The seeds I ordered from River's Dahlias germinated at 90% and they are looking very robust with their first sets of true leaves starting to open. I ordered seeds from two other farms, one sent beautiful seeds and had a germination rate of 85%, they're also looking lovely. The third farm sent seeds that were a mixed bag of solid healthy seeds, some that were quite shredded, and some just grey and chaffy. I sorted them into two "keep" piles of "yes" and "maybe". The better looking seeds had much higher germination rate and lovely cotyledons. Some of the scruffier seeds germinated but the little plants are definitely kind of sad. I'm planning on planting these new friends out 4 to 6 inches apart, but we'll see what they look like in 6-8 weeks!
I will save my own seeds next year and now know what to look for in terms of seeds worth saving...Only open pollination this year. I'm sure I'll end up hand pollinating at some point, why not? 🙂
