Meet Dianne Reitan | Flower Farmer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dianne Reitan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dianne, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
During the first summer of Covid, I was laid off as the Major Gifts Officer of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic. No one was going to symphonies and the world seemed to come to a halt. With more time on my hands than I was used to, I started thinking about growing a garden. There is a community garden at Bear Creek Regional Park close to where I live with my husband, Dave. For several years we had walked our schnauzers by this garden mesmerized by this concept of over 100 gardeners coming together and sharing a space to grow vegetables and flowers. One day, Dave and I decided to give it a try and we rented a 20 x 20 plot, not knowing a thing about growing a garden. Around that time, I read an article by Martha Stewart that changed my life. She was praising the dahlia, a flower I had never heard of before and she recommended a book, Discovering Dahlias. Our rented plot got full sun and so I bought eight dahlia tubers and followed the instructions in the book. I had gorgeous blooms and had a ball giving bouquets away to friends and family. Because the dahlia tuber multiplies in a season, the second year, I planted 30 dahlia plants at the community garden! Again, I gave away hundreds of bouquets and even did a small fundraiser for the community garden using my dahlia bouquets. They were so popular! By the end of season two, I knew that I was going to have hundreds of tubers from my 30 plants. Then the idea of Dianne’s Dahlias came to me in the middle of the night. The thought nearly took my breath away.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a retired nonprofit fundraiser and love how my hometown of Colorado Springs has so many charities. I enjoyed raising money either through annual cash gifts or through planned giving where people can leave a legacy through their will or trust. And while working in an office environment suited my skills, it was always hard for me to hear in large conference rooms because of my hearing impairment. Wearing hearing aids in both years since I was 3 years old, allows me to hear so much better than I can on my own but there are challenges and limitations for me especially in group settings. Now that I have my own flower farm, I don’t encounter as many situations where I can’t hear and I also don’t have to work around the bias and stigmas as much as I used to in an office setting.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
One of my best friends is my aunt Kathy – my mom’s sister – who is twenty years apart from my mom but she is only seven years older than me! Aunt Kathy is a professor at Metro State in Denver and she comes down about once a month and slumber parties with me. It’s a great time of HGTV and old classics with Cary Grant. We love The Broadmoor Hotel and walk the lake with a cup of coffee in our hands every chance we get! We love the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, too. We’ll eat at The Golden Bee or drive down to the Holy Abbey Vineyard in Canon City and visit their gift shop and tasting room.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
When I started talking about the idea of a flower farm 7,000 feet up in the middle of a cosmopolitan city, some people thought I was off my nut. But not my women’s group. They rallied around me, visited my farm, bought my bouquets and told other people about what I was trying to do. The Woman’s Club of Colorado Springs is the oldest women’s group in Colorado Springs, started in 1904) and I have been a member since 2013. It’s a diverse group of ladies that support each other no matter what stage of life we are in at the moment. It was wonderful to have their support and I even got to have my dahlias as the centerpieces for the annual fashion show the group hosts.

Website: https://diannesdahlias.com

Instagram: @diannesdahlias.com

Facebook: @diannesdahlias.com

Youtube: @diannesdahlias.com