A conversation with Sarah Neill
Sarah Neill - owner of ‘mylittledahliagarden’
Situated in the hills of Grenada Village grows an unassuming and delightfully colourful garden, home to Sarah, her husband, three kids and hundreds of Dahlia’s.
Having always been a creative soul, Sarah found growing flowers and creating floral arrangements to be the creative outlet that stuck. Having tried and mastered a myriad of crafts from professional cake making (at Stiletto Studios), to resin art and crochet, Sarah now devotes most (if not all) of her spare time to nurturing her garden. Between juggling a part time job as an Occupational Therapist and mum to her three kids, Sarah is your modern day supermum-cross-business owner and it was such a delight to photograph her in her element.
Lokyee: Can you share a bit about what inspired you to start growing dahlias and turning it into a business?
Sarah: Well I was doing cakes for a while and I found that the cost of flowers was getting quite expensive to put on cakes and I thought well if I grow the plants then I can put the flowers on top of them. So I bought a few rose bushes to start with, and then one year I bought a mixed bag of Dahlia tubers and then from there I learnt that you could breed them. I bought some seeds from a lady down south and got some beautiful varieties and have been collecting them ever since then.
Lokyee: Was this around 2020?
Sarah: Yes! This would have been around lockdown.
Lokyee: A good time to get into that.
Sarah: Yes, it was a nice time to get into the garden and get into all of this.
Lokyee: Do you still make cakes now?
Sarah: Not so much anymore. Mostly do cakes for the kids and things.
Lokyee: haha if you still did we could be a one stop wedding shop. Flowers, cakes and photos!
“They love picking things and giving them to people! It has been a really big plus, it’s part of why I grow, so I can gift them to people”
Lokyee: So did you go to uni then worked as an occupational therapist and then…?
Sarah: Yes, so I went to uni, worked as an OT for 8 years, had my first kid, went back to OT and then after my second, I did cakes for a year. And then went back to OT recently part time and doing flowers part time.
Lokyee: Can you talk to me about how you started your business?
Sarah: Well after I got into flowers, I realised this was quite an expensive hobby… and thought hmm how am I going to pay for it. Then I realised that people actually wanted to buy my flowers and were asking me “can you sell me some flowers” and then I did work with a couple of florists to learn. I did a floral design course to give me some foundational skills to go from. It was an online free course through the polytech, they send you all the materials you need for the course.
Lokyee: How was it developing your business? Getting the word out there that you’re doing this thing?
Sarah: Mostly word of mouth. I haven’t really had to advertise too much. Mostly friends, family friends and friends of friends. I am very seasonal, so only really December through to end of April. I’m lucky if I’ve got flowers for mother’s day, I always hope I do, but you never know how the season will go!
Lokyee: If you did want to do it all year round would you need to make a greenhouse?
Sarah: Yes we would! We’re only a small suburban section, so it can’t get much bigger than it already is.
Lokyee: What is it about dahlias that make them special to you and do you have a favourite variety?
Sarah: I love that they are good for people with allergies. They don’t have a scent which is great. I also love that when you grow from seed, you’re the only one who has that variety. It is completely unique to you and you get to name it! I’ve named some after my children. This is my one of favourite ones - which I grew from seed, named Klara Grace after my daughter. And another favourite is - Charlie bear, named after my son! We are still yet to name one after my middle daughter, she would love to choose her own, so she’s still figuring out which one she would like to be named after her.
You can keep these varieties and grow them, hand them down or give them away! A lot of people I know say “oh my grandma, or my dad grew dahlias and there is that special nostalgia to them”. I hope one day my kids will say “Oh my mum grew dahlias and this is the one she named after me haha”.
I do love seeing my kids get into gardening and really love it too.
But at the end, the flowers always just draw me back
Lokyee: How do you balance being a mum, working part time and running a floral business… It's quite a lot!
Sarah: It is a lot and some days I wonder if this is what I really want to be doing. It's a sacrifice that comes with it. But at the end, the flowers always just draw me back. I don’t know if i’ve found the balance to be honest. Work is forever changing, and commitments with the kids are always changing. It is really busy. But I'm not very good at saying no to things.. So I find that quite hard.
My husband is always saying I'm undercharging. But I love to fill the bouquets! Rather than give one or two flowers and some greenery… well, i’m always lacking in greenery anyways haha so I guess that is also why.
L: What were the biggest challenges you faced when you started your floral business?
S: Having no idea what I was doing? I still don’t really know? I’m not business minded at all, so I had no idea what the logistics were behind running something. So just having to chat with people who had started small businesses. It was quite daunting, but yeah I seemed to have figured it out.
L: Do you have capacity to sell more? Or are you quite happy with the level you’re at now?
S: I’ve often toiled with the idea of getting a piece of land and expanding but in reality I don’t have the time! But it currently works because it's in my garden, it’s right there. I have a dream that one day we have a lifestyle property and I can do something like that. It is unfortunate because it does mean I have to turn people away because I just don’t have the supply.
Lokyee: Have there been any stand out moments or milestones that you’re particularly proud of?
Sarah: Probably when florists have come to me and want to buy stems from me, that was quite a moment where I was like “oh my gosh, I’m really doing this, it’s not just a hobby!” Being asked to do a couple of weddings, that has been really awesome. Seeing other people enjoy my flowers is very rewarding. Also seeing demand for the tubers that I sell and grow, I don’t have enough time or capacity, or volume of the tubers to meet the demand! I also did a talk at the local churton park garden club on dahlias, and I was like “oh my gosh there are all these seasoned gardeners and I’m just this inexperienced gardener” it was reassuring to be able to answer their questions. That was quite a highlight for me to be asked to do that.
Lokyee: That’s the hard thing about being self-taught as well. You never quite feel as though you’re the expert or properly there yet. Even though we’ve both done our thing for a few years now. I wonder at what point I will feel more secure!
Sarah: yeah, for sure, I don’t know. Is it a personality thing ?
Lokyee: Can you walk us through the process of growing and preparing your dahlias?
Sarah: Dahlias come as a tuber, or a clump of tubers. They have a crown, a neck, a body and the tail/root. The eye is where the shoot comes from which is located on the crown. They are prone to rot which is a bit frustrating. Especially when you buy the tuber and it gets too wet and starts to rot. I like to mitigate this while also getting a headstart on the growing season by potting the tubers up in a potting mix or compost, and keep them somewhere sheltered, letting them pre-sprout. This speeds up the growing process so you have flowers earlier and reduces the risk of them rotting in the ground. They grow best in raised beds, but I do have some in heavy clay right in the ground.
Lokyee: Oh so they are pretty hardy?
Sarah: Yes they are! They do need to be dug out and divided every few years, because you plant one and it will grow a clump of tubers by the end of the season. If you leave that in the ground it’s going to get bigger and bigger and tend to get less productive after 2-3 years.
Lokyee: it’s suprising that dahlias stand so well in all sorts of weather.
Sarah: Yeah well they were originally grown in Mexico as a source of food.
Lokyee: For food? People eat the tubers?
Sarah: Yes, like potatoes! I’ve never tried it haha. But yes the tubers are like kumara shaped. The tubers are usually big and meaty - so pretty good as a food source.
(Sarah then shows me a tuber that is still green and trying to sprout even when it was just in a paper bag filled with sawdust! They really are a hardy plant!)
Sorry back to the process. At the end of the season I’ll collect the seeds, dry them and leave them in an envelope and then start them in spring. Each one is a new variety of dahlia so just waiting to see what they grow into is really, really fun.
Lokyee: Where do you sell your flowers and how do you connect with customers?
Sarah: Just through my instagram. I have toiled with the idea of approaching a local cafe, But i’m worried I won’t have the time and the number of blooms that I would need to regularly supply a local cafe. But I have enough people that reach out through instagram.
Lokyee: That’s nice you don’t have to hustle too hard! The customers come to you
Sarah: Yes, it's very nice. It’s great to be able to supply flowers locally and my Instagram has been a wonderful way to connect with people and sell my blooms.
Lokyee: Yes instagram has been so good for the both of us, and for small businesses in general. I have a website, but I think most of my customer base has come from instagram!
Sarah: Yes, I haven’t gone down the website route, but I just want to keep it as simple as possible. I know this means I miss out on a whole lot of people who don’t have instagram - people like my parents age, they don’t have instagram. So I do need to figure out a way, maybe an email address - but that’s another thing to check and I'm always trying to cut down on admin!
Lokyee: How has this journey changed the way you view work, family, or life in general?
Sarah: I would love to do this full time. If it was possible to make it a full-time income. But it also consumes a lot more time than my 9-5 job does. It has been grounding, that’s the word I’d probably use. It feels really wholesome to grow flowers in your own backyard and be able to share them and enjoy them and sell them.
It feels really wholesome to grow flowers in your own backyard and be able to share them and enjoy them and sell them.
Lokyee: What has running this business taught you about yourself?
Sarah: That I can do more than I think I can? I’m not sure, that’s a hard question! I have always been a determined person, once I set my mind on something I go all in on things.
Lokyee: Do you have any plans for expanding your business, or is there a dream project you’d love to pursue?
Sarah: Probably when the kids are bigger. I would love to have a lifestyle block with an airbnb with a beautiful flower field. I like the idea of doing workshop type things as well. I wouldn’t be able to run anything here, and I’d get that imposter syndrome if I tried to do that here. I wouldn’t be able to run anything in my current growing space. But I would love to run an afternoon tea flower workshop, that would be the dream. Maybe one day!
Lokyee: Last question! What do you hope your children learn from watching you pursue this passion?
Sarah: I hope they can appreciate the beauty all around us. There is so much media, and screen time. I just want them to be able to stop and enjoy the flowers and bees. It seems like a corny answer. But I’ll be outside and they’ll come and hang out with me, watching the insects and the bees, seeing how it all works. Hopefully this can foster some kind of passion in them to grow their own food, or flowers. They seem quite proud of me, so it's quite sweet. I hope to foster really good memories with them. They love picking things and giving them to people! It has been a really big plus, it's part of why I grow, so I can gift them to people!
Lokyee: Flowers are always so welcome. It's universal.
Sarah: Yes I agree! They really do bring joy with their colours and their beauty, and are wonderful for so many occasions!
Thank you so much to Sarah for your time and generosity in showing me around your beautiful garden and for our lovely chat. You can find Sarah here at ‘mylittledahliagarden’ on instagram.
Photos + interview by Lokyee Szeto.
