Our family is so grateful for the huge responses of delight after growers across the US grew ‘Thicket’s Rescue’ for the first time in 2025!! From 1st-time dahlia gardeners, to Erin at Floret sharing her bountifully beautiful last dahlias of the season arrangement with the world, to you being here today, we have been absolutely WOWED!! Thank you for stopping by to visit our little farm’s shop today.
Right now, the waiting list for ‘Thicket’s Rescue’ exceeds our tuber supply. Rooted cuttings to the “rescue” again, and this time so more people can grow them and experience their joy. We have calculated the number we can grow, which is in itself limited because of our successful method. We have been growing this dahlia from rooted cuttings for years, and they make the prettiest red and green plants! They bloom earlier than tubers, and the way we grow them, they make nice tuber clumps. (If you don’t know the story of Rescue, read it below) We are accepting pre-orders for rooted cuttings until we hit our presale limit. After that, we will know in the spring if we can offer more rooted cuttings and possibly tubers.
Here is the story on how ‘Thicket’s Rescue’ came to be:
Back in February 2021, The Thicket on Hood Canal twins got inspired to start a homeschool project involving dahlia breeding after reading Dahlia Breeding for the Farmer-Florist and the home Gardener: A Step by Step Guide to Hybridizing New Dahlia Varieties From Seed by Kristine Albrecht. The 10 year-olds decided to run outside to find dahlia seed heads that they remembered seeing while building a snowman. The snow had melted back, and sure enough, they found some that had been weathered upon for months and brought them inside. I, mom, had my doubts that any were viable, but did not say a word to discourage. They got to work picking the heads apart and identifying what the author of the book explained to be good seeds. They had about 40 seeds sprout and grow! Most were bright yellow misshaped ones that the bees loved. They survived snow and rain, then an unprecedented 120 degree PNW heatwave in June that year and lack of sunshine from months of wildfire smoke until the rains returned. One stood out from all as it bloomed *one* beautiful teasing bloom right before frost, peeking out from the crowded seedling bed.
The next spring, the we planted the whole clump because we were all afraid of sending it to extinction if we split it! It bloomed and bloomed beautifully. We dug it out in the fall and stored it as a clump to bring back out in January to start rooted cuttings. BIG mistake!! The old “mother tubers” had been rotting, and the clump looked lifeless. After what felt like a tense surgery, there were two very ugly partial tubers that we hoped SO MUCH would at least make it to push out one shoot. One pushed out a shoot, but we were not “out of the woods”—we still needed to root and have it survive. In all, two shoots popped out from one and five shoots from the other before they gave up to rot. From those 7 shoots, we managed to root 7 more from tip cuttings. They grew and formed the cutest plump red tubers, and we harvested lots of tubers that stored like champs and made loads more tubers the next year.
Thicket’s Rescue was rescued TWICE. The first time on a hunch that life could be present, and the next time with love in bringing back something we did not want to lose. In rescuing Rescue, this flower has also rescued us, in a way. The dahlias brought us together during some tough times, and helped us to experience beauty of so much more than just flowers. Sharing in bouquets and seeing the smiles, knowing this happened because two of my curious kids who love nature jumped up and found these seeds and got it all growing makes this mama’s heart happy. The Thicket twins are in high school now, and they have worked hard for years to help grow the dahlias and keep their seedlings going. We are delighted to share Thicket’s Rescue with you for the first time in 2025 as our 1st original release.
Our family is so grateful for the huge responses of delight after growers across the US grew ‘Thicket’s Rescue’ for the first time in 2025!! From 1st-time dahlia gardeners, to Erin at Floret sharing her bountifully beautiful last dahlias of the season arrangement with the world, to you being here today, we have been absolutely WOWED!! Thank you for stopping by to visit our little farm’s shop today.
Right now, the waiting list for ‘Thicket’s Rescue’ exceeds our tuber supply. Rooted cuttings to the “rescue” again, and this time so more people can grow them and experience their joy. We have calculated the number we can grow, which is in itself limited because of our successful method. We have been growing this dahlia from rooted cuttings for years, and they make the prettiest red and green plants! They bloom earlier than tubers, and the way we grow them, they make nice tuber clumps. (If you don’t know the story of Rescue, read it below) We are accepting pre-orders for rooted cuttings until we hit our presale limit. After that, we will know in the spring if we can offer more rooted cuttings and possibly tubers.
Here is the story on how ‘Thicket’s Rescue’ came to be:
Back in February 2021, The Thicket on Hood Canal twins got inspired to start a homeschool project involving dahlia breeding after reading Dahlia Breeding for the Farmer-Florist and the home Gardener: A Step by Step Guide to Hybridizing New Dahlia Varieties From Seed by Kristine Albrecht. The 10 year-olds decided to run outside to find dahlia seed heads that they remembered seeing while building a snowman. The snow had melted back, and sure enough, they found some that had been weathered upon for months and brought them inside. I, mom, had my doubts that any were viable, but did not say a word to discourage. They got to work picking the heads apart and identifying what the author of the book explained to be good seeds. They had about 40 seeds sprout and grow! Most were bright yellow misshaped ones that the bees loved. They survived snow and rain, then an unprecedented 120 degree PNW heatwave in June that year and lack of sunshine from months of wildfire smoke until the rains returned. One stood out from all as it bloomed *one* beautiful teasing bloom right before frost, peeking out from the crowded seedling bed.
The next spring, the we planted the whole clump because we were all afraid of sending it to extinction if we split it! It bloomed and bloomed beautifully. We dug it out in the fall and stored it as a clump to bring back out in January to start rooted cuttings. BIG mistake!! The old “mother tubers” had been rotting, and the clump looked lifeless. After what felt like a tense surgery, there were two very ugly partial tubers that we hoped SO MUCH would at least make it to push out one shoot. One pushed out a shoot, but we were not “out of the woods”—we still needed to root and have it survive. In all, two shoots popped out from one and five shoots from the other before they gave up to rot. From those 7 shoots, we managed to root 7 more from tip cuttings. They grew and formed the cutest plump red tubers, and we harvested lots of tubers that stored like champs and made loads more tubers the next year.
Thicket’s Rescue was rescued TWICE. The first time on a hunch that life could be present, and the next time with love in bringing back something we did not want to lose. In rescuing Rescue, this flower has also rescued us, in a way. The dahlias brought us together during some tough times, and helped us to experience beauty of so much more than just flowers. Sharing in bouquets and seeing the smiles, knowing this happened because two of my curious kids who love nature jumped up and found these seeds and got it all growing makes this mama’s heart happy. The Thicket twins are in high school now, and they have worked hard for years to help grow the dahlias and keep their seedlings going. We are delighted to share Thicket’s Rescue with you for the first time in 2025 as our 1st original release.
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