General Dahlia Chat 2024
Today's dahlia opening and dahlia chat post have about 5 cultivars I've never heard of. I'm to tired to l9ok them up now. It's not too early to start a 2025 wishlist.
I'm crying. The dividing thread was closed nine days ago. I'm sooooo far behind. Now that I stopped crying.
Are tubers with excellent crowns, worth saving if the skin pealed off? These two feel like grapes..... not rotten grapes, grapes yiu would purchase from the store.
Does anyone know if Triple Wren doesn't have a picture of a dahlia do they have a generic picture they use? I was looking and Sandia Ruthie. The picture on TW isn't a Stellar. I'm wondering if it's a generic picture or if Sandia Ruthie blooms vary.
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MIDahlias The picture on TW isn't a Stellar
I noticed that too. We had Sandia Ruthie at the Midwest trial garden and the form was very consistently stellar throughout the season, like the Birch Bay photos. I would almost think Triple Wren had a labeling mistake, but the color is similar enough it makes me curious…
I’ve never noticed TW using a generic placeholder-type photo before, so I doubt that’s it.
We have never forgotten to take a nice picture of a new variety. And we will be selling blue dahlias next year.
Is there a cuttings thread?
Not sure where to put this but I've been spending time between dahlia sales looking at AU dahlia sale websites. I'm saving photos of their interesting varieties in case I ever make an Australian friend or learn how to hybridize toward a similar goal, whatever comes first.
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bloomhjelm whoa. That Samoan Prince is weird. I think … I might not like it. And I really like weird dahlias.
ETA: I googled images of it, and I think the colors shown in the photo are an artifact of the lighting. Most photos show it as a variegated purple which is much more reasonable.
bloomhjelm With Warren Vigor, former president of the Dahlia society of Australia, having married a Hoosier and residing at least part of the year in Indiana, maybe some of your dreams may come true.
janell They're in MI and trust me, I've asked. lol
bloomhjelm Wow! Thanks so much for sharing these. It may just be the lighting that makes it look so unusual, but Samoan Prince is weird in a way that I would buy.
MissyWeitzel oops. I knew they were in the Elkhart, IN club and made a bad assumption
@"blown_dry"A flower like that is a wonderful incentive to create an arrangement around it! I would love to try!
janell I knew they were in the Elkhart, IN club and made a bad assumption
Are you in the Elkhart club? (I was at the meeting this past Saturday- wondering if we crossed paths!)
I saw an almost all white picture of Que Sera here : https://www.microflowerfarm.com/store/p/que-sera
Another grower(and most web pics) shows a much more lavender flower:
https://www.goldenrodgardens.net/dahliatubers/05q20jk8kswdxyli64w9qyh88xnhft?rq=Que%20sera
I know anemone flowers are not known for being a good cut flower. Does anyone have experience growing Que Sera that would like to offer their experience growing it?
I was getting excited about breeding anemones until I figured out there is a physical limit on their size. The disc florets often called tubes are petals that surround the pollen part of the flower. The pollen center on dahlias can only be about an inch or so in diameter and perhaps a bit bigger. That limits the size of the flowers. They also are difficult to pollinate because tubes interfere. Remember there was an Australian breeder who tried for about 10 years to get some really nice ones. He would post pictures of the best ones every year.
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Bessie I know anemone flowers are not known for being a good cut flower.
I don’t grow many anemones for this reason. But I love Bloomquist Ginnie and Golden, and grow both of those and sometimes throw them into my household bouquets. Ginnie cracks me up, because she doesn’t really fade or droop or shatter when her vase life ends. Instead, she’ll look great until one day you’ll hear a “plop” and look over and the entire flower head will have simply fallen off the stem, all at once, completely intact.
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The largest anemone I have seen is Richard's Fortune, a Dutch variety. It really got my attention that way. It is 4-5 inches. Comet is probably the next largest that I've seen. It's too bad about the limitations as I would absolutely grow a giant anemone. 
Richard's Fortune:
