Laura Oldenkamp lives on rural property in the Portland, Oregon Metro area, specifically just outside of Canby, Oregon.  Growing up in Sacramento, she traces her gardening passion to her grandmothers who lived in Pasadena and Massachusetts.  Laura has a BS in Agriculture from Oregon State University and since 2015 has served as an OSU Master Gardener.  Her dahlia hobby long precedes this activity.  Growing and showing dahlias began in Canby 41 years ago, just before a move to Turlock in 1984 where she and her husband Mark lived for 17 years just south of town.  They annually exhibited dahlias and other horticultural specimens at the Stanislaus County Fair and regularly participated in dahlia meetings and shows in the East and South Bay and in the Monterey Bay.  Their daughters Audrey and Heidi were born in Stanislaus County in the 1990’s and the family returned to Canby in 2001.  

The Oldenkamps attended many national dahlia shows and were on teams that organized three of them—most recently the national show in Portland in 2023.  Laura helped write the national online curriculum to train dahlia judges, serves on the national classification committee and Mark serves on the executive board of the American Dahlia Society. Outside of gardening, Laura serves in several capacities as a community volunteer.

The dahlia hobbyist will find changes in climate to be challenging in several ways.  Hotter, drier summers enable pests to get a quicker foothold.  Intense sun and limitations of water supply weaken the saturation of color in the blooms and can interfere with good substance qualities in the stems, leaves and blooms.  Laura will explain adjustments to the gardening activity calendar and cultural practices that have helped in her garden.  She will show how rooted cuttings can be made to jump start the growing season.