The Dahlia Whisperer

Resort gardener’s name is known from the Blue Ridge to Balmoral

One day sixteen years ago, Drew English took a walk with a friend on the grounds of High Hampton, the lushly planted resort in Cashiers. “We crossed a road and passed through a tunnel in a towering wall of rhododendrons,” English recalls, “and emerged into a garden adorned entirely with dahlias.” The sheer number of blooms made a big impression, and English was also “captivated by the array of sizes and the profusion of colors.” A passion was ignited.

Today, English’s career is entwined with late summer’s signature bloom. He’s been the head dahlia gardener for the past eight years at High Hampton’s Halsted Dahlia Garden, the very plot he first encountered all those years ago. “Dahlias hold such a rich history in this region,” English says, “particularly in Cashiers.” The Halsted Garden was created a century ago by William Halsted, who purchased High Hampton at the end of the nineteenth century and planted tubers of the favorite flower he had first discovered in Europe, long before dahlias became popular in the United States. 

English’s own green thumb was encouraged during his childhood in Summerville, South Carolina, near Charleston, still known as “Flower Town.” It was there that his grandparents and parents enthusiastically cultivated camellias, azaleas, and other Lowcountry perennials. English remembers frequent visits to local plant nurseries as like “going to a fairy-tale land,” and especially enjoyed tours of the southern walled gardens for which Charleston is famous.

An entirely new floral world awaited when he first visited the mountain resort town of Cashiers, which sits on a plateau at almost 3,500 feet in elevation. “I was introduced to a different plant system that was more to my liking and more forgiving, without the intense heat and short growing season of the Lowcountry,” English explains. Soon enough, he had bought property in Cashiers and began creating his own garden featuring dahlias. “Their diversity and vivid color saturation is what really drew me in,” he notes. “You can grow a large, lacy variety next to a super-dense ball variety, and they just complement each other so well.” Starting with ten tubers, English’s initially small plot grew to encompass an entire terraced hillside with 75 plants. Awards soon followed from the American Dahlia Society, among many others, along with introductions to a star cadre of international horticulturalists, including the head gardener at Scotland’s Balmoral, the country retreat of Britain’s royal family, and Sarah Raven of the UK’s Perch Hill Gardens in East Sussex.

At High Hampton, English manages a collection of 800 heirloom and contemporary cultivars, along with overseeing his own design-consultant business, The English Gardener. National FLOWER Magazine bestowed on him the moniker “The Dahlia Whisperer” for his remarkable talent. “History and tradition are deeply meaningful to me,” English explains, “and I feel a profound duty to carry forward the legacy of the Halsteds and High Hampton by nurturing these remarkable plants.”

FLOWER Magazine hosts Dahlia Days for guests of the High Hampton resort (1525 Hwy. 107 South, Cashiers) Sunday, Aug. 30 through Wednesday, Sept. 2. Interior designer Barry Dixon, jewelry designer Elizabeth Locke, and landscape architect Ben Page will join FLOWER founder and editor-in-chief Margot Shaw. Drew English will lead tours of the Halsted Dahlia Garden. For more information or to make a reservation, visit highhampton.com.