Sheep and Dahlias
“I didn’t really plan to raise sheep or Dahlias,” said Wilson L. Garner of Auburn Hills, Michigan. “It just kinda happened.”
I met Mr. Garner when I visited my friend, Irene, in Michigan back in September. Her Garden Club had planned a field trip to Garner’s Dahlia garden to hear him speak about his award winning flowers. I wasn’t particularly interested, but I tagged along and didn’t even bring my camera.
I got interested when Garner stood in a plot of huge Dahlias, many blooms as large as a dinner plate, and began to speak. A tall (6’4”) handsome man who admits to being 84 years old, described the process from tuber to flower in detail in a slow, deliberate, yet humorous way. Some of the plants were taller than Garner and the colors were spectacular- vivid red, yellow, white, pink , blue- and many shades in between. Oh, where or where was my camera?
After the Dahlia lecture, he asked if we would like to see his sheep. SHEEP?? We walked around to the back of his house and there was a flock of white Chevoits Sheep, native to Scotland. That did it: I was hooked. “Would you consider my coming back another day to interview you?” I asked. A couple of days later, Garner and I sat on his front porch. I swung back and forth in an old wooden swing and he sat in a chair as he told me his story about the sheep and the Dahlias. This time I had my camera.
In the 1950’s Garner owned 30 acres with a house in another area of Auburn Hills. His second wife’s father had sheep and though Garner should have some , and before he knew it, there were sheep on his property. I wondered about the first wife but didn’t ask. He satisfied my curiosity by saying, with a twinkle in his eye. “You see, my first wife died and I had four children. Since I didn’t know how to cook or do laundry, I had to get married.” Garner said his children enjoyed the sheep and won several awards using the lambs for projects at 4H. In 1965, when he moved to his present house with only six acre of land, the sheep came with him.
When I interviewed Garner, he had only 14 sheep. In the spring when the lambs are born, he expects to have about 35. He plans to sell the lambs for $1 to $1.50 per pound on the hoof. The sheep were cute and friendly and didn’t mind being photographed. What happens to the lambs after they are sold, I don’t want to think about.
Garner’s interest in Dahlias began one day in 1981 when he visited his mother. He found her in her garage transferring Dahlia tubers from the ground to boxes to protect them from the cold weather and “let them rest” until spring. He had never paid any attention to Dahlias before and asked details about what she was doing. “Do you want one”, she asked and gave him a tuber to take home. He planted it in the spring and it turned out to be a red flower. He used tubers from the first plant for two or three years. When he wanted other colors, he bought more tubers. Then, one day, he went to a local mall where they were having a Dahlia show. He was dazzled by the 1200 blooms on display in every color and shade of the rainbow. After that, he joined a local Dahlia Club, where the experienced members taught him all he needed to know. He eventually became an expert with many awards to prove it.
In April, Garner plants the tubers in plastic pots and keeps them in the garage (because of the Michigan cold spring) until Memorial Day before putting into the ground. The plastic pots discourage the moles that would disturb the roots. He digs them up in the fall, washes the dirt off the tubers, dries them, divides them, and stores them in boxes covered with dirt from the ground.
Currently, Garner has 200 plants, 75 different varieties, with at least ten different colors or shades. His tallest plant was 8-9 feet tall. He had to stand on a ladder to see the top of it. He thinks he won an award with that one but there have been so many plants and awards that he doesn’t remember for sure.
January 14th, 2011
Can you believe that it’s 2011? Remember back before 2000 when all the naysayers were predicting that the word was coming to an end. To paraphrase an old song, “We’re Still Here”.
Have you ever wanted to do something foolish? If so, do it. Summer is the time to kick up your heels and have a laugh at yourself. Have you ever wanted to run barefoot through the surf at the beach? Do it. I did that a few years back. I hiked up my skirt, held hands with a friend and ran through the edge of the surf at the beach. We earned lifted eyebrows and smirks from several good-looking tanned teenagers, but what did they know? We had fifty years of experiences on them.
