New Dahlias Prints Collection
Welcome to the summer season! After dealing with six months of the winter season, which is typical for this part of the world, experiencing the warmer temperatures and the longer days is a wonderful change and a welcome relief to my senses. There is no doubt that I will be relishing the warm sunlight and the extended daylight hours for the next several months. The arrival of the summer season also signifies the end of the magnolia flower season and the arrival of the summer flowers like the peonies and dahlias.
Along with the changes of the season, there have been some alterations to my business within the last few years. One of the adjustments was with the slowdown in the travel industry, I chose to focus on capturing images that were more local and closer to home. Another transformation was the fact that I started photographing more diverse types of flowers than the ones I had captured before.
Previously, I had photographed flowers that I saw as I walked around the city, such as the cherry blossom trees or the various fruit trees that were blossoming during the spring season. However, recently, I decided to start growing some of my own flowers from out of curiosity and a need to stretch the range of my hobbies. Whether the flowers and plants I grew were going to be photography worthy or photogenic subjects were a different matter. Quite frankly, I was not too sure if I could grow anything or if any of my flowers would survive even one season. Obviously, my gardening experience was extremely limited and my horticultural skills was non-existent.
Nevertheless, I started growing my own flowers from seeds and bulbs. First, I purchased some easy to grow flower and plant seeds online from Floret Flowers, a family run flower farm and seed company located in Skagit Valley, Washington, U.S.A., and started experimenting. After having success with planting and growing the dusty miller, globe amaranth, phlox, Queen Anne’s lace and zinnias, I became more adventuresome and decided to move on to one of the more glorious flowers in the floral world, the dahlia flowers.
After scouring through the Floret Flowers website for some articles on dahlias and pouring through some books on the flower, such as Dahlias by Naomi Slade and renowned floral and travel photographer Georgianna Lane, I gathered up enough courage to visit the local garden store to purchase some dahlia bulbs and some gardening equipment. By the end of the summer, I had managed to somehow grow dozens of colorful dahlia flowers in various shades and sizes.
The floral prints that are featured in this blog post are all dahlia flowers that were grown by me from various dahlia bulbs. All of these dahlia flower prints are now available in the Flower Photos section of my Etsy store.
Have a wonderful summer season and I hope that your gardening experiences are just as wonderful and rewarding!
Eiko