It will be easy to figure out next week where all of the flowers have gone. Well, at least all of the dahlias.
Nearly 3,000 blooms will fill Kent Commons, 524 Fourth Ave. N., as part of the Puget Sound Dahlia Association Show. The free show runs from noon to 6 p.m. Aug. 29 and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 30.
“Three thousand blooms are kind of overwhelming,” said Al Kaas, president of the Bellevue-based Puget Sound Dahlia Association. “It’s a room full of color.”
Just about every color one can imagine.
“They come in all colors except black and blue,” said Kaas, of Woodinville.
The blooms are as small as 3/4 inches and as large as 16 inches. Dahlias bloom from mid-summer through fall.
“There are some monsters out there,” Kaas said.
Folks who want to know how to grow dahlias may want to enter their flowers in a competition at the event, or just view a spectacular display of flowers are encouraged to attend the show. As many as 50 dahlia growers are expected to enter the competition. There is no entry fee and the dahlia group will give out nearly $3,500 in cash prizes and merchandise.
Along with entries from Kent, Renton, Bellevue, Maple Valley and Auburn, growers from as far away as Portland and Vancouver, British Columbia are signed up for the show.
Renton resident Al Chmura plans to enter the competition. Chmura started to grow dahlias in 1992. He has nearly 650 plants and more than 140 varieties at his home as well as at the Kent Pea Patch on Green River Road. He put in plants at the Pea Patch because he ran out of room in his yard.
Chmura planted his first tubers at his new Renton home about 17 years ago
“I planted them in July and they didn’t flower,” Chmura said. “The next year they grew 6 feet tall. They were purple and huge and gorgeous flowers.”
That was enough to convince Chmura and his wife to grow dahlias as a hobby.
“We got hooked,” he said. “That’s how it is for a lot of people. Someone gives you tubers and you get hooked.”
Dahlia club members will staff an information booth at the show to answer any questions attendees might have about how to grow dahlias.
No flowers will be sold, but people can mark down on order sheets any varieties they might want to buy at the club’s tuber sale next April at Kent Commons.
This marks the second year of the dahlia show in Kent. The club used to hold the show at the Factoria Mall in Bellevue, but moved to Kent because remodeling at the mall would have forced the show outside.
“Flowers out in the sunshine after they are picked doesn’t work,” Kaas said on the reasons for the switch to Kent.
The Puget Sound Dahlia Association includes about 160 members from the region and even worldwide. Members from outside the state join to get a copy of the annual book published by the club that describes the latest dahlias on the market.
The association also supplies dahlias for gardens at Volunteer Park in Seattle, the Bellevue Botanical Center and South Seattle Community College.
“Our goal is education and to get more people to grow dahlias,” Kaas said of the annual show. “We like to get as much traffic and people as we can get.”
It’s been a busy summer for Kaas and other club members. The American Dahlia Society National Show is Saturday and Sunday at Forest Park’s Floral Hall in Everett, hosted by the Snohomish County Dahlia Society.
Kaas also had a daughter get married in June.
“We gave out 370 dahlia plants to the wedding guests,” Kaas said.
For more information about the Puget Sound Dahlia Association, go to www.pugetsounddahlias.org. For the American Dahlia Society, go to www.dahlia.org.
What: Puget Sound Dahlia Association Show
When: Noon-6 p.m. Aug. 29; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Aug. 30
Where: Kent Commons, 524 Fourth Ave. N.
Cost: Free
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