Idea blooms into full-time business

Idea blooms into full-time business

Public is welcome to tour colorful Frey's Dahlias in Turner

Sharon Frey shows her blooms at Frey's Dahlias in Turner. / Dee Moore | Statesman Journal freelancer

Dahlias grow at Frey's Dahlias in Turner. The dahlias will be in bloom for several weeks, and the farm's owner invites visitors to take a tour of the flowers. / Dee Moore | Statesman Journal freelancer

Written by
Dee Moore
Statesman Journal freelancer

The colors are vibrant, like a painter's palette. The dahlias sweep across your field of vision, making you look back at them again, more slowly this time.
Pink petals speckled with yellow are mixed among orange star-shaped flowers at Frey's Dahlias in Turner. There are huge red flowers resembling pompoms and others that look like they came straight out of a Tim Burton movie.
There are 5,000 or more plants and more than 200 varieties — all dahlias —on just two acres. Every fall, these flowers spring into their glory, blooming just at autumn's first blush to remain until the first frost.
Owner Sharon Frey has been growing her lovelies for more than 19 years. She opens her farm to the public each fall, allowing visitors to stroll through the rows. There is little time though to view the dahlias in all their glory. Usually by the middle of October, they've lost their luster, she said. They die at the first hard freeze.
At their peak the flowers are in big demand for festive occasions such as late summer and early fall weddings. Frey often supplies five to six weddings a month. Because the cut flowers are so popular she keeps a booth at the Salem flower market.
Frey also has a large display at the state fair every year to "get them out there" in the public eye.
She never had intended to become a horticultural entrepreneur, she said. What began as a part-time job for a stay-at-home mom became a full-time business. It wasn't her idea to grow dahlias.


"I'd never heard of them," Frey said. She and her husband had just moved to Turner, and she was looking for work. "I wanted something I could do and still stay at home with my kids," she said.
The youth pastor at her church suggested growing dahlias. His family at one time had farmed the flowers. With his guidance and a mailing list, she started a small business at her home on half an acre.
Frey hasn't been alone in her endeavor. She has had the support of her husband, Bob, who is active in the family business.
"He does the field work, irrigation and tractor driving." she said.
Besides having a beautiful view and the joy of watching her flowers grow, Frey enjoys the people part of her job the most.
"It's a fun aspect that I can share them with people who wouldn't ever have had the chance to see them," she said.
The business is year-round and not always a glorious bouquet. It can be hard work. The tubers have to be dug up and then separated in the late fall or early winter, which is a cold and muddy chore. They are then prepared and stored waiting to be sold early the following year. Her dahlia tubers travel to gardeners across the nation and the world. Then the whole growing season starts again.
The most difficult part of her business has been educating the public, she said. There is a misperception that dahlias are difficult to grow.
"Growing them was something people thought they couldn't do," Frey said.
She has been working to change this erroneous point of view by visiting gardening clubs and organizations, teaching the art of growing dahlias.
The advice she gives gardeners is simple: Planting takes place in April or May or when the is ground is not too cold and moist. Prepare the soil two weeks before planting. The plants like a well-drained area with at least half a day's sun. The soil should have a medium PH level. Peat moss and bone meal are good soil additives, but Frey warns not to use too much because it will kill the tuber.
While prepping for planting, she suggests checking for insects such as earwigs and sow bugs, which will eat the bulbs. They should be planted about 3 inches deep and placed on their side with growth buds pointed up.
Maintenance is not very difficult. Weekly watering should be long and deep. Water more when the temperature becomes very high and there has been little rain. Pinching the center of the sprout out when it reaches 6 to 8 inches tall will insure a bushier plant and more blooms.
Frey advises gardeners to fertilize twice: once when the plants are 12 inches high and again right when they are starting to bloom.
The reward for all this work is a beautiful fall garden full of color, as Frey can attest.


Copyright Statesman-Journal 2010
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100922/COMMUNITIES/108160007