Walt Jacenko
by: Marjorie Thatcher & Anne Maria Jacobson
“I can not afford the luxury of a negative thought” was the mantra Walt lived by.
Wolodimir “Walt” Jacenko was born November 11,1948 in Hanover, Germany. His parents were Ukrainian and came from a long line of farmers. They may have even grown dahlias as he found a picture of his grandparents holding a bouquet of dahlias while going through photos a few years back. His parents were both prisoners of war in World War II and forced to work in a concentration camp. After the war they immigrated to Brazil when he was a baby. He grew up on a small farm in Brazil. It was a very special place to him where he learned the art of growing all sorts of plants and fell in love with gardening. At 10 years of age Walt’s family immigrated to Erie, PA and later moved to Ballard WA. After graduating from high school Walt was drafted into the army at 19 years of age and served in the Vietnam war. When he returned home, he met Linda, the love of his life and they were happily married for 53 wonderful years. They have 2 children, son (Jason), and daughter (Heather).
In 2004 Walt and Linda went to the ADS National show in Tacoma , Washington where he was impressed with the dahlia exhibits and became curious about growing dahlias. He saw a flyer about the Puget Sound Club and decided to join. He served a term as Vice President of PSDA in 2010-11. He then joined the Snohomish County dahlia society and served as Vice President in 2013-14 and then President in 2016-17. He truly believed that to keep the dahlia clubs going the younger generation needed to be encouraged to become more involved. He was a terrific mentor both in the garden and in the club societies. While President he made it his mission to get younger members to serve in all the officer positions at the Snohomish club which then enabled him to step down and let them do the work.
Once his curiosity in growing dahlias took hold there was no stopping him. Before you could blink an eye he had built a spectacular terraced garden Walt’s approach to gardening was as unique as he was. He saw no reason to purchase something if you could get it for free. Hard work never deterred him. He was very handy and could build nearly anything.
Walt worked an acre of raised and terraced brick garden beds at his home in Woodinville, Washington. When he worked construction, one of his jobs was to rip out some of the old cobblestone streets near Pike Place Market. Instead of letting all those bricks go to the dump, he hauled them home to construct his raised beds. He was able to source compost and coffee grounds to build up his soil, other building materials and most hardware for pretty much for the cost of the sweat it took to load it into his truck and take it home.
He was especially proud of the greenhouse he built with all “recycled” materials and windows from a neighbor who was throwing them out. It irked him that he had to purchase the hinges new for .30 cents each, otherwise he built it all with reclaimed materials.
He loved to garden it made him feel connected to his heritage and good memories in Brazil. Like his grandparents and parents before him, he grew the most remarkable eggplants, beans, tomatoes, herbs, zucchini, and plenty of collard greens, a staple in Brazil’s national dish, feijoada. Linda used the produce to make his favorite meals throughout the fall and winter.
When he caught the hybridizing bug, yet another garden section was created seemingly over night. This one included sunken pots for his seedlings. As he refined his hybridizing skills and had cultivars to introduce, he would name them after friends and women who were influential in is life. He would also use the funny sayings his grandson Christopher would come up with, like “watermelon chicken”. Some of his introductions include: Fenya (named after his Ukrainian grandma), Larrisa (named after his sister), Heather (named for his daughter), Velva (named for his favorite cousin), Alysia Obina (named after his adopted dahlia daughter), Anne Maria (for his friend and protégé at PSDA) Lianna Sybeldon (named after his favorite UW women’s volley ball player), Caedmon is in honor of his dear friend whom he considered the smartest person he knew. VC Hill (named after his time in the Vietnam War), His most celebrated dahlia is Bull’s Blood. His grandson helped him name that one.
Walt loved to talk to people. He often said, his favorite thing about growing dahlias was the dahlia people. For him that was the best part about the dahlia clubs and shows. He knew all the dahlia types and how to grow them and was a good judge. But he was never in it for the competition. He came to see his dahlia friends, that was more important than winning any ribbons. He loved to grow dahlias that were pretty and brought people joy. He sought out the beauty in dahlias, not the pursuit of perfection.
Walt was so generous with his dahlia knowledge and would happily share with anyone who wanted to listen. He was especially patient with newer growers and wanted to help set them up to succeed so they would enjoy growing and stay in the dahlia community. He didn’t believe in withholding information to give himself an edge, he just shared out what he knew and hoped it would help the gardener who needed the information.
In an effort to share dahlias with his local community, he struck up a deal with the Brightwater Treatment plant down the road from his home. He would put in and maintain dahlia beds for them in exchange for free compost and the ability to put on “How to grow Dahlias classes” for the community. During these classes would give away bundles of tubers and cuttings to the participants along with growing information and offers to help them as they needed. He encouraged those in the classes to join a local dahlia club.
One of his most favorite annual projects was to support a fundraiser for his daughter Heather to raise funds to purchase the needed supplies for her elementary school classroom. Walt would wake up his tubers by February to begin getting enough cuttings going to ensure the sale was a success. Walt was hands down one of the most successful gardeners at taking cuttings and getting them to all take hold. He would literally bring hundreds of dahlia cuttings to the sale, and they would all go! It was genius and generous, and that is Walt to a tee.
In May 2024 Walt was diagnosed with Glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive brain cancer. He maintained his positive attitude and was determined to make it a year past his diagnosis. He was in his garden and greenhouse each day until a month before he passed. He passed away at home surrounded by family on May 9, 2025 (12 months and 5 days after his diagnosis).
Walt was a man of many talents and interests, but having a cell phone or learning how to use a computer was not one of them. He spoke 5 languages, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Portuguese and English. When he spoke with his family, he’d often mix all the languages together. He had a wicked dry sense of humor. He never learned to write lower case letters. When he moved to America they didn’t do much to help kids who didn’t know English. For his first year of school, he was placed in 3rd grade for half the school year. Then he was moved into 4th grade the rest of that year. The next year he was in 5th and also 6th grade. After that they assumed he has caught up.
Walt loved to fish, liked sporty older model cars, and adored music, especially Cuban and Brazilian. But most of all, he loved his family, friends, and living life positively to the fullest.
he built this sign to honor her
Originations
| Alysia Obina | B-FD-LB |
| Anne Maria | B -SC-DB |
| Bull’s Blood | B-IC-DR |
| Caedmon | BB-SC-FL |
| Heather | BB-SC-V |
| Kenya | BB-C-DB |
| Larrisa | BB-IC-LB |
| Lianna Sybeldon | B-C-Y |
| Light My Fire | B-SC-Fl |
| Sketch | BB-IC-DB |
| VC Hill | B-IC-V |
| Velva | B-SC-W |
