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...

KitCMC

Cosey thank you for your tireless efforts!

NCDahlia

Teddahlia I like this one whatever the form is lol I would grow it. Hope u grow it next year nice coloring for sure just in time for Halloween

calico20hill

Other then the fact of agreeing on what the perimeters of a form are, is there a good reason to restrict the number of rows on a waterlily? It seems like more rows would allow it more days as a cut flower...more rows to open and replace back petals as they die off....

Teddahlia

Waterlilies with few too many rows do make nice arranger's flowers according to Margaret. Perhaps an arrangement in competition could be called cut flowers on steroids.

Teddahlia

This seedling did especially well this year; over 6 feet tall, always several nice flowers on the plants. And it is a pleasing bicolor of lavender pink with light pink tips.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia what’s the bloom size on this one? I love the form and the color combo.

Emilyp

Teddahlia Very pleasing indeed!

Teddahlia

I would brag if it was a B or an A or especially if it were a giant dahlia. Alas, it is a full sized BB dahlia and the largest flowers are approaching 6 inches but the majority are at the 5 inch mark. It is remarkable for it's light pink tips on the end of the petals. Here is another picture showing a display of numerous flowers. And the plants were not groomed or disbudded.

Bessie

Teddahlia I love the photo. Do you have any ugly pics to share? I am getting a warped sense of what it looks like to hybridize dahlias with so many gorgeous looking Dahlias you have shown. 😉

Cosey

Teddahlia An absolute stunner!

AndreaB

Teddahlia I REALLY like this one ❤️

Teddahlia

I am responding to Bessie who wanted to see seedling pictures.
I took some pictures of some "random" seedlings. Which one(s) would you keep?

Bessie

Teddahlia 😁, thank you! I was wondering if all of your seedlings were incredible. Even though you have said a tiny percentage of seedlings are saved, I was losing perspective.
I guess I'm a visual learner. Thanks again.
Oh, I almost forgot... The orange waterlily is an obvious keeper.

Teddahlia

We have not talked about collecting seeds very much. With no seeds there are no seedlings. Over the years some of our very best ones have come from the hand crosses done by Margaret. Alas, this is a year off for her, as it takes well over 100 hours of work to do a decent batch of properly done hand crossed seeds and we must be satisfied with collecting seeds from her hand crosses from previous years. The preparation for the dahlia tour wore her out. Seeds from hand crosses is a new "trick of the trade" as we decided that if all these hand crossed waterlilies that may or may not be really good ones, came from only from only good seed parents, We went through the hand crossed seedlings and selected seeds from the ones that had things we like and not too many things we did not like. An example would be an exotic color combination or a really vigorous plant. And of course we collect seeds from our named plants planted strategically by other special plants too. We need enough seeds to produce about 1050 seedling plants.
Every year I see people saying, "I just want to plant some seeds to see what I will get. I do not care if they have perfect form and I know there will lots of different colors. " I believe that the most experienced breeder has a streak of this philosophy. I have a row for the giants and large dahlias. Somehow a Hollyhill Snowcap pom tuber was planted in that row(and grew taller than the giants around it) and I collected some seeds from it. Not very many seeds were there but what will these special seeds make?

Bessie

Teddahlia

Not very many seeds were there but what will these special seeds make?

Ted, thank you for your insights. That question you asked is what keeps me going!
I've decided I can't grow hundreds of seedlings (at least how I grew 88 seedlings this year), so going forward I will need to concentrate on hand crosses of the best perceived seed parents with desired pollen parents.
I have not marked any of the crosses I've performed. However, every day I'm home, I try to go out twice a day(I'm retired) and collect pollen and then transfer it to what looks like mature, receptive stigmas.
At the beginning of the season I made some collection envelopes ( one for each variety) out of cardstock paper, so that I could reuse them. But, after a few weeks, I realized that storing pollen overnight (which I sometimes do) did not work very good. I dug out the little plastic containers I purchased last season for pollen storage. I have found them to work really well for collecting, moving pollen around my yard, and storing pollen.
36 Pieces Rectangle Clear Plastic Containers Transparent Beads Storage Containers Box Jewelry Storage Box Case with Hinged Lid for Small Items Beads Jewelry (1.3 x 1.3 x 0.7 Inches) https://a.co/d/cgv4x7e

Teddahlia

When we first started to handcross. I attempted to compare them to our other seedlings . I found that it increased the odds by about 30% that we would retain a seedling a second year. In those days we were crossing named varieties not bred by us. Last year Margaret did quite a few hand crosses and I would say the percentage of keepers was a bit more than 30% . But there are keepers and there are KEEPERS. That means the very best are much better than what could be achieved by the bees doing the work. And our non hand crossed seedlings are now 4, 5 or 6 generations of our breeding and are much better too. Some really nice ones are bee pollinated (and even some waterlilies) and are very good. and comparable to the hand crossed results. It is just that there there is lower percentage of them but since we grow more of the non crossed seedlings, we select more non hand crossed seedlings to keep than hand crossed seedlings. It is still a matter of growing lots of seedlings because the octoploid dahlia is so variable. Diploid breeding is a snap compared to octoploid breeding.
Getting ready to place flagging tape on a waterlily seedling

Cosey

A very important picture of we are discussing seeds. Here you have a full view of the stigma (upper V portion) that's part of the female reproductive system. It is fully mature and ready to accept pollen. Once compatible pollen is presented it will travel down the pistil to the ovary at the bottom.

Meanwhile, the golden yellow surrounding the stalk of the stigma (or sometimes called style) are immature stamens with pollen anthers (the yellow portion) that haven't begun to produce pollen. Historically, there are always 5 pollen anthers in dahlias. When fully mature they unfurl from the pistil and elongated to display the pollen for visiting pollinators.

This seems to be a method to ensure self fertilization does not occur in this specific variety. At least between this localized disc floret.

Bessie

Cosey what I see in Dahlias is the pollen ripening before the stigma. As the stigma pushes out, it transports the ripening pollen. The stigma becomes receptive after the pollen matures and is no longer present in mass on the stigma. The stigma, once mature, produces a sticky substance that will allow pollen to adhere. I have observed this clearly in Alstroemerias, and think it applies to Dahlias too.
The photo below is of a bagged bloom, the newly emerged sigmas(red arrow) in the middle of the disk, are covered with self pollen. The older stigmas(blue) are ready for foreign pollen.

Cosey

Bessie I'm guessing that different cultivars mature pollen differently. I had to take apart a series of blooms this fall and the image I posted above seemed to be a unique feature of this particular variety.

Alas, my season is done and I'll continue my observations in 2024. I'll look up the other flower you mentioned.

Cosey

Bessie Were you trying to see if this bloom would self pollinate? Any seeds?

Bessie

Cosey I had the bag over the bloom to collect pollen, and keep moths from depositing eggs that turn into the worms that destroy the buds. I've still got 7-8 varieties blooming that I am hand pollinating.

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