Dahlia Seedling Pictures - 2023

Bessie · 2023-05-25T15:02:05+00:00

First blooming plant from January 18, 2023 seed sowing. Alloway Candy is seed parent, unknown pollen parent.

Teddahlia

Second year waterlily seedling out of a 2020 red seedling. Petals a bit too pointed but it is nice to get an OK flower early in the season. Difficult to get the color right. It is purple but not super pure purple like Seabeck's Hilda.

Teddahlia

Same flower a few hours later. It cups well and does not have too many rows of florets.

NCDahlia

Teddahlia how do the tubers store? i have not had much luck with many purples in storage?

Teddahlia

This plant was grown from a tuber and it's mother had easy storing tubers. Time will tell. I wrote an article some years ago called the curse of the purple dahlias concerning storage issues and purple dahlias. We can list very many purple dahlias that we have lost to storage issues. Cinnamon really helps; use it like shake and bake.

SteveM

Teddahlia Hopefully, your purple-tuber-curse has been lifted. HH Berry Purple stores very well for me and I think that is the only Hollyhill purple I have grown. Chimacum Troy is one of the most difficult for me tp store and also not super easy to take cuttings from. I still grow it because it produces tons of perfect blooms.

Bessie

SteveM I still grow it because it produces tons of perfect blooms.

I like that info on Chimacum Troy, thank you!

Teddahlia

Hollyhill Regal has Chimacum Troy and Barbarry Red Dwarf in it's genes. HH Berry Purple is a seedling of HH Lilliput which is a seedling of Lismore Peggy, a pom which was crossed with HH Fireball. I have revealed all the breeding secrets concerning these flowers knowing that no one could ever re-create the crosses that created them.

MissyWeitzel

Teddahlia As luck would have it I'm growing both HH Berry Purple and Lismore Peggy this season. I've never tried hand crossing before and that seems like a good cross to try!

At what point in the season do you start marking off blooms/seed heads to let dry then save? Do you wait until late season so your plants keep producing or do you begin early since (I assume) your primary goal in growing is breeding?

AndreaB

Hollyhill Regal is one of my favorite purples, but I have to take cuttings to keep it going.
A friend gave me a Hollyhill Berry Purple tuber, so I’m trying that this year. It’s a very vigorous
grower, so I’m hoping it’ll be generous with the tubers, as well. Looks like it’ll also be one of the
early bloomers.
Teddahlia How do the purples compare? From an online search, HH Regal seems to be the truer purple. Perhaps that’s where the “berry” comes from… HH Berry Purple leans a little magenta?

Bessie

MissyWeitzel I'm a novice at hybridizing dahlias. Since I don't sell cut flowers, last year and this year I started working on crosses as soon as I had pollen and stigmas on desired matches. Actually, I'm just trying to get any results, because there is not very much information available regarding Dahlia hybridization*. I start "playing bee" right away since I still don't know 1) which varieties will produce seed, 2) if crosses will be compatible and produce any seed, and 3) if any of the seed will sprout. So far I've only found three varieties (of about 15 I grew last year) that had viable seed, Alloway Candy, Hollyhill Creamy (unreleased), and Hollyhill Donnatella.
*There is a book Katherine Albrecht wrote on hybridizing dahlias that I've read. Unfortunately, it's full of extremely basic information and it barely touches the surface of the topic of hybridizing dahlias.

Teddahlia

New dahlia breeders seem to be fascinated by the hardest method of all: hand crossing dahlias. Breeding is the art of controlling pollination and hand crossing is but one of the methods. Many of the most successful breeders do not hand cross but do control what pollen is available by using several other methods. One of the most direct and obvious is what I first heard from Gordie Leroux of Kenora dahlias. He selected his flowers that were to be mother plants. Then he removed all the flowers that he did not want to pollinate his flowers from that area of the garden. Only worthy pollen parents were allowed in the vicinity of the mother plants. And to ensure success he picked extra flowers of the good pollinators and placed bouquets near the mother plants. He was very successful . I will continue with other methods of controlling pollination later.

Bessie

Teddahlia I've listened closely to your instructions... And some of the things I do hybridizing I forget I learned from your guidance! Thank you☺

drewtheflorist

Teddahlia Peaches and Cream is not the same as Peaches-n-Cream

Teddahlia

drewtheflorist I corrected my post to Peaches-N-Cream. Show-N-Tell has that same "N" in the middle. My overall theme is that Peaches_N_ Cream is an outstanding cut flower and an excellent show flower and that is very rare. However, I wonder if it is a good seed parent.

drewtheflorist

Teddahlia There is a Peaces and Cream coming out of Holland that looks pretty muddy

Teddahlia

Show-N-Tell never makes seeds and I do mean never having checked pods for seeds for many years. Margaret is threatening to use it's pollen on a likely candidate. It is our favorite large dahlia in the Fall.

calico20hill

Here are a couple of pretty seedlings. The bronze gold is a bb. The red is much smaller.

Teddahlia

I like the golden one and would guess it is a seedling of Bloomquist Jean.

calico20hill

Teddahlia I did not have Bloomquist Jean in my garden last year. So unless the bee flew from one o f my 2 dahlia growing neighbors......I will check what the seed parent was next time Iam in the garden. The new buds opening now are getting pretty interesting...And I have only had about 3 in the seedling rows that were open centered so that is rather exciting. I must be doing better at seed collection.

Cosey

I tend to like PNC as a pollen parent. It seems to pass on some fun coloring and sometimes the beautiful graceful form. I get lots of closed centers.

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