I grew up on a large tract of family land outside of Moultrie, Georgia, along the banks of the Ochlockonee River, in one of the most diverse forest ecologies in North America. I was raised to explore and appreciate the beauty in my surroundings. I studied plant sciences- horticulture- at the University of Georgia and have been designing and installing plant driven, site specific, colorific gardens and landscapes in Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas for two decades.

I started growing cut flowers for market in 2008 when I moved to northwest North Carolina with my family. Dahlias have always been in the lineup and I’ve been curating my collection since. I started offering tubers for sale in 2017- with a specific emphasis on varieties ideal for floral design. I started breeding dahlias in 2020. With the help of my husband, David Wimmer, and a handful of highly trained helpers, we grow almost 10,000 dahlias each year.

-Lee Hemmings Carlton 2022