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

When evaluating seedlings and you post a picture and you get numerous positive comments, it is another factor to add to your long list of evaluation factors. White is a real plus and white with a closed center too.

Bessie

Today's unfurling seedlings..
Please note the change of information for seedling 23052: the this far unreleased seed parent has been named Hollyhill Creamy by the hybridizer.

SteveM

Bessie Very nice presentation! It will be interesting to see them when fully open. So far, it looks like a couple of keepers for year 2.🙂

The first evaluation I do for a potential cut variety is to check for "shattering". If a bloom drops its back petals within a few days of being picked then it will be worthless as a commercial cut dahlia.

Bloom position for cut varieties: Ideally, the same as for show (I think 45 degrees?) but can be anywhere from slightly side-facing to slightly top-facing. I immediately cull any variety that is down-facing.

Bessie

SteveM thanks for the feedback. To limit the number of posts, your suggestion makes me think it's a good idea to wait till the flower is fully opened before posting. Then I can provide a collage of the flower at multiple stages. I intuitively knew it's the end stages of bloom that are important to evaluate, but my newbee enthusiasm is getting the best of me🤩.
I plan to do vase tests on the second blooming cycle of the ones not culled. Also, so far I haven't used any pesticides, as selecting for insect tolerance is important to me and I dislike messing with chemicals unless necessary.
Nice tubers on this first cull. I was confident this one should be thrown away...

Bessie

I'm in love, with the glowing pastel apricot color and softly wavy petals. But I'm not supposed to have feelings for this kind of Dahlia😳. Mother is Alloway Candy and I think it's pollen parent was Hilltop Lost Treasure, based on what this Dahlia looks like... The the gopher obliterated the pollen parent.
Interesting that the petals close up in the evening.

blown_dry

Bessie I'm in love, with the glowing pastel apricot color and softly wavy petals.

Growing flowers that make you happy can be a goal. An open center is not counter to that. You can just pursue personal joy. I wonder what could be done to make space for this and also for people who are breeding for cut or for show-worthy form and are looking for informed critique? When a person is growing for personal joy, that person is the only meaningful authority on that project. Maybe a "Seedling Pictures Just To Share" category?

Honnat

Bessie However, there's a few basics of seedling evaluation I've learned... plant Vigor, stem strength,stem length, flower position, disease resistance, tuber viability/keeping, color consistency, color fading, floriferous/productive plant, flower size consistency over the season, should be a better option than what's currently available, not too late blooming, not too short or too tall, is it novel..

In my opinion the most important trait that should be considered before all of these: Does it have a good center? If you are seeing pollen right away and it's only opened up a few rows of petals, all of these other questions are moot.

Bessie

Honnat thank you very much! I appreciate your advice. I agree, with prominent centers showing I need to stop 🤔 evaluating color or shape.. and just dig it up.

Teddahlia

Evaluating seedlings does go very quickly as you do the examination for a good center. And that extends to green centers where technically it may be a closed center but it looks like crap most of the time. Of course, if you are a breeder of open center types. the centers need to be seen. No open center types in our garden.

I regret not keeping this open center seedling. When you strictly follow rules you sometimes miss out on the best ones.

Bessie

Teddahlia , what is it you regret? Knowing how you think about seedling selection is valuable for my learning to get a "big picture" on how to break the rules.

Teddahlia

This variegated flower was just plain pretty even with the open center. Those curled florets really enhanced the overall look. It was very photogenic and that is a factor almost no one mentions. If you like something, you are allowed to keep it even if may break some conventional rules. My story of Bob and Myrtle Bloomfield in the Breeding section here is what I mean. We are allowed to like unconventional flowers.

Bessie

Teddahlia , adding "photogenic" to my list of keeper traits. Obvious, but it could be overlooked as an explicit "keeper" criteria. Thanks!

SteveM

In almost all cases, an open-centered dahlia will have a shorter vase life than a fully double variety. If an open-centered seedling has a long vase life (5-6 days) it might make an excellent cut dahlia candidate (assuming all else is equal).

Bessie

SteveM thank you! I'm wondering(haven't done any testing) if there is a correlation between how many days a dahlia looks good on the plant "uncut" versus it's cut vase life.

SteveM

Bessie I think in many cases it would correlate. But there would be exceptions. For example a variety can look very good, for a long time, on the plant but might "shatter" very quickly when cut.

Bessie

blown_dry thank you for sharing your incredible wisdom. I'm not in a race, and although I may have goals I'd like to achieve, I ultimately want to have a joyful experience☺.

Bessie

Culled nine 2023 seedling plants today, mostly for very open centers and a few for weak or wobbly stems.These seedlings below have flowers at mature stages so I thought it was worth sharing the later stage of bloom for these.

Four open blooms.

Three open blooms.

Currently only one open bloom. Seed parent updated name is Hollyhill Creamy.

Teddahlia

We are still planting some of the first year seedlings and I just inspected the seedling plants and they need a few more days to be big enough to plant. I have about 100 tubers from third year seedlings to plant but all the tubers from the 2022 seedlings are planted. New breeders have only one year's crop to grow and evaluate and we have seedlings from 2020 through 2023.
I planted some rooted cuttings of this one yesterday and have several tubers of it to plant yet. I like pink flowers. This one is a good tuber maker and grows vigorously.

Bessie

Teddahlia i like the way your photo contains different stages of the bloom. That's not easy to capture.

Teddahlia

My Margaret always complains that I do not take enough pictures but that really means I do not take enough pictures of the ones she likes. In my brain, this is just a group shot and they are useful to show the plant looks nice. Using the cell phone for pictures is rather new to me. I need to take more short video clips and say a couple of words about the flowers. Historically, not naming the pictures has always been the biggest challenge. We have lots of pictures of nice flowers but no idea what they are. I am only about 95% certain about this one as the pictures were not labeled.
I asked Margaret if she recognized this 2022 seedling picture. It is about 8 inches in diameter. She said she has no idea what it is. I vaguely remember it as it was so extreme in the length of the cactus florets.

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