LoriDee Sorry for the delayed response. I have been super sick for the last 2.5 weeks. Let's get you using it! She should have added you to her Facebook group called "Dahlia Dorks". There is a lot of good info there and you can ask for help. She is really good to respond. The SmartSuite database is very customizable. You can add notes to your general dahlia catalogue OR you can add them specific to your Field module for each year you grow. Are you an apple user? If so, we could find some time to walk you through the set up. I still love excel, but Smart Suites has been great for label printing and being able to capture notes in the field. Let me know!
General Dahlia Chat - 2025
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Cut flower trial gardens: I read an article years ago about a cut flower trial garden(not dahlias) in Holland. The data collection was gruesomely detailed. No one would want to judge at such a garden.
Years ago, I read that one species of flowers had an interesting method of trialing new varieties. They had the people who sell cut flowers agree to trial a limited number of varieties in their garden and fill out a questionnaire on each variety. I would imagine that could work for dahlias and an eager cut flower grower would probably not mind growing about 10 plants of several prospects and of course being able to sell the flowers too. I bet the breeder would be challenged to provide 30 tubers to go ten each to three gardens but that rather covers the issue of adequate tuber making.
Justafewdahlias Iād also add bonus points to vase life. It has to be a minimum of some number of days but bonus points if itās over some number of days
Vase life - if the blooms look OK for 4-5 days at room temp that is good enough. "super long vase life" might be a case of "be careful what you wish for". The only reason dahlias are still grown locally for cut flowers is because their vase life is too short to be shipped from Mexico and they are too fragile to be flown in from South America.
I believe that most of the "vase life" stuff is rather irrelevant unless the flower looks like crap in a vase after a day or two. If the evaluators were cut flower growers, I would tend to listen to what they would say about it. Carnations have a long vase life but remember they are carnations(plain flowers) and smell like a funeral to me.
Time out @Teddahlia! I just saw that Hollyhill Ruby Rose is being released. For some reason I thought it was going to be held another year. Was I dreaming that? Forgive me if youāve already covered it. Iāve been a bit out of the loop the last couple of week. Itās stunning! Of course, this means I have a sleepless night in my future because Mr. Spanenberg likes to open his sale at undisclosed times, usually around 2:30am my time (maybe), but Iām here for it. I was shocked (in a good way) when I saw it.
Teddahlia Sorry about that 
HH Ruby Rose is one that John Spangenburg, Crazy 4 Dahlias , likes and has grown to sell. We have only a small amount of stock of it. We are working on other red versions of waterlilies and have several in the works. My personal favorite is the one we used for our Christmas greeting picture. People have favorite colors and one of mine is a really bright, fully saturated red. HH Ruby Rose is a nice red and our Christmas flower is too. We also have a nice flame version. Margaret even likes red too and selected another red one one to further trial. Yellow is also in the works and believe it or not, yellow is harder to breed than red and red itself is very hard. Actually, all solid color dahlias are much harder to breed than blended dahlias. I like a very large solid white waterlily(large is still less than 7 inches in diameter)seedling from 2023.
There are "Ted Likes" and "Margaret Likes" and also both "Ted and Margaret likes." The white one is a "Ted likes " with a "Margaret sort of likes". I think since it is one of her hand crosses she will come around to a full "Margaret Likes" some day.
SteveM very valid point I didnāt even think of!! I am only growing dahlias for hobby/my own enjoyment so I didnāt even think of how the vase life is a very much be careful what you wish for situation!
Teddahlia I can imagine the data collection being tedious and gruesome to keep on top of, much more demanding then what can be expected from volunteers of a trial garden.
I have seen a decent amount of different cut flower trials (dahlias and other flowers) by agriculture departments of universities. But these are usually trying to gather data for a specific question vs just ātrialingā a new cultivar. I think the cut flower growers data collection is realistically the best way to get all the information.
For big sellers of bulbs like Lilly bulbs or tulip bulbs they have such specific instructions, trials & data, for the grower. Itās insanely detailed! How to grow this variety in soil, in a pot; for forcing, with growth regulators, hydroponically, etc. I have found the days for forcing; and blooms per stem for each bulb size provided by wholesaler to be spot on accurate.
It makes sense to run all these trials and have all this information. Itās in the wholesale bulb growerās best interest for the cut flower grower purchasing the bulb to know all the relevant information about the bloom they are about to buy. If you buy 5000 Lilly bulbs and canāt grow them you probably arenāt going to buy them again. But If you buy 5000 Lilly bulbs and use all the information given to you and grow them well who knows next year you might order 8000 bulbs! Itās good to know what to expect when there are many unexpected things like weather when it comes to gardening
I am feeling a new sense of empathy for the surgeons I work with! Realistically Iām just gonna chop this in half or 1/3 and hope for the best! I am new at this and my other tuber clumps felt a lot more tidy and simple to divide compared to this one. Itās a cutting from this season I am just now attempting to divide
Justafewdahlias I bet that clump will make a lot more sense after trimming all the tails and extra roots off! Its amazing how much that can clarify how to proceed with dividing.
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Cut flower Evaluation Proposal:
On the subject of flower sellers doing the evaluation for cut flower qualities , perhaps a two or three step process would be better than requiring the busy cut flower seller to measure, color classify and count tubers and fill out a long questionnaire:
Step one: stock of the subject flower given to cut a flower person and it is only identified by the ADS classification(loosely applied is OK). The cut flower grower would place the new one near similar dahlias and grow it. The appraisal would be a simple yes or no. Yes it could be good cut flower or no (I did not like it in my garden) . All the no verdicts would be anonymous.
Step Two: Cut flower sellers who don' t mind more paper work would grow the "yes" flowers and fill out a brief questionnaire and perhaps give it a "score" .
Step three: A trial(cut flower garden or a designated garden, like a trial garden.) in where awards are given for the flowers for the best flowers from steps one and two.
I would propose the that step one for the "losers" would be done in secret. Step two results would be published but only to the extent that the flowers are going to step three.
Three years to get to a conclusion? A two stop process may work but having all "winners" in one place for a grand finale and awards would encourage more people to breed good cut flowers.
Dutch painting
Juliarugula This is the best advice, I find this to be the case 100% of the time! 
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Krista
Agree! After cleaning it up I look for the clearest path to cut the clump in half and go from there.
8 days later
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Has anyone grown, or is familiar with, a BB/Miniature IC that is white tinged with lavender or a cool purple? Josudi Andromeda is close, but Iād love one that has the incurved characteristic.
Taratahi Lilac is an oldie but goodie.
Thanks, Ted. Sheās a beaut! Thatās exactly what I was imagining.
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mary_on_flickr/
