For One Gardener, Dahlias Offer Connection and Hard-Earned Joy Newport's Justin McLaughlin has tended dahlias for forty-five years. April 9, 2021 It’s a primary day in Newport and Justin McLaughlin, a city council incumbent, should probably be out campaigning. Instead he’s here, in his Top of the Hill garden hidden by a privacy hedge and a spray of ornamental grass, canvassing his dahlias. He runs a finger down a clipboard with color-coded notes detailing the names, heights and addresses of 238 colorful constituents. It’s a sign of things to come: After earning a spot on the 2020 ballot, McLaughlin withdraws from the race for, according to a statement, “more time for relationships and flowers” — a move reminiscent of his retirement in 2004 at age sixty, when he says he could’ve worked another decade.