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...

LoriDee

SteveM I LOVE Lynn Slight😍 ....she does so much better for me here in the idaho high desert than Diva 😒& they looked very similar in color, but the petal shape was different. I lost her but just got a new tuber of her again to plant this year. I refuse to grow Diva again 🤣

Teddahlia

Took some cuttings of this 2024 seedling. It has height and vigor and I like the flowers.

Teddahlia

Had to take a picture of this New Zealand flower.

Teddahlia

2025 seedlings are a week away from being planted. 10% fewer this year but quality of seeds is much better . We saved some of the best seeds for next year. Perhaps that should be re-stated to we saved what we think are really good seeds for next year and planted some this year to see how good they are. As one gets older you cannot plant as many seedlings and years ago 2,000- seedlings was a common number. We no longer have to plant 2,000- seedlings to get the same or better results as the seeds are so much better.

Bessie

I'm back from a vacation, and this second year seedling opened when I was gone, and is my favorite early bloom right now. The large bloom is just shy of 8", with strong stems. Petals have nice substance and plants are rather compact.
The photos in the collages are the same, but it's fascinating how the blooms look slightly different with the backgrounds. I couldn't decide which collage I liked best, what's your thoughts?
24128

Juliarugula

Bessie I love the creamy/blush color of this one -very unique!

SteveM

Bessie Seedling of Cafe Au Lait? That is close to the color of CAL that everyone wants but only a small percent of CAL actually are. It would be great to have a CAL with a vase life of more than 2-3 days and consistent color. Nice one!

Teddahlia

Classic informal decorative form. Not a lot of white flowers in this size. Picture shows bloom slightly immature and it may have more depth when ripe. White flowers are always a plus. I believe there will be an article posted by a dahlia person on breeding white dahlias. He asked me for info and I gave him some information and told him how to find more.

SteveM

deleted dupe

Bessie

SteveM yes, 24128 is a Cafe au Lait seedling. Color is mostly creamy white with a bit more pink blush during hot weather. I'll take lots of pictures this year. From last year's vase test, it looked good at 4 days in the vase, but I'll recheck vase life this year. I dug up the clump during last years gopher invasion and the clump overwintered in a 2 gallon pot above ground out in the yard. It was a really mild winter.

Juliarugula

It hasn’t bloomed, but this seedling has some funky foliage. In my head I keep referring to it as “Jaws”. It’s from Hollyhill Black Beauty.

SteveM

Juliarugula We need a bigger boat.🙂

Juliarugula

A few first blooms of first year seedlings.

Teddahlia

Juliarugula Middle picture looks good to me. If it is a light cream color and a good cut flower , it would be a home run.

SteveM

Juliarugula

Juliarugula I really like the creamy color on the middle one.

Teddahlia

"...is a Cafe au Lait seedling." When Cafe au Lait was bred in the 1960s(long before we ever grew a dahlia) it was released from Holland to the USA. Nick Gitts told me that he grew it when it first became available in the 1970s and he evaluated it as a cut flower. He grew it only that first year as it failed to impress him. For many years, it was a non entity until Martha Stewart declared it to be an ideal wedding flower. It's color is rare and that is about the only thing going for it. Another commercial grower tried to sell it as a cut flower but despite growing about 100 plants of it, he was unable to deliver but a few flowers to the flower market and gave up on cut flower sales. However, it was a good tuber maker and with the Martha Stewart frenzy , he made lots of money selling tubers . The story goes on and on but in my opinion it is a very poor breeding prospect.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia

SteveM

The middle one is a very nice true cream color - not leaning at all towards yellow like a lot of “creams” do. I hope it stays that way. Strong long stem, and is looking like it has a good vase life (four days and still looks great so far).

Teddahlia it’s a Hollyhill Miss White seedling.

Teddahlia

Miss White was a slot machine at the Indian casino.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia so the obvious next question. Was there a reason you chose the name of a slot machine for a dahlia?

Teddahlia

One thousand proposed names to Margaret and it took a slot machine name to finally get approval. Typical response: " I don't like it." Alternate response, I am saving that name.

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