and do the irrigation and everything.
Melissa: But that beginning and end of the season, um you know, we we do have help with that. And it's, it's necessary because of kind of all of the things that we're juggling.
Melissa: So I'm very thankful that we found a few people that are willing to help.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's so awesome. There's comes a point where you realize you just can't do it all by yourself.
Melissa: Right. And something's going to suffer.
Jennifer Gulizia: Or maybe you can, but something's going to suffer.
Melissa: And I don't want my kids to suffer. you Right? Like, I don't want my marriage to, I don't want stress in the in my marriage. I i don't want, i I need to sleep. And I i have for and people, friends who are like, do you ever sleep?
Melissa: And it's like, I, yeah, I do, you know? and there's always, a farm is always having a list of projects. Like you're never caught up.
Melissa: You're never, you know, ahead of the game. At least we aren't. But um if you can keep everything moving forward, then you're doing the best that you can.
Melissa: And if you know that you need extra hands, there are great people out there that are excited to come be a part of it. So yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's great advice.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: Now, you mentioned that you ship your dahlias across the country, your tubers. Is that your main way that you sell your dahlias?
Melissa: Yeah, so we do sell the blooms during the blooming season. um We've done farmers markets in the past. We do have a little farm stand here on the property that we're going to open this year.
Melissa: And then we've joined a new farmers market that's happening in Battleground just started in the fall last year. so it was like just in time for Dahlia season.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh, awesome.
Melissa: That was really fun. And then... and then We'll do that again this year. So we do sell the flowers, but a big chunk of our business is selling the Dahlia tubers. So every fall we dig up 4,000 plants and we have many bulb crates full of tuber clumps in our barn. um We divide those during the winter and we launch our tuber sale usually mid to late February. um
Melissa: so it's going to, our tuber sale will start this coming weekend. And okay, so today is the 17th of February and our tuber sale is going open on Saturday, which is the 21st at eight o'clock in the morning Pacific time.
Jennifer Gulizia: Which is, so for people listening, what date is that?
Melissa: And
Jennifer Gulizia: Perfect. I'm writing that down here.
Melissa: yeah So um this is always like a really busy but super fun time. Like we've just finished dividing tubers. I edit the website and kind of get everything set to go.
Melissa: And then we launch our tuber sale. And this will be our third year of selling from a website. So I had sold like on Facebook and stuff for a few years prior to that.
Jennifer Gulizia: Uh-huh.
Melissa: But this is our third season, our third spring of having an online tuber sale. And it's one of my favorite days of the year and not because of the money.
Melissa: I mean, the money supports the farm and allows us to keep doing what we're doing. But um just to see the excitement, see the orders come in, it just it makes my heart explode.
Melissa: um that people support the farm, that they're excited to grow dahlias. They share in this passion that is so close to my heart. And yeah, the first year we did our tuber sale, I remember like that morning telling my husband, like, nobody's, nobody's going to buy the tubers. Nobody's going to buy the tubers. Like,
Melissa: You know, I don't, because I work my day job and we have so much going on, I i kind of fail at social media. Like I'm not ah great at posting super consistently. I don't have a large following on social media. And I was nervous that people just would not be able to find us. And the sale that day just blew me out of the water. And I was so thankful and then sending our tubers, we sent um packages to every state in the country, except for Hawaii, because there's a lot of regulations around shipping agricultural things to the islands. But, um you know, we sent tubers everywhere. And the the amount of messages that I got, like just appreciating what we do. And it just, it's my favorite. It's just my favorite. I love sharing the flowers. That's what one of the things that made me fall in love with growing dahlias in the first place. I mean, yes, they're beautiful. They're gorgeous.
Melissa: But they bring people so much joy. And to see what you're doing through somebody else's eyes and how excited they are to be a part of it, how...
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: how like awestruck they are when they receive a bouquet of the flowers that you grew, when you mail the tubers and then they send you pictures of ah your tubers growing in their garden.
Melissa: It's everything. It's life-giving for me. And it really reiterates what we're doing is what, this is where I wanna be. Cause I'm not gonna lie, growing dahlias is a lot of work.
Melissa: and growing them at this scale is a lot of work. And if it was just about selling tubers, it wouldn't be worth it to me. 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.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love it. I can see your passion just in the way you talk and the way your smile and the way it lights you up.
Melissa: Oh, thanks.
Jennifer Gulizia: um There really is something magical. I mean, we talk about this with every guest on the podcast, and I feel like so many conversations I have offline also.
Jennifer Gulizia: The flowers really feed our souls. Like, There's way easier ways to make money um and than growing flowers, but the reward, the the emotional reward and the connections, and then the community, ah which you are part of the Profitable Dahlia Summit that is coming up March 3rd through 4th. And I'm so excited that you're joining our Q&A panel.
Melissa: I'm super excited.
Jennifer Gulizia: And one of the One of the reasons I wanted to host this summit is because I love the community that we have in the Dahlia world. And i mean, you mentioned early on that you started getting involved with the Facebook groups, and I'm pretty sure I joined probably in 2014, some of the Dahlia Facebook groups.
Melissa: Yeah.
Jennifer Gulizia: And you look at them today and there's 300,000 plus people on these Facebook groups that are interested in growing Dahlias.
Melissa: yeah
Jennifer Gulizia: And so many of them are now saying, My dahlias have multiplied. I have 2,000. I have 800 dahlias in my garden. Could I maybe make this work? Could I sell these? Or people have them and are either trying to sell tuber sales and are struggling, or maybe they're selling from a roadside stand and want to expand and have more offerings. This summit is going to show people 13 different ways that people are profiting. Well, we have 13 speakers that are all finding different ways to profit from growing dahlias. And you're gonna be joining our Q and A panel along with Camille Selleck and Galina Burkampas and Julia Freitas on March 4th. And I'm so excited that we can have our attendees asking you questions about your experience
Melissa: Absolutely.
Jennifer Gulizia: But I would like to turn the table and ask you a quick question. For those that are on the fence about attending or are on the fence about selling their dahlias, do you think the dahlia seller's market is oversaturated?
Melissa: um a That is a great question. And it's something that we kind of, those of us who have Dahlia growing business, who have a farm that we've been building for years, it's something that we're always kind of like watching the beginning of the sales season every year.
Melissa: you know, when I first started growing dahlias, they weren't as popular as they are now. um The pandemic, I think, had a lot to do with that. A lot of people had more time on their hands to garden, to discover gardening, to start doing more things outside. And the popularity of dahlias absolutely exploded. And we had grown dahlias for years before the pandemic, but that is when we transitioned into being a farm and joined you know many other farmers that were kind of launching their businesses at that time.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: So there's now in 2026, there's many more small small farms um from which you can buy your bouquets and your tubers. But what I'm seeing in the market is that it's not saturated because sales are still selling out very quickly. There is still, you know, like you said, there's 300,000 people in just one of the Dahlia growing groups on Facebook alone. And my feed, my social media feed is full of people that are excited for the coming season. They're going after those new varieties. They can't wait to try growing. um
Melissa: And it still seems like it's growing. it it continues to grow. The dahlia, you know, business landscape continues to expand. I think if anything, you have more choices on on where you're getting your dahlias. You know, there's more local farms that you can support.
Melissa: i know our We get a lot of local gardeners coming to pick up tubers from the farm here in Battleground. And we love that. We love meeting our neighbors.
Melissa: And have a lot of people that, you know, like like I've said, In the past, like they pull into our driveway when we're out working in the field during the summer and they just want to buy a bouquet for their grandma.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely.
Melissa: You know, they just want to buy a bouquet for, you know, their wife. And we get to walk through the field and like cut flowers together and chat. And I get to learn more about the people that live around us. And that's a really special connection. So i would say, you know, if you are on the fence about,
Melissa: um sharing your dahlias, you know, put out some bouquets at the end of your driveway. Like you'll be surprised at the number of people who are excited to buy flowers from you. um You know, I would...
Melissa: 10 times more likely pull off the road and buy flowers from a stand than to go to the grocery store. You know, because it's a win-win.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: You've got flowers that are grown right in your neighborhood. And you're also supporting a local family um in their, you know, little business venture. yeah.
Melissa: It's great. I'm excited to be a part of the summit. I can't wait to be a resource for anybody that has you know questions about our journey. And and you know i i encourage people to check it out because for us, for our family, it's been it's been everything.
Jennifer Gulizia: Well, we are so excited to have you join us. And for those of you listening, we'll include a link in today's show notes if you'd like more information. Or if you want to grab a ticket, we go live with the summit on March 3rd. And live access tickets start at $99 for the 13 sessions.
Jennifer Gulizia: Okay, Melissa, before we wrap up today, this year I have started asking a series of quickfire questions to my guests.
Melissa: It was fun.
Jennifer Gulizia: So the first question I have for you is what is your favorite Dahlia to grow or work with and why?
Melissa: Cornell bronze. Easy.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mine too.
Melissa: Really?
Jennifer Gulizia: Yeah.
Melissa: See? Classic. So I get people asking me all the time, what's your favorite dahlia? And I'm like, that's like asking me what my favorite child is. Like, I can't answer that question because it's always going to be the one that's right in front of me. But when people say I've never grown dahlias or I need to grow something that's like easy and prolific, Cornell bronze, hands down. It's beautiful.
Melissa: It's super prolific. The plants are always really vigorous. It makes a bunch of tubers that are super easy to store and and divide.
Jennifer Gulizia: and divide.
Melissa: Yeah, it's just like it's an all-around rock star. I wish every dahlia was as easy as Cornell bronze. So Ivanetti, Cornell, Caitlin Joy, they're all kind of related.
Melissa: They're all like sports of the same varieties and they all have that great plant habit. And bonus, they're ball-shaped dahlias, and those varieties tend to last longer when they've been cut.
Melissa: So easy, easy answer, Cornell Bronze.
Jennifer Gulizia: I grow more of that variety than any other flower.
Melissa: Yeah, me too. And then I end up with like hundreds of tubers and everybody grows it. So not everybody always wants to buy, you know, and I just kind of throw them in the borders because, and in the fall when dahlias are blooming, that bronzy orange color, like it's, it screams fall. Everybody loves it.
Jennifer Gulizia: And it goes with so many things. I mean, it looks great with eucalyptus. You can mix it with white dahlias. I mean, you can mix it with jewel tones. There's so many combinations that it works with. So I'm glad you said that one.
Melissa: Yeah. I'm glad we're changed.
Jennifer Gulizia: Most people love, yes.
Melissa: You know, water lilies are really popular right now and chasing the unicorns. And I'm a dahlia collector myself. Like we grew 750 varieties last year.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh my gosh.
Melissa: Do not recommend. but keeping everything straight was crazy but um but I love seeing new things and chasing new varieties new releases and stuff but I don't recommend that for everybody sometimes the tried and true varieties are that for a reason and we will always grow those as well I will always grow Cornell bronze because I just love it and I know it's a sure thing
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. Okay, why do local flowers matter to you?
Melissa: Oh, local flowers. um Well, a couple of things. Okay. So again, like i've I've mentioned several times and I just, I always talk about it because it means so much.
Melissa: The support of the community just is everything to us. And, you know, like I said, we have people pulling in our driveway, asking us to cut open bouquet for their mom or their grandma.
Melissa: and I just love being a part of somebody's story. And I've been, you know, having a conversation at the coffee shop with a friend about the flowers and someone behind me in line will say like, oh, you grow daly as I drive by this house on my way to work.
Melissa: And I just love the flowers. And they describe my own house to me. And I'm like, that's my house.
Jennifer Gulizia: Oh. oh
Melissa: You know, but that's my farm outside of town. And we've really um made a great community here. and And people love the flowers. And knowing that they come from just up the road, we don't use any pesticides or synthetic you know chemicals on the flowers. um Dallies don't have a smell, sadly, but if they did, you could bury your face in that bouquet and not worry about you know what you're being exposed to.
Jennifer Gulizia: Right.
Melissa: And that's not to say that grocery store flowers are bad, but, you know, they do come with a load of pesticides and chemicals.
Melissa: and Not a lot of people realize um the environmental impact of imported flowers. So... um i won't i won't I could go on about that for ages, but i just would encourage listeners to kind of, you know, Google it and see the the dollar amount of flowers that are imported into the United States every year and what the carbon footprint is of imported flowers and what flowers are sprayed with.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: so that they're able to enter the United States without bringing any bugs and stuff with them. And then imagine being able to take your dollars and support a local farmer who's feeding their kids from you know the money that you spent on the flowers to your grandma and be able to feel good about the product that you're receiving.
Melissa: Our flowers were cut yesterday, wrapped in craft paper, and handed to you. Like, it doesn't get any fresher or safer or more local, and no one appreciates your support more than we do.
Jennifer Gulizia: That's a great answer.
Melissa: Thanks.
Jennifer Gulizia: love that.
Melissa: Yeah, i really I feel really passionate about it. um And just, you know, want other people just to realize what all goes into it.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. What is one thing you wish more people understood about growing dahlias?
Melissa: Ooh, another good question. um Okay, I have a good answer for this. um Kind of going back to like the Dahlia business um and Dahlia tuber sales and stuff, which are happening kind of right now as we speak. And um I see a lot on on the Facebook groups and on social media, a lot of people excited to buy Dahlias, but also a lot of people being frustrated, right? Like sales are happening, they're selling out quickly. You're not able to snag that you know high dollar income unicorn variety that you wanted. And i just really want those people to know, like, it doesn't have to be that way. Like, there's so many small farms you can support.
Melissa: There's so many beautiful dahlias, like, you know, the $50, you know new release is not, yes, it's beautiful, but it's not your only option.
Jennifer Gulizia: Mm-hmm.
Melissa: And you can buy some of those tried and true varieties and they are going to be just as beautiful in your garden as some of the fancier, rarer things. And there's always going to be people who want to collect those. And that's great. I'm one of those people, so I totally get it. yeah,
Melissa: you know, but there's dahlias for everybody. You know, a lot of people say like, well, dahlias shouldn't be that expensive or, you know, dahlia farmers are being greedy by charging what they do for tubers. And, you know,
Melissa: Of course, I don't believe that. There's a so much that goes into farming. um You know, we we charge what we have to to make a living doing this and to be able to continue growing them. um But greed is is, like we said, there's so many more easier ways to make money that greed has nothing to do with it. um But if you don't want to chase those varieties and you don't want to spend so much money, there's still dahlias out there for you. So don't let it deter you, i guess is what I'm saying.
Melissa: There's so much joy to be had. There's so much beauty. um You know, just invest your money where you feel good and and buy what you can um and you won't regret it.
Jennifer Gulizia: I love that. That's great advice. Okay, my last quick fire question for you is what are you most grateful for that flowers have given you beyond the blooms?
Melissa: The community, the community. So when we moved to Washington, like I didn't know anybody here. I had some friends that I spoke to on via social media that now were local to us. um But we were kind of like really launched into this new world without a lot of community. And we found that in Growing Flowers.
Melissa: Both our customers and the people that buy bouquets from us and buy tubers from us, but also all the local farmers. um that are in this area. They're so supportive.
Melissa: um i can genuinely say after being here on the farm, this will be our sixth season. You know, our so our social circle, they're all of our flower friends. And it's just because they're such wonderful people. And and the community of Battleground and in the surrounding areas has been so receptive to local flowers and supporting the farmers here. um it's just It just makes my heart swell three sizes bigger. i just love the community. So the flowers are beautiful, but the connections you make because of the flowers is really special.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. i think that the flowers draw us all in, but it's the community of the people growing and enjoying them that keep us here.
Melissa: Absolutely.
Jennifer Gulizia: Well, Melissa, I've had so much fun chatting with you today. Before we say goodbye, is there anything I haven't asked you that you want to share with our listeners today?
Melissa: Oh, gosh, I don't think so. we've kind of, we've kind of gone through the whole story. And, and I feel like I've shared, you know, some of the the things I wish I would have known, you know, when I first started, you know,
Melissa: get a soil test and just enjoy the flowers. They're so beautiful and they're not hard to grow if you kind of get started on the right foot. And if you struggle, there's so many people, myself included, that would be happy to help give advice.
Melissa: You know, attend the Dahlia Summit, the Profitable Dahlia Summit. it's There's going to be so much information, so much so many growers that I've looked up to during my whole growing journey. It's just, it's a wonderful world and I'm excited to be a part of it.
Jennifer Gulizia: We're so excited to have you. Please tell our listeners where they can find you. And we'll also include those as show links in today's episode.
Melissa: Oh perfect i'm for social media on Facebook and instagram we're just at sweet bloom farm and our website, which will open this weekend for dahlia tuber sales is www.sweetbloomfarm.com.
Jennifer Gulizia: And if we're listening before your tuber sale goes live, can we preview the varieties?
Melissa: I'm working on updating the website this week and you absolutely can join our newsletter list. I only send out like two or three emails a year. Try to not bombard anybody, but just the pertinent tuber sale details. um So we'll send those details out this week. But yes, you can preview what we have available and um there's lots of good stuff.
Jennifer Gulizia: Awesome. I need to get on your email list.
Melissa: Yeah, i mean it's it's the best way to kind of get the information out to everybody. So definitely recommend.
Jennifer Gulizia: Absolutely. Well, Melissa, thank you so much. And we look forward to seeing you at the Profitable Dahlia Summit March 3rd and 4th. And good luck with your Tuber sale.
Melissa: Thank you so much. Great chatting with you, Jen.
Jennifer Gulizia: Likewise.
