Mike Harbin worked on his grandfather’s South Carolina farm as a boy, and it was there he learned to love the good earth and the green things it puts forth.
That old love pulses today through the dahlias Harbin raises in the back yard of his East Main Street home, in the stunning assortment of luscious red clusters, purple-tinged whites and crowns yellow as young flame. In Harbin’s garden there at least 160 eye-popping varieties, some as large as a child’s face.
Each has a metal tag specifying color, size and offering a descriptive name like “fire pop,” and “camano phantom.”
Harbin, owner of Main Street Signs, which he runs out of his garage, is a generous man, loving few things more than to show off the beauties that have made his garden a local wonder for nearly a quarter-century.
And while friends have urged him to sell his dahlias, he always refuses, politely. No, Harbin says in the slow, soft spoken cadences of his native state, he’d rather “give ‘em away,” rather make people smile.
“I call dahlias the happy flower,” said Harbin, 67. “I guarantee you, you can bring the biggest grump in the world out to this garden, and they will walk out smiling.”
Harbin also donates the flowers to different benefit breakfasts and dinners throughout the community, including Good Ol’ Days VIP night and the annual benefit for Grief Works. Harbin’s involvement with the latter organization dates to the death of his wife, Rose, in 2003.
“Rose was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer on April 2, 2003 and she was in the hospital for two weeks, and I brought her home and she passed away on May 9, 2003,” Harbin said. “The folks at Grief Works came to me once to make some signs. I had heard of them, but I didn’t know what they did. I started going to their group counseling and met people in the same boat I was in.”
Today Harbin is a member of Grief Works’ board of directors. He met his current wife, Thel, at group counseling three years ago. She had lost her husband a year after he lost Rose.
Since 2006, Grief Works has hosted a fundraising event called “dahlias and dessert.” For the $20 cost of a donation, people get dessert, coffee and tea, two free tubers, and information from Harbin about growing dahlias. All proceeds go towards Grief Works counseling and support programs.
Harbin got his start raising dahlias 24 years ago when a friend gave him two pretty specimens. He knew nothing about the flowers, but he planted them anyway. Every year he kept planting them, and every year his vegetable garden ceded space to the showy beauties.
An what are the secrets to growing such great dahlias?
“You’ve just got to have the right dirt mixture,” Harbin explained. “Well, there’s topsoil, and I use this mix from Tacoma in all my flower beds. You come out after they start growing to the point where the leaves are off the ground, and you take them off. That helps eliminate pathways for earwigs to climb up the plants.”
Dahlias like sun, Harbin said.
“I plant them in April, and usually they start blooming in June. This year they didn’t, because it was so cold and lousy. They will bloom until the first frost. I dig them up every year. You plant one tuber about that long, that big around.
“When I dig them up after that first frost, there’ll be six to 10 or 12 tubers underneath. I cut them apart, store them for the winter, and next year plant one tuber. That’s where the extra tubers come from for Grief Works. I just donate all those.”
Harbin’s dahlias are prized throughout the community. Turn a corner and just may find them prettying up some spot.
“If I don’t take ‘em down to City Hall, they complain and want to know where they are!” Harbin said.
Robert Whale can be reached at 253-833-0218, ext. 5052, or rwhale@reporternewspapers.com.
