From noon to 4 p.m. on September 15, Dewey Hall in Sheffield was transformed into a sanctuary for brilliant late-summer flowers and their admirers. With its Dahlia Festival, the nonprofit organization has found the perfect way to invite the community to celebrate what is for many local growers the highlight of the season. More than 150 individual dahlia blooms were entered into competition in three different categories for this second year of what is likely to be a growing event that, like dahlias themselves, inspires new versions. (See the full list of winners below.)
While festivalgoers roamed the tables of flowers sipping cocktails and mocktails, harpist Marie Hamilton offered a gentle audio accompaniment to the loveliness; volunteers sold dahlia bouquets to support Dewey Hall’s ongoing programming; Clara Stickney, one of Dewey Hall’s part-time employees and the primary force behind the event, conducted a wreath-making workshop outside; while local potter Harrison Levenstein did free face painting inside.
The dahlia festival is the brainchild of Dewey Hall board member and local landscape designer Wenonah Webster. We talked as the Grateful Dead’s Scarlet Begonias played in the background and the harpist took a break. Webster said her motivation had to do with the particularly beautiful aesthetics of dahlias, yes, but also a lot to do with inclusion. “We wanted an event that was open to everyone.” The farmer’s wife contributes equally to the retired hobbyist gardener. “Flowers get a conversation going, get people talking to each other. No one’s asking where you stand on anything.”
Before Sunday’s afternoon event, Webster had led a morning bouquet-making workshop, during which she created the centerpiece of the afternoon, offered up as a silent auction item.
Mary Berle, of Lila’s Mountain Farm, entered several blooms into competition. She said she was introduced to dahlia growing—which she and several other dahlia enthusiasts call “a fun rabbit hole”—when she was gifted a bunch of “Wisconsin reds.” This type is “super prolific and easy keepers in storage. It’s all over the Berkshires and it’s the ‘gateway dahlia’ for many of us. A few tubers turn into a hedge seemingly overnight.”
Nicole Parker of Sheffield won second prize last year and this year was running the door with her neighbor and friend, Dorothy Maffei. Parker got into dahlias five years ago, she said, when a friend was dividing and sharing tubers of a purple-and-white variety. “I had like six of them,” she recalled. “They were so beautiful. The second year I started to get into different varieties.”
Some people treat dahlias like an annual, letting the tubers die in the cold weather and starting afresh in the spring. But those in the know dig up and over-winter their tubers indoors. Nicole, as her interest expanded, ordered more varieties online and studied up on how to take care of them from season to season. Then she started following producers on Instagram, heading down and down that familiar rabbit hole. “There are thousands of tubers, you can get into hybridizing your own. You start meeting people and start trading. We all have this thing in common.”
Today, Nicole’s front yard is full of hundreds of flowering dahlias throughout the late summer and early fall, an annual sight much anticipated in her neighborhood.
Dewey Hall’s crew of devoted volunteers have great ideas for building on the success of the festival (next on the obvious idea list would be peonies in June), but according board President Beth Carlson, their capacity is going to have to grow before those dreams can become reality. In good news, they recently received a $35,000 matching grant through the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Facilities Fund to do a historic structures report and master plan as part of ensuring the building’s future. But for now, Dewey’s volunteers and part-time staff are limited to juggling the current slate of programming, which includes a regular arts-based drop-in program, game nights, and contra dancing. “We are at capacity staff-wise and board-wise. We don’t have an endowment, we don’t have savings, so we’re really working on the edge,” she said. “We’re trying to build both financial and mission-based security into the organization. We’re just touching the tip of the iceberg, in terms of what could happen here.”
You can support Dewey Hall’s growth here.
This year’s dahlia winners were:
Category One, “ball” dahlias with multiple rows of petals:
First Place: Kelly Kilmer
Second Place: Emily Cox
Third Place: Georgene Poliak
Honorable Mentions: Georgene Poliak, Brian Healey, Emily Cox and Naomi Blumenthal
Category Two, “collarette” or “water lily,” which are single-flowering dahlias:
First Place: Phyllis Webb
Second Place: Molly Boxer
Third Place: Kelly Kilmer
Honorable Mention: Maria Nation
Category Three, or “dinner plate,” large dahlias with a bloom wider than eight inches across:
First Place: Sarah Sterling
Second Place: Katka Hannelova
Third Place: Naomi Blumenthal
Honorable Mention: Georgene Poliak
