First Frost / Final Bloom
On dahlias: a debut of new work in printed form
Just through the woods from our house in West Stockbridge is 11 Lenox, a micro flower farm where Maria Santos and Dustin Bartlett have been transforming their gardening hobby into a business. Alongside such botanical curiosities as pawpaw trees, medlar and Asian pears, they have amassed a collection of over 30 varieties of dahlias. I had been meaning to get over there all summer and fall to tour the farm and talk plants with them, but for one reason or another it never happened… until it absolutely had to happen. The dahlias would not survive what was coming.
The incoming frost was more like a freeze, and Maria and Dustin’s dahlias were growing in blissful ignorance to this weather event. On the night of October 9th the temperatures plunged into the 20s. The following morning Tom and I arrived at the flower farm ready with our thermals, coats, mittens and cameras.
The grass crunched underfoot, blackberry leaves were edged in white and aside from the curious clucks of chickens there was a stillness and a silence to the morning. We walked through frozen rows of dahlias, papery and stiff to the touch, transformed by the freeze into sculptures, their vibrant colors both dulled and highlighted by frost as if they were candied violets.
Photographically, the dahlias couldn’t have been more interesting. In the moment of their death there was such beauty, beautiful beyond what they would have been if seen a day earlier at their peak.
The different forms of dahlias responded in different ways to the frost. Ball dahlias stood defiant in the face of the freeze while dinnerplate dahlias totally capitulated, reaching for the ground in urgency when prior to the frost they were reaching for the sky with all the time in the world. It felt very much like time had stopped and we could explore this in-between space between life and decay. The moment felt special, and we knew as we pressed the shutters on our cameras that the photographs would reflect it.
The sun eventually made its presence known and for a time the frozen crystals resisted its warmth, with frost and sunshine coexisting to make a sparkling, glittering effect on the flowers and foliage. It sounds reductive to call the moment magical, but honestly that is exactly what it was.
We would love to show you these photographs, every single one of them. But they are not meant to be scrolled through in a fraction of a second, forgotten almost as soon as they were seen. If photography has the ability to pause time, we are aiming to pause it further, slow it down. This work will only be experienced offline and on paper. It won’t be seen by many, but it will be seen deeply.
We’ve spent the last 3 months turning these photographs into a publication.
Is it a book? No. A booklet? Not really… Should we call it an art zine? Maybe! But really it’s just a walk among frozen dahlias, with no outerwear required. Featuring 21 previously unseen photographs, it’s full color throughout, 32 pages, and measures 6.75 x 9”.
Limited edition of 30, signed and numbered (includes a 4 x 6” print, on 5 x 7” Aurora Art Natural 300gsm paper)
Open edition also available
Rooted in our Berkshires community with an evocative introduction by writer and gardener Lee Buttala and a Q&A all about dahlias with Maria and Dustin from 11 Lenox, First Frost / Final Bloom is now available on our website at pappasbland.com/fffb
Locally, there are some open edition copies for sale at Shaker Mill Books in West Stockbridge, and a non-circulating copy at West Stockbridge Public Library too.
If you are an annual paid subscriber to our newsletter, a limited edition copy of First Frost / Final Bloom with a signed print is already in the mail on its way to you. Please enjoy and take your time viewing the dahlias, as intended.
While there is an excitement and energy to watching any plant’s life cycle, there is something unique about one that is taken down in its heyday.
- Lee Buttala
It feels good to start the new year with this body of work. We hope whoever gets their hands on a copy of First Frost / Final Bloom enjoys it as much as we enjoyed experiencing the dahlias in frost.
Diana & Tom
We don’t paywall our work here, so your support means a lot. This page on our website gives you a few options.
Not only does the zine look well crafted but these beautiful images would make a wonderful exhibition. They need to be on display.
It looks like you were supposed to miss the Dahlias in the summer and fall, so you had to go on that day! Wonderful job you guys!