As Fourth of July festivities fade, gardeners across the plateau are turning their attention to one of the season’s true stars—dahlias, just in time for Highlands’ 16th annual Dazzling Dahlia Festival, returning September 10–12 at The Bascom campus, 323 Franklin Road.
This celebration of botanical beauty and artistic creativity offers a full weekend of public events, including floral installations, a juried single-bloom competition, workshops, studio pottery offerings, and educational presentations.
The festivities begin even before the festival weekend. On Saturday, August 29 at 11:00 A.M., longtime dahlia growers Peggy Boruchow Arnette and Libby Eustis will lead a presentation for both novice and experienced gardeners, offering practical insight into what makes a bloom truly competition-ready.
The festival opens Thursday, September 10 at 5:00 P.M. with a welcoming reception featuring light bites and an early preview of the weekend’s floral displays. Guests will also have the opportunity to explore The Bascom’s current exhibitions throughout the festival weekend.
The festival’s signature event, the single-bloom competition, takes place Friday, September 11, from 3:30 to 5:00 P.M. and Saturday, September 12, from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. Dahlia enthusiasts from across the plateau will showcase their blooms in hopes of earning top honors.
New this year is the “Novice Division,” created especially for first-time exhibitors. Open to anyone who has never entered a floral competition, the category allows participants to compete for up to three years before advancing to the open division, making the festival more welcoming than ever for beginners.
In another welcome development, there will be no entry fee for competition participants this year thanks to the generosity of festival sponsors.
On Saturday, September 12, Co-habitate president and co-founder Sonya Carpenter will present a special talk, the Dahlia Dialogue, exploring dahlias through the lens of ecological garden design. Drawing on relationships between plants, insects, birds, and other species, Carpenter’s work emphasizes landscapes that are both beautiful and resilient.
Workshops continue throughout September in ceramics, floral design, mixed media, and painting. Dahlia enthusiasts may be especially drawn to floral stylist and artist Christy Curcuru’s workshop, Arranging with Showpiece Flowers: Locally Grown Mountain Dahlias, on Thursday, September 10, as well as Caryn Raming’s Beginner Collage: Everything’s Dahlias on Saturday, September 12.
All festival events are free and open to the public, although workshops include fees and have limited capacity.
For more information, visit thebascom.org or follow @TheBascom on social media.
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