Dahlia cut flower varieties

SteveM

What are your best cut dahlias for market or bouquets. Why are they exceptional.

For a few years now, Peaches-N-Cream has remained my "best" cut dahlia for market. She is not my personal favorite but she is the most productive variety I grow, she is easy to grow in either part shade or full sun, the blooms do not shatter and have a good vase life, the blooms are a color that is still popular for wedding use, the bicolor blooms are some of the most stable bicolors I have grown (do not sport extremely often to solid color), and she has a long growing season. Not too much to critique except I haven't gotten any good seedlings from her.

Bessie

SteveM the first year I grew dahlias from tubers, I absolutely loved Precious. This flower arrangement lasted over a week.

I want cuts that are prolific, easy to grow, strong stems and sturdy flowers. I pretty much ignored this 2024 seedling all summer, but by the end of summer I couldn't deny how special it was. It will make a nice cut flower. The color is softer than it appears in the photo. I wish it was a soft blush color...

Teddahlia

I have seen picture s of Peaches-N-Cream seedlings over the years and have never been impressed either.
Dr. Hammett would call it a "mongrel" and yes that means it was not the result of good breeding . A well bred dahlia has many generations of breeding where the good traits are increased and with more good genes, the seedlings are more likely to be good also. Perhaps a couple of generations of inbreeding may work.

MissyWeitzel

20th Ave varieties are great for cuts - beautiful, reliable, not difficult to grow well, great stems, productive. 20th Ave Morning Mist really stood out last season and it's a very pretty shade of lavender. 20th Ave Memory is a very in demand color and is also a must grow. I have quite a few new-to-me 20th Ave varieties to try out this year and I'm excited because I love every one I've grown.
Fifi is a really nice pink MB from Mike Iler and I love that it is a true mini ball - it's not one of the ones that must have measured 3.45" when classified. Anyway it is really productive, great stems, and is just such a welcome size and color.
Nuland's Josephine (widely known as Burlesca) is a personal favorite. It's a really unusual color that somehow manages to be both warm and smoky. Photos don't fully capture the true shade and it looks good next to both cool and warm flowers. It's also a mini ball and it has strong dark stems and is so pretty I forgive the fact that it can have green centers in early season blooms. This picture doesn't really capture the warm undertones, but it is a truly unique color.

Teddahlia

Show people are sticklers for good pollen centers on dahlias. Judges always disqualify any fully double flowers with pollen showing and the first judging activity is setting back those flowers before judging the others. This pollen center fanaticism also includes green centers that are considered a "kiss of death" for show flowers. Some really good show flowers have green centers right up to when they don't(they disappear when the lower is fully mature) . Even though these green centers varieties can show well, they are avoided by show people as they do not like to see green centers in the gardens and worse sometimes they do not disappear in time for the show. So as a judge, I have built in bias when I see any open centers (the slightest bit open too) or green centers on flowers. There have been many discussions on the opinions of florists who use flowers in displays. Generally, open centers and green centers are not tolerated by florists . The customer thinks the flowers are "too old" when pollen shows and the pollen can fall on the other flowers. Green centers are a color distraction and green is generally not a complimentary color in a bouquet. So to be honest, as a judge, "I can never not see poor centers on dahlias."

Bessie

Teddahlia yes, I understand your thoughts on Dahlia centers. I forgot to mention the center is probably why I dismissed the yellow flower for months. However, when it was so nice for so long, and had great petal substance, I just rationalized that chrysanthemums come with all kinds of centers. It is definitely color wise not at the top of my list, but if I needed to make a bouquet, I wouldn't hesitate to use the flowers. I haven't seen it bloom yet this year.
In retrospect, it is not answering the question @SteveM asks! I too would like to hear about the standout cut flower varieties that are recommended to us.

Teddahlia

I like dual purpose flowers that can also be shown. And remember that my sweet Margaret did flower designs for the shows for very many years and I call an entire class of flowers "arrangers" flowers. Gordon Jackman entered HH Contessa in a design at a National show. It was the only flower in the design and it won best in show. Was it a cut flower or arrangers flower? Contessa takes some care to yield nice flowers. It is not an ideal cut flower from that aspect. Oh, and it won a big prize as a show flower there too. Then there are flowers for the basket class at the shows. You need about 11 well matched flowers. Are they cut flowers or basket flowers.? Lakeview Glow is one of the best basket flowers but is not much of a cut flower as it takes plant grooming to get the flowers. If you groom the plants(over bloomer) , the flowers are near perfect.