2025 - Dahlia Blooms

SteveM · 2025-05-09T21:01:41+00:00

First bloom from a vendor tuber this year - just in time for Mother's Day. A not-quite-fully-open Hollyhill Amethyst grown in a one-gallon nursery containe...

calico20hill

I think I was wrong in showing my beautiful B sized "pink seedling"...just looked at it today and realized it is probably Wyn's Pink Pearl which I DID have last year. Dang, but glad I still have Wyn's Pink Pearl, LOL. Oh those fading tags.....!And glad I did not pass this on as my own breeding! That would be mortifying!

SteveM

@Teddahlia "#p17649 I was still driving my Ford Pinto station wagon .

The first new car I bought was a 1973, lime-green, Ford Pinto hatchback. I removed the stock carpet and replaced it with lime-green shag carpet. I was stylin! It was a piece of junk but I only paid $2200 for it new and it survived a couple of Montana winters.
I still keep a mother plant of Bert Pitt. It is one of the few bicolors I've grown that stayed a bicolor through the years.

MissyWeitzel

Ok @SteveM regarding vase life on Lyn's Lexi. It looked perfect for 3 days without a water change, fresh cut, or floral preservatives. It also was in the kitchen not far from the stove/oven which has been used during that time. Now the back petals are darkening and it is definitely fading but no petals have dropped or anything.
I must note that Hollyhill Moonsong is now 5 days old and also hasn't had any fresh water or anything and still looks perfect.

bloomhjelm

A fun bloom of Hollyhill RPT, showing a bit of its Pink Tigress genes.

Dick Westfall, my first year with it. Opened mostly pale yellow and is now this lovely light blend.

Rothesay Rose, which did not bloom for me last year. It is a little bit scarce and I am going to try to get some insurance cuttings.

Van Isle Princess, a Canadian beauty from Trevor Hoff. I understand he is not growing seedlings this year but I expect many more of us to be trading his Van Isles and CBs in the spring.

SteveM

Salish Berries au Lait I had a few late cuttings so planted her in full sun to see how she does. We're having a heat spell but I think the first bloom looks great and has decent form. Was this Salish variety ever released to the public? She checks the box on most of the qualities that make a top, commercial-cut variety.

calico20hill

I can't remember for sure, Steve...But its been a great seed maker and have a number of its children either at Triple Wren or still at home in my garden. I sent Salish Golden West off to them last year.... It looks a lot like Bracken Palamino but it is a Berries Au Lait child. Also working on a white one with the Salish name OF WY'EAST for Mt HOOD, . Golden West is much more prolific then Wy'East. In fact, Golden West is VERY prolific and only about 40" tall or less. I would love to have more along this theme and celebrate our other volcanic peaks.

calico20hill

I hope I can collect seeds from all the BAL children this year...

Teddahlia

What is the name of this one? Hint: Steve should know the answer. Year 2001.

MissyWeitzel

Teddahlia Maki is my guess

Bessie

Teddahlia Aplen Pauline ?

Teddahlia

This one is only aout 8 inches in diameter. Maki is 14 inches at times.

SteveM

Bessie Teddahlia Aplen Pauline ?

I think you are probably right. My father named Alpen Pauline after the daughter of Paul Hovey, the grower in Kalispell who first got my father interested in dahlias.

Bessie

Last year I didn't see a single bloom from this tuber.
Luckily my labeling system was successful, and Labyrinth has bloomed!

MissyWeitzel

Ferncliff Thunder is wonderful but difficult to photograph. Just imagine this is 10x more beautiful in person.

Juliarugula

I was not prepared for how much I would love Hollyhill Minuet. The photos on the Crazy4Dahlias website do not do it justice.

Salish Blue Mountains is beautiful (but less blue in Indiana!). Thank you Noni!!

Hollyhill Lilliput- super cute!

Hollyhill Warlock - perhaps my most anticipated bloom of the year! It’s pretty stunning!

AC Cowlitz

Kidd’s Climax - I didn’t expect to love this one as much as I do. It’s so fluffy!

Another photo of Irish Gnome

Hollyhill Fingerpaint

Bessie

Juliarugula thank you for taking the time to show us your beautiful blooms!😊

blown_dry

Juliarugula Thanks for sharing, Julia. 🙂

SteveM

@Juliarugula "#p17696 Kidd’s Climax - I didn’t expect to love this one as much as I do. It’s so fluffy!

Many of the old, classic varieties undoubtably have a resistance (or tolerance) to some viruses and are good candidates for breeding stock. Rather than taking the approach of eliminating viruses it is more effective to include a resistance (or tolerance) into the genome. My Kidd's Climax plants show no signs of virus and how can this be possible when it has been passed around for 85 years. No doubt it has some resistance or tolerance to common viruses. I'm using Kidd's Climax to create one of my breeding lines.

Teddahlia

The late Phil Mingus used Kidd's Climax for a lot of his breeding and introduced many , many varieties from it. He used isolation breeding and grew it at relative's house along with what he wanted to cross with it. It was a big secret when he did this. The late Mike Iler went even further with isolation beds and grew more similar varieties that made seeds or did not make seeds as they made pollen. The Boleys have been using isolation beds for many years. The simplest "isolation bed" is planting one variety next to the one to cross with it. Narrows Tricia is a big time show flower that was produced by planting two varieties next to each other.

Note: Kidd's Climax was bred in the 1930s and introduced in 1940. It is one of the few old time dahlias that is worth growing in modern times.

Teddahlia

Hollyhill Minuet is a "plant it and forget it" dahlia that grows on it's own to produce pretty flowers with little or no work by the grower. You can dis bud it if you want to but it does fine without any grooming. It over wintered in a 15 gallon pot and sprouted in the old soil in the Spring. No fertilizer and just mostly rain water and and it bloomed well. I felt sorry for it and finally gave it some fertilizer as the leaves were getting yellow.

calico20hill

[unknown] Rothesey Rose is beautiful!

Justafewdahlias

Re: “weed dahlias” a few of my reject seedlings from last year a family member wanted to keep. They planted the reject seedlings in their yard last summer. From May-August this year they were out of town. Here in the PNW there is very little rain during the summer. They had no sprinkler or irrigation set up while they were away. They returned from their trip and the reject seedling dahlia looked like this. They claim their neighbors don’t have any sprinkler or irrigation that could have reached it.

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