Fantasy Hybridising Frankensteining

Darce

Well since it just snowed here in upstate NY and the weather has been acting up elsewhere - I thought it might be fun to do some imaginary gardening since I can’t get out there yet. So…. If you could hybridise a dahlia as high omnipotent ruler of all creation - what would your ideal dahlia look like/behave like etc? If you could Frankenstein various traits of different dahlias together to form your perfect idiosyncratic dahlia - what would those traits be (and what dahlias would they be taken from)?
Naturally since you are all powerful -you are not bound by practical considerations of market/florist/bride demand, ADS show specifications and technical difficulties/impossibilities- so I guess make it as blue as you want it to be lol!

Darce

For me - my dream dahlia would have the inky black foliage of a Bishop dahlia, but finer cut- almost lacy in effect. The colours would be the pale milky colours of ice cream - peach, strawberry,lemon and vanilla. The dahlias would be loosely and gracefully bushy but with long stems and dangling nodding single flowers - almost like a turks cap lily in effect or a throwback to a wild dahlia. The grower at Queens Valley Farm has something like this dahlia in my mind (without the black foliage) with the dahlias she hybridised

This photo is taken from her website - which is very interesting as she restored a historic property which still had historic dahlias growing on it saved thru the decades

https://www.queenvalleyfarm.com/

todgor

I had a thought the other day - how many LC bi-colors are there? It seems there are not many BBs, even less Bs, and no A or AAs. My thought was a giant Tahoma Tempest sort of wild hairdo or a giant Sandia Warbonnet.

Darce

todgor

Oh I love this - would buy it in an instant!

Teddahlia

Will you tell Margaret to use giant pollen on anything? Giants are not her favorites unless they are giant waterlilies.

Darce

Teddahlia
Giant water lilies sound amazing tho! Margaret’s got the arrangers eye- I bet she would create something out of this world with a ginourmous water lily

Krista

Teddahlia Wow, I agree with @Darce, I would swoon over a giant waterlily! Also as @todgor, a giant Tahoma Tempest, guhhh!

calico20hill

I think I would go with a BB sized Twilight Girl with even darker petal backs and even lighter silver petal tops, And dark "fern leaf" foliage with its lacy looking leaves. It would have some of Ted's Lumber like stems but not to the point of needing a chain saw to cut them down. Then lets throw in some resistance to freezing...

Darce

calico20hill

Twilight is already a unicorn dahlia - what you are describing would be double unicorn desirability!!

Teddahlia

Then lets throw in some resistance to freezing...
Dan of Dan's Dahlias was growing one of the species dahlias and it tolerated a couple more degrees of frost than the regular dahlias. Not a lot mind you.

calico20hill

Darce Maybe I don't want to go there, LOL. Its a bit on the "Cultish" side now. Maybe its unicorn status would mean it has to goout in public incognito...Or only on dark moonless nights.....

blown_dry

Oh, an anemone form dahlia the size of Spartacus.

Darce

blown_dry
One bloom would make a smashing floral hat!

Ailhad

"As omnipotent ruler of all creation" (now that's a job description!) I would start by creating a set of giant, perfectly healthy, very straight and very spiky cactus dahlias in matching shades from pastel pink to dark lavender. Still omnipotent, a couple of dahlias in shades of green such as a well formed lime green ball and a dark green cactus would be nice. I would of end the season as omnipotent dahlia creator with a selection of dahlias in different shades of blue and a variety of forms.

Darce

Ailhad

Oh those all sound amazing! I especially love green flowers as cut flowers and spiky and round green dahlias would be visually amazing in bouquets.
Speaking of green flowers there is the green zinnia ‘Envy’ but have you seen the green Chinese Aster ‘The Hulk’? First of all what a great name!
Pic from Haris Seeds

Ailhad

A more realistic creation would be a greater range of fully double varieties with dark red foliage. Dark foliage varieties seem to be healthier in my garden, probably because the anthocyanins serve as a decent insect defense.
HAPET Red Jack is one I would start with.

Darce

Ailhad

Def sign me up for your dark red foliage creations😉
I too love the contrast between the bright blooms and the dark leaves- I would love in reality if more of this darker foliage type came on the market
Also I immediately put Hapet Red Jack on my Gotta Get List lol

Ailhad

Darce So cool! I do grow grow 'Envy' or rather 'Queen Lime' Zinnias. The latter are supposed to be more robust and consistent but I've not seen these Asters! They look amazing. I must try them.

Teddahlia

Several years ago Dr Hammett Wayne Shantz and Wayne Holland all plant breeders, jointly put some effort to breed dark leaf and dark stemmed dahlias. The result was that the trait was probably caused by a combination of several genes and they had no real successes. They could not get consistently dark seedlings. Move forward a few years and Dr. Hammett used his "multi year" plant breeding methods to create several dark leaf and dark stemmed flowers that had appeal for mass marketing. Several varieties were patented and they are sold in in nurseries around the world under the series name of Mystic. I visited one of our favorite plant nurseries and that had a table with about 6 of the various dark leafed Mystic flowers. If I wanted to breed dark leaf varieties these Mystic varieties would be an excellent starting point.

Darce

Teddahlia
thank you so much for this! Next year I will try to get my hands on any Mystics I can and save seed from them
ETA Oh wow I just did a search for the Mystic series - they are all just smashing and would look great in a container too- especially that Mystic Spirit!
thank you again for the suggestion-even tho I swore I had bought my last dahlia for this season… I might not wait till next year 😉

Ailhad

Teddahlia I had several Mystic Dahlias for a year, but was only able to overwinter Mystic Spirit for a little longer. Since they aren't great tuber producers, I wasn't in danger on infringing Dr. Hammet's patents by sharing. Unfortunately, there are no Mystic dahlias being in nurseries in MA anymore. So far the only black foliage variety that's not open center and successfully produced seeds for me is Black Jack. But it's a late bloomer and few seed heads ripen in time here. The flowers look a bit unruly and since the black foliage is recessive only one out of my ₆ seedlings had darkish leaves. Flower color is close to the seed parent, dark red.

Darce

Ha extreme Twilight Girl would be sinking into the dark side 😂 vampire life!