Teddahlia Black Beauty is almost a blank palette and takes on the form of the pollen parent.
If the flower form is from the pollen parent, what part of the Hollyhill Black Beauty genes does the resultant plant get? As someone anxiously awaiting my seed from last year to bloom, I find the Dahlia combinatorics of pollen with seed parent to be fascinating and challenging. I've literally been taking notes earlier today and studying anything I can find on how crossing different dahlia flower forms combine to make the resultant flower form and color of the seedling.
The Boley's have a very nice introduction to hybridization and seed parents on their website. The results of various dahlia crosses are a big part of the hybridizers intellectual property. Are there any other published sources of information? Do you think most hybridizers will take their trade secrets "to the grave"?
