Those first members came from Corvallis, Milwaukie, Newberg, Oswego, Portland and Troutdale, Oregon. Four were from Vancouver, Washington and one was from San Francisco, California.

EARLY SHOWS

It must be noted that from the society's inception until 1931 no information is available other than a few yellowed photographs of dahlia shows held in the tenth-floor auditorium of the Meier & Frank Department Store. Shows were held in that location from 1931 until 1935.

At some time between 1932 and 1934 the name of the society was changed to Portland Dahlia Society. The Shows of the 1930s, though held inside the department store's auditorium, were set up under a very large tent-like canopy. It is impossible to define what the floor covering was under each section of the exhibits. Rocks were used all around the sections to hold the coverings in place and to define the section areas. What an undertaking it must have been to set up those shows! One is left to ponder who collected all those rocks, stored them between shows, transported them downtown, and how many trips were made to get them all up to the tenth floor and back down again.

During the 1935 show a "Dahlia Queen" was crowned by Mayor George L. Baker. On hand for the coronation was Aaron Frank, one of the store's owners, and Tommy Luke, a prominent Portland florist. The queen, unfortunately, will forever remain anonymous. The notation on the back of a photo refers to her as "the dahlia queen and also one of the clerks." The show location was eventually moved from the Meier & Frank Department Store to the Masonic Temple, which continued to be home until 1978.

INFLUENTIAL MEMBERS

John and Cay McEvoy joined the society in 1949. John became an avid exhibitor and worthy opponent to any exhibitor who competed against him. He served a total of fifteen years as club president Cay served twenty-seven consecutive years as club secretary. John is credited with getting the Southern Oregon Dahlia Society started in 1957 and the Wahkiakum County Dahlia Society (in Cathlamet, Washington) a year later. Over the years John donated hundreds of pounds of candy for society fundraising activities. John passed away on July 11, 1993.

An annual tour of members' gardens on the last Sunday in September was started in 1952. Two gardens were selected for the morning visits and two others for the afternoon. The McEvoys provided their home and expertise for the luncheons the food was provided for a small fee to help defray expensed. After over 40 years, those tours still continue the only change was a change in the venue of the luncheon to the home of Henry Sjoblom in 1988.

Other annual festivities include annual Christmas parties, which are always well attended. The Portland Dahlia Society was one of four charter societies of the Pacific Northwest Dahlias Conference when it formed in January 1954.

P.F. Kershisnik from Portland became the initial editor of the Conference's official bulletin, The Pacific Dahlia, which was a bi-annual publication. John McEvoy served as the publication's business manager. Frances McDuffee, another Portland member, became its second editor in March 1957. She served in that capacity until 1959 when she took on the task of associate editor. During the 1960s, some of Portland's members began showing some real success with seedlings. Frances McCarter McDuffee, Bing Chamers, John Jenkins, Henry White, Isobel Ritchey and the Jas Mar Gardens all had listings in the American Dahlia Society Classification Book. One dahlia, JAS MAR BJ (M SC Yellow) which was introduced in 1963 is still being grown in the Portland area.

A NEW VENUE

In the fall of 1963 (against the advice of many) the Pacific International Livestock Exposition in Portland risked a flower show as an added attraction to its mammoth exposition. Larry Bateman, one of Portland's leading commercial growers (with the help of his wife, Lucy) was named superintendent of the show. Starting small with this experiment, Larry limited the flower show to the exhibition of dahlias and chrysanthemums only. However, the show was so successful that the society was asked to stage an expanded competitive show. The Exposition made a total of $900 available as prize money to the exhibitors in that first show but increased that amount to $1,000 in 1964.

Upon Larry's death, his wife Lucy became the superintendent. The Pacific International successfully continued until 1975. On a personal note, when I first joined the Portland Dahlia Society as a rank novice in 1972, two of the charter members were still members of the society. Interestingly, they were both commercial growers E. Henry White, and Frances McCarter McDuffee (who had retired from the commercial dahlia business but who was still quite active with the club). Henry White started his White Dahlia Gardens in 1912. His catalog was a home-grown enterprise, since Henry admitted that he was a frustrated printer. He produced his catalog on a small pilot press, six by ten feet. Between 1913 and 1915 he "hired the catalog out," but in 1916 he and his brother decided to produce it themselves. They first used an old foot pedal model (bought for nearly nothing) and later upgraded a couple of times to slightly improve models. Henry set the type letter by letter when he relaxed in the evening with his radio. Henry's formula for growing dahlias was "just bone meal them in the beginning and let them alone. But do water them." If someone came to buy some dahlia tubers but didn't express an interest in variety names, Henry would consider them less-than-serious dahlia growers and just might refuse to sell to them. Mr. White passed away on August 5, 1992 at the age of 90.

In 1925 Frances McCarter (later McDuffee) and her husband owned Rex Dahlia Gardens. The name of the business was changed in 1934 to Portland Dahlia Gardens and was changed again in 1948 to Swan Island Dahlias. In 1952 Frances' son Dick McCarter and his wife Shirley took over the business. The McCarters sold the business in 1963 to Nick and Marge Gitts, who with their family still own the business. Swan Island Dahlias today is the largest dahlia business in the United States.

In 1978 the society moved its show to the Jantzen Beach Mall where it continued to be held until 1985. The mall changed ownership and management in 1986 and the new management decided it wouldn't allow that type of activity in the mall. That last-minute decision caused the cancellation of the 1986 show.

In 1987 the Clackamas County Fairgrounds in Canby, Oregon became the new home for the club's annual show. The dates were changed to Labor Day weekend to coincide with the Swan Island dahlia festival and open house. A gem show takes place at the same time at the fairgrounds to round out the activities. All three events have mutually benefited from the arrangement.

Continued Growth

The Portland Dahlia Society from 1994 forward continued to grow membership and knowledge of dahlia culture.

Programs: Some were presented by members and other by outside speakers covering the usual soil preparation, planting, pest control, digging and storage of tubers. Other programs taking cuttings, how to take seed and ways to start seed, best tools for digging, cutting and the proper ways to store them. Demonstrations of staging for shows and what judges look for in an exhibit were presented for upcoming shows.

At several spring meetings seeds were provided for contests to be held at the fall meetings. The contests goals were to select the best first year seedlings from the donated seeds.

To encourage more Portland members to participate in the judging schools, Jeanette Benson, a senior judge became an instructor in 1998. Jeanette also encouraged the National Council of Garden Clubs Inc. judges to participate in the schools to improve their skills for judging dahlias at fairs and garden club shows. Jeanette retired as an instructor after the 2010 show season. Portland had 25 judges in 2010.

For years the society tuber auctions were held in April during the regular club meetings.
In 2003 the membership decided to establish a tuber packing workshop a week before the meeting, sale and auction. The sale and auction were open to the public. This change made for a very successful sale for the club. The tuber pack workshop then became a yearly event and held at Swan Island Dahlias.

To further enrich the society, it was decided to obtain one and the two sale spaces at the annual Master Gardener Spring Sale at the fairgrounds in Canby Oregon, the first weekend in May to sell tubers donated by Swan Island Dahlias and society members tubers that were left over from the April sale.

The society voted in 2003 to have a trial garden with Swan Island Dahlias providing the location. Bill Mishler agreed to the superintendent of the garden. In October 2004 the trial garden passed the probation and became fully accredited ADS Trial Garden.

On November 8, 2005, the society hosted a well-attended American Dahlia Society quarterly board meeting at the Double Tree Hotel on I-5 overlooking the Columbia River.

As of 2012 the Portland Dahlia Society was proud to have eight current members hybridized varieties listed in the ADS Classification and Handbook of Dahlias for a total of 193 varieties.

The Portland Dahlia Society hosted the American Dahlia Society National Show on September 1st to 2nd at the Red Lion Hotel at I-5 overlooking the Columbia River. The last time the society hosted a show was in 1968.