2026 - Dahlia Blooms

SteveM · 2026-01-05T18:01:08+00:00

Camano Cloud A January bloom from a container grown plant. This is probably my favorite color of dahlia and I haven't seen the exact color in any other vari...

Juliarugula

Juliarugula finally figured out what happened with the dark bloom on what I thought was an HH Finlandia plant. Not a sport of HH Finlandia, but a sport of an HH Finlandia seedling (the seedling was variegated last year) which I accidentally planted in my HH Finlandia row. I think I need to work on differentiating my seedling numbering system from my stock/plant rating system. Oops. I thought it seemed too clockfaced to be HH Finlandia.

Bessie

Juliarugula I love your story. Thanks for letting us know!

Teddahlia

It took me a few years to figure out how to get seed from HH Finlandia. Margaret told me to remove some florets when it is ripening so the bees can get to it. Is Margaret always right? Nice dark seedling.

Juliarugula

Teddahlia last year I got a pretty decent amount of seeds from HH Finlandia, but this year I haven’t had many blooms. I’d say bloom count is pretty low for all my plants this year. Gonna do a soil test this fall, but I’m suspecting the unusually long cold spring got everything started on the wrong foot.

Teddahlia Nice dark seedling.

Thanks! It’s unfortunately pretty clockfaced. Sets enormous seed pods though. I may give it another year and try growing out some of the seeds.

DillyDahlia

Teddahlia I have CT Gale and CT Penny and both are prolific with nice long stems. Great vase life as well.

Willing to trade since we can't sell

KitCMC

Hollyhill Icarus showing off this evening 🌞

Teddahlia

Icarus is a tall grower and I collected some seeds from it this year.
We marked this 3rd year seedling to keep. BB sized fd with a good center. 2025 picture

2026 picture.

KitCMC

Teddahlia I would be so happy to get some Icarus seeds! I planted a whole bed of A & AA to see if I can get some BIG seedlings.

Teddahlia

Will probably introduce this one this year. BB sized lots of blooms. Good vase life.

SteveM

Teddahlia Fitting name and a cheery tribute to Dolly!. She will sell out fast.

KitCMC

JessieC

We’ve had some gentle rain and cooler temps 🎉

AC Twisp, HH Snowdrop, Valley Porcupine, and Skipley Spot of Gold.
Many of my plants look lanky and floppy. Not sure if they stretched their legs during the heat, or I failed to cut deeply since there was so little to cut. Still, it’s nice to see some good blooms!

Bessie

Blomquist Jean blooming now

JessieC

I also have some BQ Jean! It’s my first year with her and I’m thrilled!

Mel_McVay

Really liking this autumn color palette of Copper Boy, Brown Sugar, Hy Suntan, and KAs Daybreak.

JessieC

Mel_McVay That’s a lovely bunch! Copperboy has been a steady producer and a good plant this season—nice compact habit and good stems. Too many green centers, but overall a lovely variety!

Mel_McVay

JessieC My Copper Boy plants also had hard green centers all summer 🙁

JessieC

Some more blooms on a cool and rainy day:

Ferncliff Rusty has finally achieved that smoky raspberry color that I was looking for. The plants have been good, but the blooms have had hard green centers all summer. Also shown: KA Rosie Jo, and Rock Star, both of which have been outstanding! There is also a stray Copper Boy in there.

Needs no introduction, but BQ Jean! About 10x more beautiful in person. A tall and very lanky plant. One bloom fell right off the stem when I brought it inside.

Valley Porcupine with a couple of 20th Ave Memory on the left. VP is really fun and I tried so hard to grow as many as I could this year.
On the right, more FC Rusty and KA Rosie Jo.

This is just a hot mess, but I wanted to include some pics of HH Sir Joe Paxton, which has been a real pleasure this year! It’s tough, heat resistant, and abundant. Highly recommended!
Thanks @Teddahlia for this one and the BQ Jean Tuber.
If the frost holds off, I may have some HH Pandora blooms to show. It does feel like the best part of the dahlia season 🤗

Teddahlia

We are digging here and Margaret has decided she likes 3 of our 2025 Bloomquist Jean seedlings. I will post pictures during the dark days of winter when dahlia pictures brighten up the day. One is taller than B. Jean and B. Jean is already tall. One of them in black and white. My favorite one .

And one of the2025 B. Jean seedlings makes seeds and not just a few seeds but lots of big seeds in a big pod. It is the one that looks the most like B. Jean but is taller. B. Jean makes some seeds but in our garden, but the first pods were empty and only a few pods late in the season had some seeds. It was the same last year and we had only 3-4 B. Jean seedlings and kept only one that is red and is a formal decorative flower and only 4 inches in diameter. The 2025 seedlings were much better. I have some seeds from the 2026 B. Jean plants.
Note: two entries in the Portland trial garden are obviously B. Jean seedlings. I know who entered them as he personally delivered them on the trial garden planting day. I judged only one of them and had planned not to judge either one as I knew who entered them. However, on the judges training day, they asked me to take a team of students and have them judge this entry. Our score was similar to the other previous senior judges scores.

Juliarugula

Bloomquist Jean made some seeds for me last year but only one BQJean seedling made it, and it was pretty uninspired. This year, my BQ Jean plants seem very “breakable”, and nearly every bloom has fallen over on a broken stem for some reason. So I haven’t had any pods set this year.

JessieC

Juliarugula I have also had a lot of weak and broken stems this year. BQ Jean is very lanky and so I kind of expected it, but other plants have been floppy, fragile, and rangy.

Teddahlia

I harvested some Bloomquist Jean seed pods today. I have more seeds than last year. The plants are in a row where everything is about a foot shorter than usual.

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