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...

mocullen35

mocullen35 this is my most anticipated from last year, was the last to bloom so I didn't get to enjoy it much. KA Mocha Katie is the seed parent. Love the dark stems & picotee.

Teddahlia

Kristine Albrecht wrote the dahlia breeding book and her flowers seem to have her "look". She likes color and had a florist friend select some of the colors from the seedlings. She used to be a top notch show exhibitor too.

Teddahlia

We are many weeks away from seeing first year seedlings. I was looking for something else and found d this picture of a 2024 waterlily seedling. Smallish flower.

JessieC

[unknown] Looks a little like HH Daydream, which has been blooming for weeks here! In fact, that one and HH Miss White were my first blooms this year. Both overwintered in the ground of course. HH Serenity has buds though, and it’s brand new to me.

Teddahlia

This one is much smaller than Daydream and is a bright pink. I am perplexed about the color of HH Daydream as it varies in our garden and changes color late in the year. This one is not related to Daydream.

Juliarugula

If a seedling’s first bloom is dramatically open-centered, is there any reason to keep it around to evaluate later blooms? I’m not talking about just a weak center, but completely OC. Is it pretty unlikely to correct itself?

My seedling bed is getting pretty crowded, and I’m feeling the need to thin. Trying to decide if it’s too soon to discard a few.

Teddahlia

Open center is not the only reason. Floppy stems is another. Poor form obviously. Sort of open center may improve. We leave them in the garden as it is too much work to pull them out. If they crowd a good one, we may cull
it.

SteveM

Teddahlia Looks like Bert Pitt, one of my favorite bicolor dahlias.

Teddahlia

Who was Bert Pitt? When they named a flower Doris Day we all knew. Lots of flowers are named after famous people. When you name a flower after someone and then that person got really famous : Verrone's Taylor Swift. How did he know she would be a mega star? I miss Roland as a dahlia breeder. I visited his garden back when and thoroughly enjoyed it.

calico20hill

Teddahlia Yes, I miss Rolands' presence also. He was the first breeder to take me around his whole operation and explain to me how he did things and why. I felt that I had won a great honor and he saw me as a person with potential. I saw him when the National show was in Portland a few years ago and had a nice chat with him. Skin cancer keeps him out of the sun but he still enjoys the world of dahlias.

MissyWeitzel

Something that most aspiring dahlia hybridizers (and seed collectors! 😉) think about seriously is choosing their prefix. I've been thinking about mine since before I even grew any seedlings. I couldn't come up with anything cool. I kinda wanted it to be location related, but not our street and not our town because we will probably move in a couple years. More of a general location specific prefix would be preferable but I could never really come up with anything meaningful that I liked. The last few years I just figured it would end up being 'Missy's' as a default. Well it finally came to me!! I'm gonna use 'Mitten'. It has double meaning. Michigan is the mitten state and it has 2 letters from my name, 2 from my husband's name, and 2 from my son's name. Plus it's short, easily spelled, and it's a noun so that just makes it easier for naming dahlias after anything. Now I just need seedlings worth naming! They're all just numbered for now. It gives me something to look forward to. 😊

Teddahlia

A very short prefix gives you more options for names. 22 letters including spaces is max. Ken Greenway chose AC for that reason. You could use MW and have more name choices.

MissyWeitzel

Teddahlia I thought about that one too! Have you and Margaret ever thought about having another prefix/line of dahlias like some other hybridizers do with garden vs. show or based on form? Or is it just more simple to always use Hollyhill?

Teddahlia

We introduced one flower that had the prefix HH and it was HH Spike. Never again but we have no good reason why we did not. HH Spike was before digital cameras and no picture exists. It lasted in commerce for about 10 years. I do not miss it as we had only been breeding for a couple of years,. In the beginning of breeding we did not know what was good and had to depend on old timers to help. Myrtle Bloomfield and her husband would veto most of our "selections". Yes, that was the Myrtle that originated Myrtle's Folly.

Bessie

Second year seedling's first bloom. Plant growth and bloom exceeds my expectations.
24312

Bessie

Second year seedling that I didn't dig up in the fall. I'm still not sure if it's a keeper. Alloway Candy is it's seed "grandparent". 23029 is the seed parent.

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