Petite Fleur Gardens

17/10/2026

🌱 A little progress in the breeding patch!

There is something incredibly exciting about watching a dahlia you’ve grown from seed return for its second season.

Our second-year seedlings are well and truly waking up, and some are already putting on beautiful, healthy growth!

Last season, these plants were complete unknowns. Every flower was a surprise, and each seedling had the opportunity to show us something special.

Now comes the really interesting part.

The second year gives us another opportunity to observe their growth, flowering, colour, form and overall performance.

Will they live up to their first-year promise? Will we discover something we overlooked last season? Or will one surprise us completely?

Meanwhile, our newest batch of seedlings has been planted, ready to begin their own journey.

Some might become something special. Others might not make the cut. That’s all part of the adventure of breeding dahlias!

🌸 Every named dahlia started somewhere, and sometimes that somewhere is a little patch of soil in Palmerston North.

Follow along as we discover what this season brings!

05/10/2026

It doesn’t look much like a flower garden right now, does it? 😂

But this is where another season begins at Petite Fleur Gardens.

Old clumps lifted and divided, crowns inspected, labels followed carefully, and selected plants potted up ready to wake.

Some of these are plants we already know and love. Others are part of our breeding journey — plants we’re continuing to watch, assess and learn from.

That’s one of the things I love most about breeding dahlias. A beautiful flower is only the beginning. We want to see how the plant grows, how well it produces, how it performs over another season and whether that first bit of magic comes back again.

Right now they’re mostly just pots of dirt and funny-looking sticks.

But give them a few months… 🌱➡️🌸

The 2026/27 season is officially underway at Petite Fleur Gardens

18/09/2026

IT’S HAPPENING! 🌱
The first dahlia has broken through in my second-year patch. After months of looking at what appears to be a bed of dirt, that tiny bit of green is ridiculously exciting.

This patch is where I’ll be growing, trialling and watching some of my seedlings this season. Now the obsessive checking begins… who’s going to be next?

18/09/2026

The second year seedling 🌱 patch is starting to wake up!

13/09/2026

2026 Tuber sale more detail will be posted closer to the day.

29/07/2026

Missing my flowers 🌷 but with all my seedlings starting I know spring is just round the corner!

This was my last bloom before the frosts .. she was a little confused it was well into winter

21/03/2026

27/02/2026

Petite Fleur ‘Dear Watson’ 🤍

Some flowers are beautiful…
and some carry pieces of your heart.

Petite Fleur Dear Watson is one of those.
This dahlia flowered just days before Hannah & Conner’s wedding — perfectly timed, as if it knew it was meant to be part of something special. Its very first bloom was placed into their table arrangement, quietly sitting amongst a day filled with love and celebration.

But this one means even more to me.
Hannah and her whānau became my whānau when I took over Danceworks. Over the years, she’s become my dance daughter — someone I’ve watched grow, supported, and cared deeply for.

So to have this bloom be part of her wedding day…that’s something truly special 🤍

Petite Fleur Dear Watson will always be a reminder that gardens don’t just grow flowers — they grow memories, connections, and love that carries through every season.

21/01/2026

Even with all this wind and rain the garden is still producing Stella flowers

10/01/2026

Exhibition Garden is looking great! Finally weeded 🙈