About Dakota Dahlias

Thank you for visiting Dakota Dahlias! Dakota Dahlias idea was born in my head in 2023; however, not fully executed until 2025. My name is Christle Beuckens. Dakota Dahlias is in the Black Hills of South Dakota, my main garden is in the Spearfish area. I have a couple of garden/growing spaces that I maintain, nourish, and monitor. I grow only dahlias, and maybe a few zinnias, peonies, and iris. At this time, I sell only dahlia tubers and bouquets online. Dakota Dahlias is woman-owned and operated. 

I was never 'trained' as a gardener. For 20 years I taught art/digital photography in middle & high school. I quit that and started in real estate in '07. I still do real estate for my main career. Gardening has been a hobby here and there over the years....a way to escape and meditate. Some years I grew nothing because of health issues. In 2024, I decided I wanted to do more dahlias. I decided to move forward with a big expansion (about 300 varieties and 550 plants) in 2025 to a Spearfish garden area, with a website and start selling tubers. I love helping buyers and sellers so I will continue in real estate and still grow a lot of dahlias!

MY PHOTOS:
Photography means a lot to me in my dahlia-growing journey. Taking great photos of my dahlias is a passion of mine. I watermark all of my photos simply to deter scammers from stealing photos to scam unaware people. All photos on my website are mine, except where noted, they are taken by a professional photographer hired by me to do so. I may crop photos that I take and reduce resolution size as I take large-format photos. I do not use filters or masks to enhance my photos. I taught art for 20 years and digital photography using Adobe Photoshop for about 5 of those years to high school students. Most of my skills that I have retained come from that experience, unfortunately, not using those skills for a large chunk of time (20 years in real estate) means I’ve lost a large part of that knowledge. Use it or lose it! Because I was familiar with using Adobe Photoshop and owned a copy of this software, I continue to use this software (a 20 yr old version). I crop/downsize and add my watermarked company name, usually with the variety name whenever possible. It does NOT mean I photoshop my photos.

I do the best I can with photography and research how to take better photos when I can. I do NOT just point and shoot my camera phone at my garden and blooms. I work with composition, exposures….aperture settings, ISO settings, shutter speeds, depth of field, bracketing exposures, white balance, etc. And that’s okay, because realistically that’s what photography is all about….that technical stuff. I have shut off as many ‘auto’ settings on my phone camera that I am able to shut off. Unfortunately, all the ‘auto’ stuff and camera phones have made it too easy to take bad photos. A little bit of education and experimentation will usually help a person take better photos. What you see in my posts and website is the best of MY best. What you don’t see is the garbage of bad photos deleted and not used. 

Dakota Dahlias/Christle Beuckens owns all copyrights to photos. 

TRADEMARK VARIETIES:
I am a licensed seller of Santa Cruz Dahlias®. Their trademarked varieties can be freely grown, multiplied, traded, or donated. Growers can freely sell the cut flowers and freely harvest, share, and sell seeds. Customers who purchase KA's® trademarked varieties and plan to sell tubers should visit https://www.santacruzdahlias.com/trademarks for more information.\

I am a licensed seller of River Merle dahlias.

I also pay other hybridizers a small percentage to show my appreciation of their skills and talents. I am a supporter of several other hybridizers including Lee's/Goldenrod Gardens and Levi's cultivars.