Breeding Good Cut Flowers

Teddahlia

There are many people on this site that grow cut flowers and many who do not show flowers. Good cut flowers are hard to breed and underappreciated. The average home grower enjoys dahlias that are easy to grow and a well bred cut flower is more often a better choice than a fickle show flower. Yes, there is some overlap and some show flowers are excellent cut flowers but they are the exception. Yes, there are show flowers that may be worth the effort to provide some outstanding blooms for a bouquet but most people do not have the extra time to coax good blooms from show dahlias. A third class is dear to my heart and it is arrangers flowers that have outstanding beauty but because of many reasons do not make good show flowers or cut flowers(in great quantity). More than one experienced cut flower seller has cultivated a market for arrangers flowers and sold them to high end event florists. One person also put one arrangers flower in an ordinary bouquet and charged 50% more for the product. I can go on and on but this thread needs to discus many, many subjects involving breeding cut flowers.

One trait that gets almost no mention is the ability of cut flower to be picked at a less than ripe stage. I just read that Steve picks a variety at 25% ripe to overcome some color issues. What stage of ripeness is the norm?

This potential cut flower was about 3.5 inches in diameter and grew vigorously. I do not believe we kept it as I wanted a tighter center. Was that a bad decision as it probably looked really good when picked at half ripe? If there were a cut flower test garden, this one probably would have been entered.

SteveM

Teddahlia There are many points we can cover on the subject, here are a few to consider:

Teddahlia A third class is dear to my heart and it is arrangers flowers

Yes, I like to divide cut-dahlias into the "arrangers"(florist) group and the "bouquet" (farmer's market) group. The main difference is color and the two groups have more similarities than differences and most good cut-dahlias fit into both groups. Bouquet dahlias are generally more colorful than the subdued colors of arrangers flowers.

Defining a good cut dahlia is difficult because what makes a good cut dahlia for me might not be great for another grower and vice versa. As an example, many of the varieties that make great cut dahlias in the Northern latitudes have weak, or no, centers most of the summer when grown at my Southern latitude. An hour difference in day length can make a big difference with some varieties.

An upright growth habit is very important in a cut dahlia plant. I stake my dahlias but the larger commercial growers around here do not stake their dahlias because it is labor intensive and the return is not worth the expense. One grower tops the plants to about 5 up and when they bloom he cuts the laterals just above ground level.

Teddahlia the ability of cut flower to be picked at a less than ripe stage

I cut every 3 days so my blooms are ideally 30-50% open (or about 2 days from peak).

MissyWeitzel

This was my 2nd season selling cut flowers - mainly dahlias. Since I'm growing a lot of dahlia cultivars and the most plants of any one cultivar I grow is 60, I am picky about who I advertise my business to. My prime customers are florist shops that do a lot of daily orders and/or keep buckets of flowers in a display cooler walk-in customers can buy from. I do a special price for my growers choice buckets. Small buckets of 25 stems and large with 50 stems. I don't put orchettes or collarettes or dahlias with shorter vase life in the buckets, nor do I put AAs or As, but pretty much anything else goes. My favorite customers get so excited when I drop off their buckets filled with gorgeous dahlias they've never seen before and no two weeks are even close to the same, which keeps the excitement level high. It's a win-win because I can sell whatever I have ready now that looks the best. I stay away from the FTD type of shops. Those florists and their customers are not for me.

I have also managed to snag some really fantastic event florist customers who have a strong mission to use in season local flowers when possible and who themselves won't take clients that don't give them a lot of leeway when it comes to choosing flowers and designs. These event florists send me pictures of color palettes and will take pretty much anything and love the fact that not only do I have peach, coral, pink and cream dahlias, I also have peachy coral and cream tipped pink dahlias. They are delighted to get new (to them) and unique dahlias to work with.

Florist shops that need a lot of one dahlia color and form at one time aren't for me. Neither are event florists that do huge weddings and need 1000 dahlias in 3 colors at once. I would consistently disappoint them. Those florists go to growers who get 500 plugs of Boom Boom White and the like. Those growers are never ever in a million years going to get their hands on the newest beautiful awesome cut flower dahlia tubers from Hollyhill or Coseytown and build and grow their stock up over several years. Those growers need fast and easy and that means plugs. The big dahlia farms that do grow and build up their stock of 500 Hollyhill plants have tubers as their primary crop and cut flowers are secondary and the performance of such takes a back seat to the demand for and market price of the tubers.

With all that being said, I have personally found that the florists that really love and enjoy the huge variety of dahlias, don't care as much about whether this one lasts for 5 days in the vase or 8 days. The ratty sh%$ that somehow lasts 14 days coming out of south America has NOTHING on freshly harvested dahlias of all forms and colors coming out of a Grower's field in their town. The florists that get that don't care much about what stage the bloom was harvested at so long as it is fresh and in great shape when it arrives. These florists are also doing a great job talking about local flowers and have customers who appreciate that too.

I'm certainly not trying to minimize the importance of great cut flowers as a highly desirable characteristic as it most definitely is! But I'm gonna sell the absolutely gorgeous pink tipped coral and cream dahlia with a 5 day vase life that wins routinely at dahlia shows to them too and they're gonna love it because it's not Boom Boom White. 😊

Teddahlia

I believe we have enough tubers to sell this one this year. I need to verify the name as Margaret has veto power.

drewtheflorist

Cosey

Three breeding qualities for cuts that I see on the horizon are petal integrity, tubers that can withstand mechanical digging, and continued blooming after harvest.

Petal integrity is the strength of the petal itself. Is it soft and folds easily under pressure or can the petal withstand some jostling and handling? Important trait for those who are considering shipping blooms.

Mechanical digging will only become more popular as all of us millennials age. 😆 A certain size clump, tuber shape, and root growth habit make it a prime candidate for mechanical digging with minimal damage.

Ted is absolutely correct in regards to noting if varieties continue to open after harvest. Having some flexibility in harvest dates is an import risk mitigation factor. Missing a thunderstorm by harvesting 12 hours in advance can secure a profit that week.

As Missy stated, florists wanting the unusual is still trending. Education is required for some of these bloom types. There is a dreamy florist local to me that loves the bouncy bouquets with movement. Which means she wants that stem to flex. 😑 Collarettes and peony open centers in soft colors are being requested. I have 3 open center blooms from this year's seedling field that are on cutable stems and desirable florist colors. Next year I experiment with harvest times and vase life.

Teddahlia

I see into my crystal ball a future where thousands of rooted cuttings will be sold cheaply to flower growers by the people who do micropropagation. They will patent the varieties and make sure the varieties make poor tubers if you try to save them. All you have to do is grow the cuttings for a few weeks and then plant them. No digging or selling tubers, just cut flowers. 🙃