Blooming for a blue ribbon — dahlia lovers compete at the fair

From a 4-foot tall potted yellow dahlia to a 4-inch purple dahlia held between his fingers, Martin Rippens brought an array of flowers to compete at the Northwest Montana Fair on Friday.

Rippens, who has been around flowers his whole life, has been growing the beloved plant for decades. With a large range in color, size, petal-type and more, he is constantly looking forward to seeing them bloom.

“I love the fun,” Rippens said. “It’s so exciting to see what comes out of them.”

The floriculture building at the Flathead County Fairgrounds was decorated with a multitude of dahlia and gladiolus flowers on Friday morning as exhibitors awaited for their entries to be judged. Purple, yellow, orange and red flowers were cut and placed in a vase, each freshly bloomed.

A sweet floral scent occupied the barn and excited whispers were heard among the participants.

Dahlias are easy plants to grow, have a lengthy and attractive bloom season and make for excellent cut flowers, according to the Montana Dahlia Society. Coming from tubers — or flower roots — or a seed, the success of growing a flower is impacted by humidity, temperature and day length.

Growing dahlias from tubers means that the plant will be the same as the plant where its root came from; growing from seeds is more of a gamble due to pollinating bugs.

Kathy David, the outgoing president of the Montana Dahlia Society, and her daughter, Deann David, the incoming president, regard growing the flowers as a family production. For both, seeing the large range in varieties, colors and ways to grow the flower make the process fun.

“When you plant from a seed you have no clue what you’ll get,” Deann said.

There are four competition categories at the fair — student, novice, advanced and open entry. In this year's competition, Rippens' two great nieces showed some of their flowers for the third year in a row in the student category, a passion they got from their great uncle.

“They have so much fun,” Rippens said.

When getting the flowers ready for competition, according to Dan Halberson, each variety is closely looked at.

“It's all in the composition,” he said.

Staging, showmanship and artistic appearance are important to winning the blue ribbon. The flowers are staged by the exhibitor and must be shown with one set of leaves with properly classified blooms.

“You're looking for symmetry in the bloom, if the petals conform to the form, and you're looking for colors to be uniform throughout the whole bloom,” said Mike Valler, a senior judge.

Valler has been growing flowers since 1981. While he previously did so commercially, the art form is now a personal pastime for him. At the end of the day, whether it be growing the flower or judging them, it's something that is easy to be passionate about, he said.

“The flowers are addictive. It's so fascinating. There are so many different types, shapes and colors. It really is something special,” Valler said.

Pat Rankin was preparing a triple pot of his homegrown yellow dahlias Friday morning. It is his second year growing the flower. What he looks forward to the most is giving the flowers away to friends and family. The beauty of them makes people smile, he said.

Drawing on his years of experience, Rippens grows some flowers at his home in Kalispell but also maintains a small lot in town, which he visits every day to care for the plants.

“It's a living, growing thing. Without human activity it wouldn't do as well,” Rippens said, saying it is similar to farming.

While each category and class will have its own winners, the competition yields one top winner of all combined classes. While the competition aspect is fun, it is not what growing the dahlias is all about.

“I don’t care so much about the competition,” he said. “It’s just so fun to see what everybody brings.”

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.