Some traits you breed for and you intensely hand cross and then back cross and and intensify the gene pool. After about 3 -4 years you will have some winners.
However, most all breeders are opportunists who find a nice dahlia in the seedlings and just keep it. This is the same blind luck that anybody can do and when you plant lots of seeds there will be some nice ones. Yes, we have no idea how picotees are created genetically. I bet it is caused by a gene or two that can easily be passed on to another generation.
So were these picotee waterlilies the result of intense line breeding? Were they the result of blind luck? Blind luck is the best answer.
Lastly, it could be said dahlia breeding is 60% the evaluation process when you evaluate the seedlings and recognize something unintentional is a good thing. And conversely, when we keep some real losers by mistake.
By the way, this seedling has dark pigment on the reverse of the petals and you see just a smidgeon of the dark pigment on the edge of the petals and that creates the picotee look. So, the trait of having a different color pigment on the reverse of the petals may be related to breeding picotee flowers. Noni loves to breed this type and I bet she will have (or does have) some picotee flowers.
