Eleven years ago, Jack Leatherwood had no idea that a mistaken purchase from a mail-order catalog would change his life forever.

Leatherwood accidently purchased three mysterious tubers from a plant catalog, and when he got them, he had no idea what they were or what to do with them — other than plant them — so he did.

What came up were dahlias, and gardening has never been the same for Leatherwood and his wife, Cindy, since then.

“I thought they were so pretty,” Jack said. “I went back and doubled the order the next year.”

Now a little more than a decade later, Jack plants more than 700 dahlia varieties in his garden at home on a mountainside just off Jonathan Creek Road.

“I tell people all the time they put a smile on your face, and they do that,” he said of his passion for the flowers. ...