2025 Seedlings

Bessie · 2025-04-01T16:33:09+00:00

This year, 2025, has been challenging to get healthy Dahlia seedlings! Still trying to figure out the many ways I've gone wrong. I dumped about 30-40 seedlin...

SteveM

Bessie Counseling advice welcome

Eventually your house will be too small for all of your children and then you have to chose which ones you kick out to live on the street.🙂

Teddahlia

It may take several years, but as you grow more and more really nice seedlings, some of the old ones will have to go. We have introduced many varieties that we no longer grow. That is a rather hard way to get rid of them however and we no longer grow them as we are not using them for breeding. Many more were culled after several years and finally we got tired of it or it just died. Some were never culled and grew for as long as 14 years. Here we have lots of room and can grow lots of superfluous flowers. But we need to cut back too.

You can always say: "These are my private flowers . " That is what the late Pauline Fanning said when she put some of those flowers into her best in show arrangements. You could ask her for a tuber but it was always: "No".
Yes, we asked. One was called Pagoda as it looked like a red pagoda.

Bessie

Teddahlia thank you for your words of wisdom and experience.

Juliarugula

Here’s a fun one. Any guesses as to the seed parent? 😜

SteveM

Juliarugula Here’s a fun one. Any guesses as to the seed parent?

Really nice! Reminds me of of HH Spiderwoman which was one of my favorite dahlias but I could never grow her well enough to sell.
Did the name of the seed parent start with a "Z"?

Teddahlia

Margaret and I like the "overcooked" cactus dahlias and our HH Tarantula looks a lot like this one.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia HH Tarantula looks a lot like this one.

It reminded me of HH Tarantula too! Although, I haven’t had the pleasure of growing HH Tarantula yet, so I was basing that on photos, so wasn’t sure.

Not from a Hollyhill variety though.

Teddahlia

2023 SEEDLING AND 2025 NOT YET BLOOMING

Juliarugula

Teddahlia I love that variegated incurved cactus too.

Juliarugula

SteveM

SteveM Did the name of the seed parent start with a "Z"?

Nope!

HH Spiderwoman has those cool little white strands though, which this one doesn’t have. Are they maybe petaloids? I imagine Ted can tell us. I always thought they were an extra special feature!

SteveM

Juliarugula Nope!

Dang. Was it one of the "Allen's" ?

Teddahlia

Spiderwoman almost never made seeds and when I did get about 5 seeds one year the seedlings were trash. Petaloids were considered a major disqualifying fault back when and were comparable to the kiss of the devil.

Teddahlia

Cell phone picture of a 2024 waterlily seedling. I believe this one has a shade of purple on the reverse of the petals that show through and enhances the purple color. I was walking through the garden and the sun was behind a bloom of this one. I could not capture the picture due to the sun being in the way. This morning I cruised the garden and the sun was at a better angle and although it is not shining through the petals it is doing something to enhance the purple color.
Color of flower near the center. RGB 62 39 95

SteveM

Teddahlia I believe this one has a shade of purple on the reverse

You are getting some great, pure, dark-purple WLs. That is a rare color, I hope the tubers keep well and you can get those introduced.

Juliarugula

[unknown] Dang. Was it one of the "Allen's" ?

Ha! No! So funny - I thought it would be super obvious, but maybe not so much. Wyn’s Eeek!

Teddahlia

Wyn’s Eeek! was one of their top sellers before the tragedy.

Teddahlia

Very small flower(2.5") in the 2024 seedlings. The form is a question mark but may be ID. .

Bessie

Second year seedling 24312 has not disappointed me at all. It's got beautiful dark green foliage, prolific bushy, branching growing habit, so many blooms that keep a nice 4" size without disbudding, stems are strong and of acceptable length, the center is holding together, produces seeds, and the color is a clean off white. I'm going to do some targeted hand pollination. Ideas for pollen parents are welcome 😁. Critiques are welcome, so I can keep in mind how to target for an even better color or form.

Bessie

First bloom of second year seedling 24217( Hollyhill Daydream is the seed parent) growing in a 5" pot. This year the color remains the same as last year, but today the bloom is looking much more like a water lily. Color in the photo is pretty accurate, with no modifications.

Teddahlia

Bessie: 24312 is an ID flower and smaller is better for the shows. Less than 4 inches makes it a miniature ID white and there are no show flowers at all in the classification book. If it is a BB flower there are lots of show flowers out there and lots more competition. Even as a BB it looks competitive to me. So determine if it can be grown at less than 4 inches and celebrate if so.
As a cut a flower, white is always a winner.

Bessie

Teddahlia thanks for the feedback. Of course I just went out and measured the blooms.... Most of the blooms( 11 currently!),are like the ones I photographed, are around 4 1/4 to 4 1/2 inches. I have a few blooms on 24312 that are less than 4", but they are not fully mature. This crazy plant has 8 more nice fat buds coming. If I'm remembering correctly, the blooms do get a little smaller as the summer goes on. Last year the vigorous seedling plant was about 5' x 5' and the tubers busted out of it's 4-5" pot. The initial foliage when the tuber is growing is rather large, resembling hydrangea leaves, but turns to pinnate foliage as the plant gets taller. I've yet to see what it's seedlings look like. I killed off 90% of them, but I think there's at least 8 seedlings I'm growing that survived my ineptness.

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