Bonny Blooms is a small dahlia breeding and trial garden in Kelso, Washington, dedicated to developing distinctive new cultivars for gardeners, designers, and collectors.

Over the years, the focus of the farm has evolved. Like any long-running farm, Bonny Blooms has changed as life has changed. Rather than continuing to expand production, we've chosen to create a smaller, quieter, and more manageable operation centered on the work that inspired the farm in the first place. As the focus has shifted toward breeding and trialing new cultivars, the farm has become intentionally streamlined, removing the need for temporary seasonal staffing while allowing more time for careful observation, selection, writing, and the long-term development of new dahlias.

Every season, thousands of seedlings are grown and assessed, with only a handful demonstrating the combination of beauty, vigor, garden performance, and reliability needed to earn a place in future introductions.

The trial gardens are as important as the breeding itself. New cultivars are observed over multiple seasons for plant habit, bloom quality, productivity, tuber production, weather tolerance, and overall consistency before they are considered ready for release. Most seedlings never make it beyond the evaluation stage, allowing only the strongest selections to move forward.

The farm is surrounded by mature woodland, and we aim to work with the landscape rather than against it. Healthy soil, careful observation, and encouraging natural ecological balance remain central to how the gardens are managed. Every season offers new lessons, and the breeding program continues to evolve alongside the landscape.

Bonny Blooms is increasingly becoming less about operating as a large mail-order nursery and more about the long-term pursuit of creating exceptional dahlias. Alongside the breeding work, we continue to document the process through writing, sharing the successes, failures, and discoveries that come with developing new cultivars from seed.

Our hope is that each new introduction offers something genuinely different and earns a lasting place in gardens for years to come.