Labor in the Dahlia Industry

Image: Stonehousedahlias.com

For larger dahlia farms like Swan Island Dahlias in Canby, Oregon, a large number of workers helps in the fields and behind the scenes.  At Floret Farms in Washington, a band of about a dozen permanent employees keep things moving along.  On smaller farms like Santa Cruz Dahlias in California and Stonehouse Dahlias in Utah, the labor is handled by a small group of people, mostly family and friends, including small children. The labor needed varies slightly from farm to farm because each has a different focus. Swan Island Dahlias focuses mainly on tuber production; Floret Farms focuses on cut flower production and some dahlia breeding; Santa Cruz Dahlias focuses on hybridization and breeding; and Stonehouse Dahlias focuses on sales of cuttings, selling varieties created by Santa Cruz Dahlias exclusively. 

Swan Island Dahlias has posted videos to their YouTube channel showing some of the work that goes into preparing the fields, planting the dahlia tubers in the late spring, and then digging the tubers up for storage in the fall. They have chosen to hand weed all forty acres of dahlias rather than using herbicides.  To plant the tubers in rows, a tractor pulls an elevated board with holes in it.  Workers sit on the board and drop tubers in the holes to place them.  This method allows the farm to plant about five acres of tubers in an 8-hour period, good weather permitting.   Swan Island grows about 500,000 tubers per season.  Each year, a new planting plan is carefully created to showcase the most popular varieties and to avoid irrigation lines where the tractor will run.  When the season ends and it is time to dig the dahlias, the stalks must be mown down before workers with pruners cut each stalk to about 3” high.  The dahlias are then dug by machine, collected and divided by hand, then stored for the winter. All this work takes a lot of workers and the tubers pass through many hands before they reach the consumer.

Floret Farms has a small team of dedicated workers.  Originally starting as a little family flower farm, Floret quickly grew in popularity.  Erin Benzakein, the owner, was originally afraid to hire anyone else to help, but once she did start to bring people on, Floret became even more successful.  On her blog, she writes, “Over the past few years we’ve built a fantastic team of folks who work both on and off the farm to support our little flower business” (Benzakein).  Stonehouse Dahlias in Logan, Utah is run by a young family.   Their website says, “We have three girls who work hard with us and love to spend time in the dahlias.”  Kristine Albrecht of Santa Cruz Dahlias in California only has two employees, her good friends and farmers, Jan Palia and Iris Wallace.

For dahlia farms such as these, the farm chores as well as the administrative tasks are often carried out by the same people.  The public at large might look at a flower farm and think it a romantic and lovely occupation, and indeed it may be, but it is clearly hard work and is at the mercy of nature’s whims just like any other farm.

Citations:

Albrecht, Kristine. Dahlia Breeding for the Farmer-Florist and the Home Gardener. Self-published, Kristine Albrecht, 2020.

Albrecht, Kristine. (n.d.). Santa Cruz Dahlias: About. Retrieved from http://www.santacruzdahlias.com/about-me-5

Benzakein, Erin. (2016, November 26). Small Business Saturday: Meet the Floret Team [web log comment]. Retrieved from www.floretflowers.com/small-business-saturday-meet-floret-team/

"Cultivating the dahlia fields at Swan Island Dahlias." YouTube, uploaded by Swan Island Dahlias, 23 June 2021, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfd6kAJ0Yfk

"Dahlia Digging."  YouTube, uploaded by Swan Island Dahlias, 9 February 2021, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE7ZBbY6TeI

"Planting Dahlias."  YouTube, uploaded by Swan Island Dahlias, 25 March, 2021, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oezrc6ySvU&t=12s

Stonehouse Dahlias. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://stonehousedahlias.com