A cultivated love for dahlias
Cultivating a garden leads many gardeners to become collectors. Justin McLaughlin of Newport, Rhode Island, has done just that, curating a very large collection of dahlias.
McLaughlin grew up with dahlias in his mother’s garden. He began to grow his own — “fewer than 10” — in the 1970s when he lived in Naples, Italy. By 1983 and living in Virginia, he was up to about 20 dahlias.
“It wasn’t long after I started gardening in Newport that I discovered Swan Island Dahlias which became, and has remained, my principal source of tubers,” he said. “By [the year] 2000, I was close to 100. Each year after, as I dedicated more space to dahlias and learned to plant them closer together, that number grew by roughly 10 a year until I reached 210 in 2018.”
McLaughlin, the Director of the Newport Secret Garden Tour, opened his garden to the public during the tour in September, which is where I had a chance to walk amongst the living rainbow and experience his blooms first hand. What makes this colle…
McLaughlin grew up with dahlias in his mother’s garden. He began to grow his own — “fewer than 10” — in the 1970s when he lived in Naples, Italy. By 1983 and living in Virginia, he was up to about 20 dahlias.
“It wasn’t long after I started gardening in Newport that I discovered Swan Island Dahlias which became, and has remained, my principal source of tubers,” he said. “By [the year] 2000, I was close to 100. Each year after, as I dedicated more space to dahlias and learned to plant them closer together, that number grew by roughly 10 a year until I reached 210 in 2018.”
McLaughlin, the Director of the Newport Secret Garden Tour, opened his garden to the public during the tour in September, which is where I had a chance to walk amongst the living rainbow and experience his blooms first hand. What makes this colle…
