10 CapitalPress.com
August 18, 2017
Childhood business becomes successful life’s passion
By SHERYL HARRIS
For the Capital Press
OAKVILLE, Wash. — Not
everybody begins his career at
age 10, but Dan Pearson did
— with a detour for a college
degree and eight years work-
ing as a landscape architect.
Meanwhile, he worked
to build what his mother had
named Dan’s Dahlias back
when he was that 10-year-old.
“My goal was to grow the
business to where it made
more than my day job. Col-
lege was valuable, but I earn
more doing this,” he says,
gesturing to his small dahlia
farm.
It started when his fa-
ther brought home 30 differ-
Sheryl Harris/For the Capital Press
Dan Pearson, left, and 9-year-old Collin cut blooms for market.
ent dahlias, and young Dan
promptly memorized the
names. The next year there
were 30 more. People stopped
by, asking about the flowers,
and Dan cut and sold them for
Dan Pearson, owner of Dan’s
Dahlias, is one of largest dahlia
growers in the Northwest. This
beauty is “Evening Lady.”
$1 a bunch. Today they are $1
a stem.
Now, Dan’s Dahlias in
Oakville is the largest dahlia
grower in Washington state.
“I’ve always had a pas-
sion for growing things,”
says Pearson. “I loved the
animals on my parents’ dairy
farm, but I preferred growing
things.”
Pearson sold the family’s
farm in 1995, purchased his
current 12 acres and added
5 more acres. He grows 500
dahlia varieties, compan-
ion plantings — sunflowers,
asters, zinnias, statice and
hypericum berries — and
first-season raspberry vines
for greenery in bouquets.
Each year he discontin-
ues 50 varieties and begins
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Dan’s Dahlias is mostly a
one-man operation, but Pear-
son has seasonal employees
to plant, weed and dig up and
divide the tubers. He and his
brother do the cut flowers in
the fall.
Pearson is a found-
ing member of the Seattle
Wholesale Growers Market
Cooperative. The co-op pro-
vides flowers to florists and
event planners nearly year-
round.
“As a group, the co-op can
give grocery stores a steady
supply of flowers for eight
months, so they will work
with us,” he said. “Florists
and event planners get fresh-
er produce for less, and we
get more than through typical
wholesalers; we’ve doubled
the proceeds from cut flower
sales.”
He also sells tubers.
“I can sell tubers 10
months of the year,” he said.
“About half my sales are on-
line.”
What are Pearson’s plans?
“I’m always searching for
varieties with stronger stems,
more blooms, and that pro-
duce more tubers.”
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