General Dahlia Chat - 2025

Juliarugula · 2025-01-01T13:30:33+00:00

Justafewdahlias whew! Much better thanks! 😅

Teddahlia

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.

magucci

Teddahlia I love this white one. Did Mrs. Kennedy decide the petals aren’t too pointy for her?

Teddahlia

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.

Justafewdahlias

SteveM very valid point I didn’t even think of!! I am only growing dahlias for hobby/my own enjoyment so I didn’t even think of how the vase life is a very much be careful what you wish for situation!

Justafewdahlias

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 “trialing” 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. It’s 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. It’s in the wholesale bulb grower’s 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 can’t grow them you probably aren’t 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! It’s good to know what to expect when there are many unexpected things like weather when it comes to gardening

Justafewdahlias

I am feeling a new sense of empathy for the surgeons I work with! Realistically I’m 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. It’s a cutting from this season I am just now attempting to divide

Juliarugula

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.

KitCMC

Justafewdahlias

Juliarugula

Krista
Agree! After cleaning it up I look for the clearest path to cut the clump in half and go from there.

Krista

Juliarugula This is the best advice, I find this to be the case 100% of the time! ✨

Teddahlia

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

blown_dry

KitCMC This. I would be looking to split the stem and see what happens. 🙂

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