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Random thoughts:
Getting tired of dividing tubers and would rather be done with that and the shipping and be taking cuttings of the best ones from the last several years and sprouting seeds. One 2022 WL seedling in dark red that was labeled "best" had hair roots on about 10 of the plants. Then I had three clumps that must have been grown from tubers and it made lots of nice tubers. I have noticed over the years that some varieties don't make good roots from cuttings.
Dick Parshall(Clearview) made the comment on Dahlia Talk(if you do not participate in Dahlia Talk you are missing out on lots of interesting things) that he no longer collects seeds or grows varieties that are just seed makers since his wife died. He said he had a "lifetime" of seeds in his freezer. He probably collected 1000 plants worth of seeds each year and only planted about 300 seedlings or so. That would give one lots of extra seed. I know he said he successfully planted some 20 year old seeds this last year .


Posting the group picture of ugly seedlings (one exception) and that is what a seedling garden looks like in real life. Lots of losers and something that makes it all worth it.

    Love your photo example! Yes, so many seedlings that are beautiful colors or plants but don't quite make it into the ones worth keeping...and the excitement when we find the one!

    Teddahlia if you do not participate in Dahlia Talk you are missing out on lots of interesting things

    Dahlia Talk is interesting to listen to even without participating. I forgot to tune in to this month's session, I am going to have leave myself reminders.

      Next years seedlings will start with 24-01 and of course no seedling awarded the opening number has made it into distribution. We breeders get overly excited when the first nice flower appears and invariably it actually is not a real good example. Having said that in the 2004, number 4-01 hung on for second and third year.

      The one sentence instruction to be a successful dahlia breeder: Breed like to like to get like.
      It is all there. You grow, pollinate , collect seeds. sprout seeds, plant seedlings take care of seedlings and all that stuff that gardeners do and that is a given for any kind of gardening. No secrets there and you will be a more successful breeder if you are good gardener. In that one sentence is contained the key to your success. It implies you have goals as you must select the "like" flowers to breed the "like" flowers. You are in charge of the selection and another sentence that may convey the path to successful breeding and it is the old saw "If you don't succeed, try and try again." Breeding dahlias requires lots of attempts because they are octoploid. That actually is irrelevant information as we breeders do not manipulate genes in our laboratories and we just pollinate flowers and hope for good results, Knowing they are octoploid only tells you that you have to attempt more crosses to be successful. So there it is. There is no excuse for a lack of success.

        The above picture of the yellow waterlily seedling was taken with a cell phone. It was overwhelmed by the bright yellow color. Most of the pictures did not turn out and this about as good as it got.

        Teddahlia The one sentence instruction to be a successful dahlia breeder: Breed like to like to get like.

        That is true if your goal is to perfect the existing ADS-recognized forms. It isn't necessarily true if your goal is to develop new dahlia forms/types.

          "....to develop new dahlia forms/types." What I did not mention was that a successful dahlia breeder needs to be a good seedling evaluator and not always in the conventional show categories. Most of us when encountering a novel type of flower see only an unsuccessful show type flower. One should look at them with "three eyes" : (1) Show flower? (2) Novel flower? (3) Pretty Flower?
          Dr. Hammett designs novel flowers in his mind and then goes about taking parts from various flowers and building his flower from the pieces. This is done by using a multi year breeding program and incrementally achieving his goal. This is an example of the saying : "There is more than one way to skin a cat." What a crappy way to say that. Is there better
          saying that conveys this idea?

            Teddahlia "There is more than one way to skin a shin"?
            I would add one more category to your list - "(4) Garden flower?". I read (I think in "Greenhouse Grower") that the sales of bedding plants greatly exceeded the sales of cut flowers in the US. This really surprised me and I wonder why (other than the short bedding dahlias) there hasn't been more development in the "Garden Dahlia". I think Dr. Hammett has done quite a lot of work in this area but I don't see a lot of other offerings.

              I use to include garden flowers in my definitions of dahlias. It went over like a lead balloon. For example, almost all of the bedding types of dahlias are patented varieties from the Netherlands (Dr. Hammett is the exception but his are patented too). I have noticed that Dahlia people who go to shows and join clubs, shun bedding dahlias.
              Garden dahlias are also not in demand. I used to write a nice definition where a garden variety had to have nice foliage and flowers held above the foliage. No one cares much.
              Arrangers flowers are my favorite category that hardly anyone recognizes. There is no easy definition but Margaret seems to know what they look like.

                Teddahlia
                What is the name of this beauty in the photo?? It reminds me of HH Pink Martini, which is one I’ve been searching for.

                  Teddahlia I love the fairy lights with the arrangements! I may have to try that sometime this summer. Although it doesn’t get dark until 10 pm or so in the summer, so I bet that I’ll forget. 🤪

                    HH Pink Martini is a wonderful arrangers flower. Waterlies make excellent cut flowers and they last as long as most dahlias. Remember they have fewer rows of florets and that means the stem can hydrate easier than a flower with more florets.

                    4 days later

                    On Facebook the Breeding Dahlias group has over 4,000 members and about 5 to 10 new members are joining every day. I am probably going to cut back on my detailed responses to "novice" questions. I will always be more responsive here. Kristine Albrecht wrote a good book on breeding dahlias and recently I responded to one of the long winded "I want to know everything" questions with "read the book first and then pose one question at time". I would enjoy commenting on some subjects where I differ with Kristine or when she just does not cover the topic at all or not in enough detail. For example, her writing about breeding for color is not written from a scientific perspective.

                    Old picture.

                    I really appreciate this smaller group format. I feel like there is more opportunity for coherent discussion. 4000 people is a lot, that is quadruple the population of my hometown growing up!

                    Has anyone grown a white dahlia with red picotee? Something like Hart's Bonnie, but in white.

                    I started to answer the red picotee question and am up to 4 paragraphs or so. It looks like an article may be in the wind.

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