Teddahlia "....since the black foliage is recessive." Those plant breeders that worked as a team on black foliage determined that the trait is not controlled by one allele and requires numerous a different alleles to express. They devised a labeling system some thing like a 1 to 10 where 1 has no red pigment(dark pigment is anthocyanin in the leaves and or stems) and 10 was the darkest cultivar known(Bishop of Llandaff) . They were not able to do much more than this but Dr. Hammett was the one who continued and the Mystic series was the result.
Darce Teddahlia Ted do you know anything about who breeds the dark leaved British single flower (or weeds according to someone😂)Twyning series? They seem to name their dahlias after British candies- I am trying Twyning Smarties this year and really want the white flowered super dark leaf Twynings After Eight but I can’t seem to find it in the US Since I am a home gardener- and not growing for cut flower production where other considerations reign supreme-the dark leaved dahlias are wonderful to me because they add interest in a container or border even before they bloom
Teddahlia Twyning Tea? It is very strange that the only seller of dahlias from the the UK to the USA is Halls of Heddon and they are not taking on new customers and only ship once a year in November. You need some friends over there.
Darce Teddahlia I know dahlia friends in British places! It’s tough tho nowadays to get stuff from the UK or Ireland - I used to buy a ton of unusual seeds from the British seed company Chiltern but they stopped shipping to the US. Sometimes resellers will have British varieties of dahlias but I really only like buying my tubers from growers/breeders/farmers not resellers
Teddahlia Darce I have some connections to British things as I ship some Hollyhill new ones to them when Teresa Bergman ships an order over there. However, I am not looking for too many new ones.
AKWindWatcher I have an ongoing experiment to try and recreate NTAC Brian. Last year I also got some FC Dolly x BQ Fruity Drink seeds. They didn't bloom for me (like 75% of my garden due to the rain) but they produced amazing tubers. It'll be fun to see how they turn out this year. Also have big plans to try and help Noni with Salish Midnight Man. STG needs her boyfriend! 😁
AKWindWatcher calico20hill You are 100% correct! Apologies to STG for any insinuation that she's not a completely capable, independent woman.
edewitt I'd really love to see something like Valley Porcupine but a BB or B size in a flame color. Is VP strictly unique with that form or is there anything similar with the quite pointy petals?
SteveM edewitt I used Valley Porcupine as a seed parent years ago and was surprised how many of the seedlings had the same form (about 25%). I don't know what the pollen parent(s) were, the seedlings were various colors, all in the 3-4" size range.
AndreaB edewitt This is RNX Boom Boom Lemon (ST), a ‘23 intro from River’s. I was getting a little VP vibe from it. Photo courtesy of River’s Dahlias.
edewitt SteveM I wish I'd collected seeds from that one last year. It was right next to Dr. John E. Kaiser and Born Rojo and could've made for something cool.
SteveM edewitt I wonder if VP and some of the River's fully double orchid genes are compatible. That might make for some interesting crosses.
