Looking Back: The Lessons of the 2025 Season
- Debra Flaming
- Dec 31, 2025
- 4 min read
As 2025 comes to a close, we find ourselves reflecting on a season that was far more complex than any highlight reel could ever capture.
From a distance, this year may look like success—beautiful blooms, a thriving online presence, and a growing community around Flaming Acres Dahlias. But as anyone who works the land knows, the true story of a season is always layered. Beauty and struggle grow side by side.
And this year, we learned that deeply.
The Challenges We Didn’t Anticipate
The 2025 growing season tested us in ways we did not expect.
There were technical frustrations that felt small at first but compounded over time—overexposed photos and videos that didn’t capture the beauty we saw with our own eyes, despite countless hours trying to document it well. There were watering challenges that forced us to rethink systems mid-season, often under pressure and heat.
Tree roots competed with our dahlias in ways we couldn’t fully control. Weeds seemed relentless. And the weather—if it can even be called a pattern—refused to cooperate. Sudden shifts, unpredictable heat, unexpected rain, long dry stretches… nothing followed a rhythm we could plan around.
Harvest brought its own trials. Rain slowed digging. Equipment broke down at the worst possible moments. What should have been smooth progress became stop-and-start perseverance. And perhaps most difficult of all was the disappointing number of tubers harvested. After a season of such effort, care, and hope, the yield simply wasn’t what we had envisioned. That disappointment was real—and it was humbling.
When Demand Exceeded What We Could Give
One of the hardest decisions we faced this year was closing our online store far earlier than we ever expected. The support for Flaming Acres Dahlias was overwhelming—in the best and hardest way. Orders poured in. Interest grew rapidly. And suddenly, we were faced with the reality that we could not meet the demand with the inventory we had.
Closing early felt like both gratitude and grief at the same time. We were deeply thankful that people wanted what we were growing—but heartbroken that we could not provide it for everyone.
It was a lesson in limits. And in trust.
The People Who Carried Us
In the midst of every challenge, God surrounded us with people.
Friends and family showed up on the hardest days—when the work felt endless and discouragement pressed in. They helped dig, lift, sort, repair, encourage, and pray. Their presence reminded us that Flaming Acres has never been a solo endeavor.
We welcomed subscribers from all over the United States—people we may never meet in person, yet who chose to walk alongside our little farm. Their messages, kindness, and patience carried us more than they will ever know.
We were honored to play a small part in the Kaylee Jade project, helping connect a grieving family with a dahlia grower ready to steward a flower named in remembrance and love. That moment reminded us that flowers can carry meaning far beyond beauty.
We made new friends—people who taught us how to preserve dahlias through drying, how to turn blooms into lasting gifts, and how to see our flowers through fresh eyes. Those friendships felt like unexpected blessings scattered throughout the season.
Beauty Still Bloomed
Even in the hard moments, beauty never fully left.
We captured hundreds of photographs of dahlias in our fields and gardens—moments of light breaking through petals, of form and color reminding us why we grow. Those images became small anchors of joy, proof that something good was still unfolding, even when progress felt slow.
The dahlias gave us glimpses of what can be, even as they taught us humility about what was.
A Faith Journey, Through It All
Above everything else, 2025 was a faith journey.
God met us in disappointment and in celebration. He steadied us when expectations fell short and humbled us when success came faster than we were ready for. He reminded us—again and again—that this work is not only about output or numbers, but obedience, stewardship, and trust.
We learned that growth doesn’t always look like abundance.Sometimes it looks like endurance.Sometimes it looks like saying no.Sometimes it looks like letting go of control.
And sometimes, it looks like simply showing up again the next day.
Moving Forward
As we step into a new year, we do so with clearer eyes and deeper gratitude.
Grateful for the lessons. Grateful for the people. Grateful for the beauty that still found a way to bloom.
Flaming Acres Dahlias exists today not because everything went right—but because God carried us through what didn’t.
That may be the greatest harvest of all.
A Closing Reflection
As we close the pages on 2025, we do so with hearts both humbled and full.
This season taught us that faith is not proven when everything goes according to plan, but when we continue to plant, tend, and trust even when it does not. It reminded us that beauty can coexist with disappointment, that community often arrives right on time, and that God’s provision is sometimes revealed through people, patience, and perseverance rather than abundance.
We step into the new year carrying lessons we could not have learned any other way—grateful for the blooms that came, the challenges that shaped us, and the countless hands and hearts that supported Flaming Acres Dahlias along the way.
May we enter the year ahead with clearer vision, deeper trust, and renewed hope—ready to steward what we’ve been given, wherever the next season leads.
With gratitude for what was, and faith for what is yet to come.
“Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”— Galatians 6:9
Sincerely,
Debra Flaming
