Farmers Market Reports
Beekeeper notes on the seasonal happenings, local harvests, and community stories from my favorite farmers market at Eisenhower Park.
Saving Dahlia Seeds: Something to Save for Spring
A clay pot filled with free seeds, a bouquet of dahlias and one simple question: Can you save dahlia seeds? The answer led from the farmers market to Planting Fields—and to the excitement of growing something entirely new.
Some farmers market days hand me a story. This one didn’t—or at least I didn’t recognize it while I was standing there.
For this week’s seed swap, I filled an empty clay flowerpot with packets of pollinator-friendly seeds and offered one free with any purchase at the Backyard Bees table. There were three choices: borage, dwarf Teddy Bear sunflowers or Versailles cosmos.
I thought people would choose a packet, tuck it into their bag and continue shopping.
Instead, they stopped to think about it.
People considered the three flowers and tried to imagine where each might grow. A few had such a difficult time choosing that I gave them two packets. This did not help me enforce any sort of strict seed-distribution policy, but that wasn’t really the point.
The point was to send people home with something for next year’s gardens—and next year’s bees.
The Dahlias Beside the Empty Pot
The Mid-Island Dahlia Society had given me a small bouquet of dahlias that morning. I placed it beside the now-empty flowerpot that had held the seeds.
It was the only photograph I took at the market.
Looking at it afterward, I wondered whether I could hang the dahlias upside down, let them dry and save their seeds.
The answer, unfortunately, is probably not. Saving dahlia seeds is not what you might think.
Those dahlias were cut while they were still fresh and beautiful. To produce viable seeds, the faded flower head generally needs to remain attached to the living plant for several weeks while the seeds mature. Hanging a freshly cut bouquet upside down may preserve the flowers, but it cannot complete that process.
But the question led me somewhere much more interesting.
Surprising Results When Saving Dahlia Seeds
To try saving dahlia seeds, leave a few fading flowers on the plant instead of deadheading them. Allow the petals to fall and the seed heads to mature—often for four to six weeks. When the heads become brown and papery, cut them and let them finish drying indoors.
Pull the dried heads apart and look for seeds that are firm, plump and darker in color. Store them somewhere cool and dry until it is time to plant.
Then comes the fun part.
A dahlia grown from seed probably won’t look like the flower that produced it. Dahlias cross-pollinate readily, with bees carrying pollen between flowers. Each seed contains a new genetic combination, so its color, shape and size can be a surprise.
If you want an exact copy of a particular dahlia, save its tubers.
If you want to grow a flower you have never seen before, save its seeds.
What do you have to lose?
Not every saved seed will be viable. Not every seed will germinate. Not every resulting flower will be spectacular. But one of them might become something entirely unexpected—and something that has never grown in your garden before.
That may be the real excitement of a seed swap. You aren’t simply taking home something free. You are taking home a possibility.
See the Dahlias at Planting Fields
The Mid Island Dahlia Society will hold its 60th Annual Dahlia Show and Exhibition on September 19 and 20 at the Burns Horticultural Center at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay.
Planting Fields has become one of my favorite state parks. The front is gorgeous and carefully manicured, while fabulous wild running and hiking trails are tucked into the woods behind it.
The society also maintains the permanent Paul Callahan Dahlia Garden, where more than 400 dahlias are planted each year.
If the possibility hidden inside one dahlia seed has captured your imagination, this would be a very good weekend to see what dedicated growers have created. You might see me there too!
A Film Worth Saving for Winter
If the idea of seed saving captures your imagination, one resource I loved is the documentary SEED: The Untold Story.
The film follows farmers, scientists, Indigenous seed keepers and others working to protect seed diversity and preserve varieties that might otherwise disappear. It tells a much larger story than the little packets sitting in my clay flowerpot—but it begins with the same idea.
Seeds carry history, diversity and possibility forward.
The farmers market continues through October 31, so I’m not saying goodbye to this growing season quite yet. But I liked sending people home with something that belonged to the next one.
Maybe this week’s farmers market story didn’t happen at the market at all.
Maybe it will begin next spring, when someone opens one of those packets and plants something they have never grown before.
Looking Ahead
Backyard Bees will be back at the CCE Farmers Market at Eisenhower Park, Field 8, next Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
I’ll have local honey identified by neighborhood – and a new batch of turmeric honey – soaps, body care and small gifts. The farmers market continues every Saturday through October 31
Continue Exploring
A Real Farmers Market at Eisenhower Park what makes the farmers market at Eisenhower park so special to me; find links to all the market reports here
The Beets I Didn’t Buy: The Craft Fair Edition last week’s market report
The Bee Seeds read more about some of the Queen Bee’s favorite seeds to plant
