teddahlia wrote:People like the muted colors of your seedling. Kris Kringle makes a few seeds and the seedlings vary quite a bit. Here is the one we kept and I am taking cuttings to increase stock.
So pretty!
I emailed you some HHKK seedling photos before. It produced the blush seedling above, two red/white bicolors, one cherry red formal dec with fringe petals, and another solid red closed center formal dec but larger than KK. I quickly found a photo of a sibling. Your skill and experience clearly selected a much better seedling!
I have several HHKK growing again this year. Love the plant habit and how prolific it is.
teddahlia Apr 22, 2020 4:26 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
As you tell breeding bicolor seedlings can be frustrating. Our seedling 1721 in the picture is a nice seedling but not a real prolific tuber maker. We will see how it does this year. The bicolor that got me very excited last year was the Steve Meggos seedling that he sent for us to try. It is a B sized flower and as you all know, the bigger the flower the harder it is to breed a good one. I collected lots of seeds from it and have sprouted them and will have lots to evaluate. This will be a cross of his breeding lines that include mostly giant dahlias and our genes that have smaller flowers but more petals and better formation. Out crosses can be a miracle or a disaster.
Steve Meggos says the pod sibling of this bicolor is even better and he has allowed me to try it also. I have taken a couple of cuttings of it and hope to grow them side by side. No picture and I have not yet seen a picture of it. By the way, Steve has named the flower pictured here, after his grandson. However, my feeble brain quickly forgot the name. And our seedling 18-32 is related to this bicolor, sharing the same seed parent. It is a full sized medium at about 8 inches in diameter and has copper colored petals with red tips.
Copper color with red tips sounds a lot more interesting then any color with white tips. I find the white and colored dahlias a bit hard to design around...my customers never seemed drawn to them.
teddahlia Apr 22, 2020 10:20 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Cut flower sellers seem to have an appreciation of colors and forms that sell well in bouquets at the markets. I have found that that the sale of tubers includes lots of cut flower varieties but that exotic looking flowers seem to sell even better. One can sell just about every tuber of giant dahlias that is offered for sale. Number purchased by cut flower sellers: almost none: Bicolor varieties sell out easily also and as you say, the purchasers are probably not cut flower sellers. People love to grow bicolors in their gardens.
teddahlia May 13, 2020 10:11 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
HH Art W., HH Warlock and Seabeck's Hilda. in October of last year.
DillyDahlia May 15, 2020 5:56 PM PDT
Name: Tina NY Zone 5b/6a Flower Power!
Brilliant colors! Very cheerful and uplifting.
teddahlia May 17, 2020 8:52 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Clacks Dahlias in September 2019. It was a bit rainy and most of our visit there was spent under cover in some nice garden chairs, eating some cookies and talking dahlias.
teddahlia May 24, 2020 9:42 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
I sent some tubers of this one to Dan's Dahlias as there is no way I can grow enough tubers to keep up with demand.
blown_dry May 24, 2020 12:38 PM PDT
Name: Amanda CA Redwood Coast - Zone 9b DahliaAddict.com
Good news!
My very first order was for three tubers of HHSD. I hope they thrive. Looks like I only had 4 tubers to sell total and they went fast.
teddahlia Jun 26, 2020 3:18 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
My new (used) camera came today. I am now only about 3 or 4 years behind on the latest technology. Actually, this model was sold up until about 6 months ago when they upgraded this one with some features that I did not want to pay about $500- to acquire. The sensor and the body are the same as the new one. . They changed the lens and added 4k video to the new one. The seller shipped it in the original box and I got the thrill of opening lots of little boxes of things. Also he included an extra battery and an external flash. and a little leather case too. I have taken the first test pictures and they are crisp and clear but since they are not dahlias, you will have to wait for the dahlia pictures. And I need to learn how to do the settings on the camera. Shooting in automatic mode is good but there are lots of ways to make the pictures better if you can figure out all those menus and dials and such.
teddahlia Jul 4, 2020 5:51 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Seedling 18-21 blooming in the pot tubers. Could not resist using the new camera. It is set up to blur the background.
Nice picture. The blurred background really makes the flower jump out visually.
teddahlia Jul 10, 2020 9:20 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
No dahlias to photograph so I guess I can take picture or two of the flower containers and such. Camera shoots well in low light and the house windows sort of glow from the lights inside..
Amazing color ! And I bet it smells wonderful with all those petunias.
And hey, that little callibroca you shared with me is still hanging on in the rose pot. It doesn't grow much, probably because the big red petunia overgrows it but it is tenacious! I should probably move it into a pot where it has a bigger share of the light.
teddahlia Jul 11, 2020 9:03 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Calibrachoa are tricky little flowers and they need less water than some flowers and more acid soil than one would like for other flowers. Perhaps that may be why they seem to do well in last year's pots(most freeze however) as the potting soil becomes more acid from the peat moss and the lime they add is used up. There seems to be an endless stream of new ones introduced each year and the lines with eye zones were popular this year. The fully double calis are getting better but when you look at a large container of calis blooming it is the vast number of brightly colored flowers that impresses people and the fully double flowers do not have as many flowers. Our basket of several fully double varieties is nice but other basket with new ones with the eye zones is nicer.
Margaret did save seeds from them about 10 years go and the seedlings were interesting with about 1 out of 10 being nice. A local small nursery grew her own calis from collected seeds and grew them till they bloomed and sold them. She took cuttings from a couple of nice ones and had a very nice purple one.
THanks for the tips. I should probably move that valiant little guy out to a pot with less competition.I'm definitely struggling with the soil in my pots. I used 3 different sources for the 20 something pots and one kind is very dark and compact and the leaves of anything in it turn yellow. I have added supplements with a little improvement but really I think I should just dump that dirt and repot them. I am trying to wait until autumn but prepared to make an emergency change over if I need to, I took cuttings off the rose in that pot and they look a lot better then the parent that is still yellow. I should just throw the old roots away probably.
Cosey Jul 20, 2020 6:08 PM PDT
Name: LeeAnn Zone 6b, Pennsylvania
I can't believe this dahlia has been around for 27 years and only now seems to be popular. Was anyone around when Peaches n Cream was first released? Was it well received? I don't know if I will ever garden without her.
teddahlia Jul 20, 2020 6:19 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
"...when Peaches n Cream was first released? Was it well received?
It has been the same story since it was first introduced, no one could consistently keep the tubers and every body was looking for it. Eventually people give up and then they later find it again and again.have tuber problems. I saved seeds from it but nothing came of them. I lost it twice and that was enough. I remember it growing very well in the garden and it was a nice looking plant also. It is one of those rare flowers that does really well in the shows and in bouquets.
Cosey Jul 20, 2020 6:23 PM PDT
Name: LeeAnn Zone 6b, Pennsylvania
Knock on wood but I have had zero issues with storing it! I had some seedlings growing this year...and then I killed them. I might have one PnC seedling still growing. Last year a customer of mine grew a fabulous PnC seedling from my seed. It was coral and had the highest number of engagements on my IG account for the year. Another PnC seedling was grown in Australia that had a similar form but was yellow.
When I first grew this I had buckets and buckets of flowers off it. I actully got tired of using them. Decided I wanted to grow it again a few years ago and have not found a healthy plant yet. I orderd a tuber and it rotted . I probably shouldn't spend any more money looking for a tuber that will be like I remember it.
