We are just sheep anyways. As long as I'm out to pasture with dahlias, I'm fine. Hahaha.
I truly love all the colors and told myself when I officially made Coseytown a business that I wouldn't stop growing what I liked. I knew I needed to always keep myself engaged and growing what I like regardless of sales is a good environment for me. Of course I'll follow trends but I can help but buy those crazy colored blooms no one else wants. (Ketchup & Mustard, HH Wicked Witch, Bloomquist John F).
What is one dahlia you keep around just for yourself?
teddahlia Nov 12, 2020 1:45 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Show-N-Tell is our favorite flower in September.
honnat Nov 13, 2020 1:54 PM PDT
St. Paul, MN
That's one advantage of selling at a farmer's market as well as to event designers. I find farmer's market customers are less inclined to purchase the most popular muted peaches and pinks. They love to still go for the bold reds and purples. It's nice to be able to work with both. I sell my big "Nick Sr" blooms within minutes at the farmer's market and the "Clearview Peachy" flowers are among the last to go.
There are some commonalities though. Nobody seems to like bright yellows (butter yellow becoming more popular with designers though) Also, any type of cactus flowers are pretty much ignored unless everything else is sold out.
teddahlia Nov 13, 2020 2:25 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
This is bad news as my favorite flower to breed is cactus.
My favorite form now is birdnest cactus dahlias.
We do not sell cut flowers and I wonder why they would not be popular?
Hollyhill Dungeness(name may change) pictured.
sylviap Nov 13, 2020 2:46 PM PDT
Name: Sylvia West Sacramento, CA Zone 9b
The wild looking ones tend to be my favorites. Perfectly sized symmetrical ordered not so much.
Cosey Nov 13, 2020 3:07 PM PDT
Name: LeeAnn Zone 6b, Pennsylvania
Ted- as a farmer I don't grow many cactus type blooms for cuts because the petals are so fragile during transport. To bunch them or even harvest into buckets damages them. But they are beautiful for the garden and I grow some just for me.
It could be my area, but I asked florists why they don't prefer cactus type blooms and they feel the pointed petals don't blend well with their arrangements (wedding). They have to work with roses.
blown_dry Nov 13, 2020 3:19 PM PDT
Name: Amanda CA Redwood Coast - Zone 9b DahliaAddict.com
It sounds like cactus form do not keep or transport well, but as someone who grows for my own pleasure, 1/3 to 1/2 the varieties I grow are cactus or semi-cactus. In the garden, they are beautiful fireworks. I can hope you will
always have a market for them.
teddahlia Nov 13, 2020 3:20 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Hollyhill Chrystal in a basket done by Christie Parks. I cannot imagine a better wedding flower but maybe I am prejudiced.
DillyDahlia Nov 15, 2020 11:47 AM PDT
Name: Tina NY Zone 5b/6a Flower Power!
I love the symmetry and depth of formal decs... and I also love “wild and crazy†birds nest varieties. SnoHo Storm added a lot of interest in my beds. Adding it to full bouquets was a bit challenging, as it would squish up a bit.
teddahlia Nov 15, 2020 12:14 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Snoho Storm yields much smaller flowers on the second third and fourth flush of flowers. Margaret has used it in numerous arrangements over the years and they were about 6 inches in diameter and held up really well for many days. Putting together bouquets is a bit different than arrangements but Margaret applies arranging techniques to bouquets and enjoys entering the bouquet classes in shows. One problem is that bouquets do not have Oasis to hold the flowers where you want them so you have to fuss a lot moving the flowers around. .
teddahlia Nov 16, 2020 11:15 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
As it rains outside and the garden is a sea of rototilled mud, even this non descript little seedling looks pretty good to me.
That is a little cuty. I like the warm yellow glow. My feet are cold from sorting tubers in the garage and I will take anything warm hearted....
I am dreaming up a bouquet for that since I have very little cutting material right now...how about with deep dark red roses and little yellow filler flowers and dark Smokebush foliage? Maybe add some shorter white snapdragons...
Its a long time until bloom season, and I have to get the dahlias put away so I can plant all the other bulbs that finally arrived....
teddahlia Nov 22, 2020 10:19 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
As I look on this, I am so sad that we may never again see a flower like the bicolor on the left. At least, it was captured in this photo.
Cosey Nov 22, 2020 1:28 PM PDT
Name: LeeAnn Zone 6b, Pennsylvania
That's so sad. It's an incredible beauty.
teddahlia Nov 23, 2020 9:26 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Margaret and I collaborated on a Happy Thanksgiving picture/greeting. In the realm of artistic creations, Margaret is quite proficient at things like this and most of the time I am operating the software to try to implement her ideas. Now that it is done, we are sitting on it overnight to be sure we still like it. An interesting thing is that my son shot the original picture with his high pixel full frame camera and the detail in the picture even on this rendering can be enlarged numerous times to see great detail. Hope to share it today.
