Hybridizing Dahlias

Bessie · 2023-09-14T03:43:02+00:00

Krista to discover if seeds are growing in the seed pod, after there are no remaining anthers on the pod, gently squeeze the pods between your thumb and fing...

Teddahlia

90% of dahlia of breeding is to select the parents and as they say "The apple does not fall far from the tree." We initially used Rolf, the best example of a variegated flower of all. So good that a year or so ago that the Dahlia Diva( I did not give her the name and it was used in advertising for her dahlia talk at a National show), Debra Dietz showed the old timer flower to a big award in a show in California. Rolf has the best variegation and those genes have been installed into our variegated selections. Variegated flowers produce some variegated seedlings(% is a guess 20%) .
Having said that. some solid color varieties have been known to sport to variegated.
Second year seedling we recently marked to keep.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia thanks for the info! I love that seedling - hope it makes it out to the public.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia it’s interesting - I have a strong memory about a discussion regarding Rolf, and the image of it is very familiar too. But I can find very little info about it online. Was it discussed on this forum at some point in the last couple of years? It’s going to be nagging at the back of my mind now.

Ah - I found it. Just had to dig a little deeper. Looks like it was mentioned here when Cowlitz had it in 2023.

MissyWeitzel

More of my collarette seedlings are opening. I'm breaking Ted's rules again and posting immature 1st blooms of 1st year seedlings. If you've grown Bumble Rumble, then you know what I mean when I say this seedling has the same kinda cupped petals and sturdy compact kind of bloom when still opening just like Bumble Rumble does and the colors are definitely interesting. Unfortunately I see 9 uneven petals and petal splits.

This one is pretty and terrible.

This one looks like it might be good, but every time I think that, it isn't, so I'm telling myself it's terrible and I'll look at it again tomorrow.

Some day I'll find a winner in my seedlings. Just not today. 😊

Juliarugula

MissyWeitzel I really like that cutesy yellow one though.

Teddahlia

Collarette breeders must have infinite patience.

BackyardBouquets_17

A seedling I’m especially fond of. I have a lot to learn on dahlia breeding and what makes good dahlias but it’s been the most fun I had all season.

Teddahlia

Bloom is a bit immature but appears to have a tight center.

Teddahlia

My old picture of Rolf, my favorite variegated flower. Have not grown it for many years however.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia that’s such an amazing flower. I didn’t see that anybody had it last year unfortunately. I’d love to get my hands on it.

Teddahlia

Rolf was entered(and won big time) in a show last year by the Dahlia Diva, Debra Dietz.

Not a good picture

Juliarugula

Teddahlia what a stunning arrangement! So bright!

MissyWeitzel

2308 - 1st year 2nd bloom
Cute but did not really improve much from the first bloom. After wasting spots in my seedling beds growing out all 6 of my awful 2nd year maybe waterlily seedling, I think it's becoming easier for me to say no to keeping 1st year seedlings I think are pretty but have more than 1 minor flaw. This one has splits and the petals don't all overlap the same way.

Teddahlia

Why bother growing seedlings? One of our old timers sported to another color and all we have to do is harvest the tubers and grow it to be sure the sport is stable. Easy peasy. Margaret does not want to share a picture until we are sure it is stable.

Teddahlia

There was post about picotee on Facebook. I posted: Picotee is not a recognized color pattern by the ADS. You can define it any way you want or just ask people if they like it. Personally, I like a well defined color edge on the floret that contrasts with the base color of the face of the floret. If you cannot see it, why have it? I wonder if it is caused by the color on the reverse of the floret being different than the front of the petal and that color on the reverse rolls abound the edge of the floret so you can see it.I posted this picture of a picotee flower:

The first picture above shows flower that may have "reverse" picotee and the darker color from the top of the petal is seen on the reverse of the petal. This may qualify for the "who cares" file.

Teddahlia

I am going begin to harvest dahlia seeds today. Margaret is busy doing hand crosses every day and hers will not be ready for many weeks. I will be collecting seeds from plants placed in good locations for bee pollination.
Seedling from 2006. Should have kept it. Breeding is full of stupid decisions that are irreversible.

Bessie

Teddahlia I've collected a few pods already. Will you automatically place them in a vase of water to further ripen, or will you shuck them "soon"? I usually wait till the pods start to dry out and open up slightly, but don't think that is necessary. Waiting for the pods to dry out a bit guarantees the seeds have matured.
I "accidentally" started some Hollyhill Daydream seeds on August 28th. Five of the seventeen seeds are growing in my windowsill.

Teddahlia

Margaret wants her seeds to be so ripe that that they are as black as night and nearly turning to chaff. But she spent many hours crossing them, In my seed collecting, I just want ripe seeds and super ripe seeds are not necessary. If the weather is dry and no frost in the forecast, seeds can stay on the plants until really ripe. I harvested a bunch today that were very ripe AND marked bunch of pods for later harvest(flagging tape). Ripening inside in a vase is not recommended if the weather is good for ripening on the plant. Lots of time for seeds to ripen here as frost is nearly two months away. I found a couple of overripe seed pods today and shucked them in front of Margaret. Two pods yielded 15 seeds and who knows how many had been ejected onto the ground before I spotted them.

Teddahlia

Purple dahlias are hard to breed and when you do breed one, there are lots of people who cannot agree as to what is purple. The ADS has it's color chart and just because a flower is classified as purple, that does not satisfy some people. One of our 2024 seedlings is purple and when I first saw it. I saw a flower that was a vey nice shade of purple. Then as I look at the picture of the flower, I notice that both front and back of the petals are the same shade of purple. None of this lavender purple on the front and dark purple on the reverse. This flower is just purple upstairs and downstairs. When you breed there are two major categories and they are form and color. This flower in my opinion has really good color. I am posting a close up to show the color and to avoid facing the fact that form is rather mixed between waterlily and informal decorative. No sense worrying about the form this year as step one is to make sure it survives a second year and then the form can be more carefully evaluated.
Picture is uncorrected for color and this is what the cell phone camera recorded.

MissyWeitzel

I have an anemone seedling opening up and it's a lot smaller than any other anemone I grow. The seedling was not pinched and this is the first bloom. It looks like it may be a Frankenstein bloom, but seeing it made me curious and I have questions.

There are no micro anemones, correct? Would a micro anemone go under micro novelty or if there truly was one of appropriate micro size, would it become a new class?
If this opens up and is actually nice and continues to be really small, how would I measure an anemone to see if it would classify as micro? Do I include the ray florets? I'm not sure how to word this, but if they are the type of anemone ray florets that push back away from the center tubular disc florets would I measure the diameter to see if it is under 2" looking at the anemone face on? Or lay it flat so the ray florets flatten out and measure the diameter then?

SteveM

MissyWeitzel There are no micro anemones

There is a micro anemone class but I don't know if any are listed yet.
https://www.dahlia.org/guide/form.html#:~:text=All%20dahlias%20in%20classes%200001,the%20central%20rays%20spirally%20displayed.

SteveM

MissyWeitzel how would I measure an anemone to see if it would classify as micro?

I'm pretty sure you would measure from the tips of opposite florets as the bloom is displayed (not flattened) in the show. One of the judges here can correct me if I'm wrong.

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