Family tradition blooms in flower garden
Sonya Haggart grew up helping her grandmother in her garden and is now carrying on the family tradition of growing dahlias.
“My grandmother could grow anything,” Haggart said. “She had the greenest thumb of anybody I know.”
When she and her husband, Eric, bought their homesite in Clarks Chapel in 2006, the land was overgrown. It gave them a blank canvas to create a landscape they continue to nurture and enjoy. “Everything that’s here, we planted,” Haggart said. The once small trees framing the front steps are now taller than the porch roof and must be cut regularly.
Haggart grew up in the eastern part of the state, so she had to learn about the different soils and growing seasons in the mountains. When her husband was in the military, she did not garden much because base housing left little room for a garden plot, and they never knew how long they would be somewhere. So, that first year in their new home in Clarks Chapel, she was eager to plant a garden, and people kept telling her to wait. But based on her earlier gardening experience she thought it was time to get seeds and plants in the ground. “Sure enough, I lost everything.”
With nine raised garden beds full of flowers and vegetables, she now knows how to prepare for those late spring frosts that can zap newly budded flowers. Just this past spring she had about 40 plants already about a foot tall when a frost was predicted for the area. “We had to get frost cloth and wrap everything really well, and pray,” she said. “Fortunately, we’ve not lost any to frost.”
Gardening is a hobby for Haggart who has worked as a dental assistant for 20 years. She currently works at Junaluska Family Dentistry in Waynesville. When she gets home from work, she usually spends a little bit of time in the garden checking on the flowers, removing faded blooms, pulling weeds and keeping the pests at bay. On the weekends she might spend a couple of hours tending to the flower beds.
In addition to flowers, the Haggarts have 47 chickens and offer eggs for people to buy. “We are overrun with eggs,” she said.
She grows other flowers such as cosmos, zinnia, calla lilies, gladioli and daisies. “Anything we can cut and use in arrangements,” she said. But her first pick is the flower she remembers growing with her grandmother. “Dahlias are my specialty, they’re my love.”
She started her dahlia beds about eight years ago when someone gave her some tubers. She now has about 80 plants of different varieties, colors and sizes. “I fell in love with them. They’re just beautiful,” she said. “Every time one blooms, I say, ‘This is my favorite.’”
One of her biggest hurdles, as for many gardeners, is the weather. The flowers like a sunny location, but too much sun in the heat of the day will cause them to droop. Morning and late afternoon sun are ideal. Too much rain and the tubers may rot in the ground. A hard rain or heavy wind can beat down the flowers, so staking is sometimes necessary as they get bigger.
In colder areas, the tubers must be dug up in the winter and planted again in the spring. But, for the past several years, Haggart has had good luck leaving the tubers in the ground over the winter. “We put an extra layer of soil on them, and they take care of themselves.”
Insects are another problem, especially Japanese beetles. But she doesn’t use any insecticide on the flowers. “We want anybody to be able to enjoy them,” she said.
Local florists use flowers from Haggart’s garden in their arrangements and others are welcome to enjoy the blooms as well. You can follow Sonya’s Dahlias on Facebook and Instagram and message her to set a time to go by and pick flowers.
“We love to have people come out and enjoy them,” she said. “And, it’s good for the dahlias. It’s very healthy for the blossoms to be cut and then people can enjoy them.” Regular cuttings give the plants energy to create more blooms.
Haggart said she has not experimented with trying to propagate the dahlias to create a new variety. “I’m certain there’s a YouTube video,” she said with a laugh. “Why mess with perfection? The good Lord made them like they are.”