The ‘dahlia lady’ flourishes: Flower farmery Pretty Pickings in Belchertown grows, sells dahlias across the country

BELCHERTOWN — Tightly-packed rows of soil-filled plastic bags hang by clothespin to a laundry drying rack by a window at Renate Robinson’s home. Each bag holds what appears as a long, narrow potato, a few of which have a light purple or green eye peaking out.

These dull, light brown lumps seem far from appealing in their current state, but Robinson ships these masses, called tubers, all over the country to those who know about the wide variety of brightly colored dahlias that bloom from the tubers between mid-summer and mid-autumn.

“I’m one of those people that like shiny, sparkly things,” Robinson said. “I think just people love it. You walk by and it’s like, holy smokes, look at those flowers!”

Flower farmery Pretty Pickings is a self-proclaimed “dahlia heaven” that’s proliferated Robinson’s Belchertown home. She stores 60 tubs, each with hundreds of tubers, in her basement over the winter, then takes them out of storage for revival in a huge room on the second floor. Her large backyard is filled with flower plots and colorful raised beds arranged in a flower shape, as well as garden plots that will grow up to 30 dahlia each.

“They’re my babies,” Robinson said.

The flowers she sells for weddings and bouquets, and the leftover tubers — those potatoes in bags — she saves for the next season or ships them to dahlia enthusiasts across the country, spreading her passion and the natural beauty that comes with it.

“I don’t think I’m that different than many dahlia sellers, but all I do is dahlia,” Robinson said. “I just want to be true to dahlia. I want people to know me as the dahlia lady, not the lily lady or the flower lady.”

A couple common dahlias at an Ocean State Job Lot store captivated Robinson five or six years ago and drastically changed her garden beds forever. She “caught the bug” after one growing season. When Robinson was on vacation with her husband, scrolling through dahlia tuber sales to grab her desired flower before it was scooped by another dahlia fans, she knew her hobby had outgrown a pastime. She needed to start a part-time business.

“That was it,” Robinson said. “That was just I started buying up value tubers. Last year was my first year selling publicly, and I can’t believe how well I did.”

Pretty Pickings’ clientele grew through Robinson’s other job working in health care at Bay State Medical Center. She’d bring flowers and tubers to the farmers markets on the hospital campus, gift bouquets to patients and even grew dahlia for a coworker’s wedding. Pretty Pickings soon spread to other local markets and events, notably the Belchertown Fair.

“I have just buckets of dahlia and I let people choose their own flowers so that they can make their own bouquet,” Robinson said. “For filler, I grow the amaranth and a lots of fun grasses. I usually do six stems and filler and then a pretty little ribbon. They go home and feel like Miss America.”

In her second year, Robinson plays the “dahlia wars,” buying expensive high-end tubers for the flower enthusiasts and sourcing the most attractive blooms for weddings and special events.

While anyone can buy dahlia from a big box store, it’s difficult to reproduce these dahlia year after year, to prevent pesticide use or infection or even know if the tubers will grow into flowers. Robinson says no grower can ensure if a tuber will sprout, but the chances are higher — and the quality of flowers are better — with smaller nurseries.

Dahlia can grow from 2 inches to over a foot in diameter. There are cactus types, decorative types, pompon and ball types, water lily and orchid types, peony types, singles, semi-doubles and Robinson’s current favorite — collarettes. Each type comes in every color of the rainbow (besides blue).

“My son equates it to Pokemon cards,” Robinson said.

Robinson had some flower gardening experience when she started her side business, but none of the former plants are as fickle as dahlias. Gardeners must wait until the soil is above 60 degrees Fahrenheit to plant tubers. Watering the flowers can be tricky, as water should only be given if the tubers have small leaves. Too much water, and they rot. Too much sun will stunt the stem height. Any pesticides that somehow make their way from the lawn to the flower beds will wipe out the blooms.

“You have to make sure you have the right lights and not too much,” Robinson said. “Don’t water them that much. They like humidity.”

For a dahlia novice who may be intimidated by these rules, Robinson offers workshops or advice to help anyone get started. She personally walked a customer from Millers Falls through growing dahlia for her wedding flowers. Robinson also does a dahlia demonstration at the McPherson Sensory Garden on the old Belchertown State School Campus, where each participant receives a mystery dahlia and watches Robinson plant the plot of dahlias in the garden.

“It’s quite a donation to the town, because everyone that goes there gets to see these beautiful dahlias,” McPherson Garden Committee President Patricia Barry said. “It wasn’t anything planned, and it just evolved into the most wonderful flower bed of dahlias and made that garden even more beautiful.”

While Robinson’s next dahlia demonstration at the McPherson Sensory Garden will wait until the green space’s next open house, Pretty Pickings has already begun selling tubers online and at local markets. Robinson plans to attend the Greenfield Farmer’s Market on May 3 and the Artisans and Craft Fair at Maple Valley’s Scoop in Hadley.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.