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

"....in only 5 generations" I suppose you plan on breeding for 10 or 15 generations. ☹
Actually, it sounds like he was following Dr. Keith Hammett's 5 year method that he used. Five years and isolating /increasing one trait seems to work. Knowing how that particular trait works may help identify flowers that have "some" of it but not enough to notice. Many traits like this are multigenic meaning you need to have more than one gene to get results.

Teddahlia

Breeding thought of the day:

Do you breed for genetic diversity or for consistent seedlings with only a few differences between them. I see beginners saying I want to cross two completely different varieties and see what I get. They invented a nursery rhyme for these people:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king's horses and all the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.

SteveM

Teddahlia I see beginners saying I want to cross two completely different varieties and see what I get.

These days, most beginner breeders are not interested in breeding show dahlias, they are more interested in new forms, unusual dahlias, or dahlias they like to look at in the garden. For this, traditional breeding can't be followed because there is no "like to breed to like".

SteveM

Teddahlia I really like the twisted florets on that waterlily. It looks like a peony to me.

Teddahlia

SteveM " I really like the twisted florets on that waterlily. It looks like a peony to me."
We have a name ready for the new form, if we can duplicate it. Since we had three different seedlings that look very similar, we will cross them and also use the parent flower too. It really does take several years to create a new form as you have get several different flowers with the form before people would even start to consider it a new form. I predict this will be said: "It's just a poor waterlily, not a new form".

GalenaB

This isn't my seedling, but it's one I'm growing out for (hopeful) release for 2027. It was one of my favorite blooms of 2025. Hybridized by Casey Reischl from San Diego. It was a hand cross, although I'm not aware of who the parents were. It's a bigger bloom: close to 6 inches and that wasn't disbudded. This year I plan on disbudding the plants to see the size I get.

SteveM

GalenaB Super color and looks to have dark stems as a bonus.

GalenaB

SteveM yes! Dark stems, and very long! Incredible bloom attachment as well.

Teddahlia

Yes, large flower in this form are rare.

Teddahlia

Writing an article about open centers. Have to look up big words as I do research.

SteveM

Teddahlia Your "new line" of open-centered Waterlily types reminds me of the Old Garden Roses. They have a certain romantic appeal that I don't see in other open-centered types. It will be a challenge for you (Margaret) to breed them in isolation.

Teddahlia

Another black and white picture of a seedling. Being overly melodramatic, if these black and white seedlings have a good second year, it will be like the Wizard of Oz when they will be switched to color. Of course, when I was young we had a black and white television and the Wizard of Oz was always in Black and White.

Teddahlia

Another 2025 seedling. Florets look dirty in BW. They look a bit dirty in full color too. 3 inches in diameter.

SteveM

Teddahlia They look a bit dirty in full color too.

My broker asked me not to refer to the Cafe Au Lait color as "dirty white" He said it is "Antique White". The color is still in style!

Juliarugula

SteveM My broker asked me not to refer to the Cafe Au Lait color as "dirty white"

This makes me think of how one of my kids (in kindergarten) used to call white “light gray”.

Teddahlia

Waterlilies are not supposed to be very deep blooms.

Teddahlia

Cafe' au Lait has never been in our garden and will never be grown by us. I have so many negative things to say about it that I seldom ever talk about it.

Is there a positive side? It has a distinctive hard to reproduce color. If you like a light tan colored flower and you do not mind growing 4-5 plants to get a nice flower,....

At Swan Island where they grow some plants of every variety in display garden, it was conspicuously missing the year I looked for it. I went into the cutting fields and finally found the plants. I had a hard time as I kept looking for normal sized plants but the row looked like a hurricane had knocked over the plants. Maybe they were a bit too aggressive cutting the cut flowers.

Emilyp

KitCMC I have planted seedlings, just as you described- they were planted facing west, in the shade of our house and received the hot afternoon sun. They did fine, and they all bloomed.

Teddahlia

Emilyp they all bloomed

In our ideal conditions for seedlings(that is a lie as the soil is worn out in some areas and I know we need a better pH) not every thing blooms. But, a typical good one that we like(not most waterlily seedlings) is 6-7feet tall. We like taller dahlias and we have only about three waterlilies that are nice and TALL: Calypso is the tallest, an easy 7 footer . Seedling 22-02 that is 6-7 feet but with a trunk like a giant redwood tree, and Amethyst is 6 feet too. I forgot Rosey Dawn that is only 6 feet tall but is 4 feet wide. We may sell 22-02 and Rosey Dawn next year. Since we do not "cull" loser seedlings right away, we do not notice plants that have not bloomed at all. We just keep the ones we have marked to keep and all the rest are tilled into the soil when we plant the cover crop.

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