"...yellow water lilly is a stunner." It was dug and produced 3 tubers. It was not marked as being "best" and that title is reserved for about 35 or so of the best ones in the seedlings. I did not write any comments on this seedling as we do when one is outstanding or alternatively marginally acceptable. My memory is that the florets tended to cup a bit too much and that is too much of a good thing. I bet it does well next year and may have a period as it ripens where the flowers do not cup too much. Waterlilies are hard to breed for many reasons. The Boleys have a real head start on us with waterlilies but we had some real nice seedlings recently.
teddahlia Dec 27, 2020 2:05 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
I found my picture of Skipley Spot of Gold while looking for another picture that I have not found yet.
teddahlia Dec 30, 2020 12:04 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
2020 seedling.
SteveM Dec 30, 2020 12:32 PM PDT
Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
Beautiful seedling. I really like the trends I am seeing towards the cupping of WL petals. I would love to see some extreme cupping, in effect turning the traditional WL form into a bloom that looks more like a ranunculus. The form would never score (as a WL) at an ADS seedling bench or trial garden but I think it would score big with arrangers/florists. Imagine the possibilities if there were contrasting front and reverse colors on a cupped WL..
Steve, I love that idea! Anemone flowers are rather a pain to grow for bouquets but a dahlia shaped that way with all the cut flower possibilies would be wonderful. I imagine it would sell very well, also. I don't often get waterlily types among my seedlings, but I would love to work on something like this . It would be nice if we could make it happen with some of the smaller waterlily sizes too. So we want to look at this under a cut flower protocol rather then an exhibition one... I would like some more like Hollyhil Sweet 16.
teddahlia Dec 30, 2020 1:28 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
We have kept every WL in 2020 seedlings that had a hint of good form and some do cup way too much. That trait is like playing with fire as a little bit is good but it is easy to get carried away and it seems you like carried away.
Three from the 2020 seedlings posed only so we could remember them. Perhaps, maybe, you might like the one in the middle.
Personally I LOVE the one in the middle and think it would be lovely as a cut flower. My old customers would have loved it. I did find that waterlily dahlias did not hold up well at summer temps in outdoor markets.
SteveM Dec 30, 2020 2:03 PM PDT
Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
The bloom in the center is striking with the light reverse showing. I can understand the challenges of breeding for show and breeding for cut flower growers. You really don't want a strongly cupped WL crossing with the mother of a potential show-winning WL. Probably not as bad as crossing with a Collarette, but nearly. Also, to add to the challenge, the WL plant, in general, needs some work to keep its tendency to grow horizontal under control. It is lucky you both have several acres to separate your various breeding projects.
honnat Dec 30, 2020 2:43 PM PDT
St. Paul, MN
teddahlia wrote:
2020 seedling.
That's beautiful Ted
teddahlia Dec 30, 2020 3:02 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
"Also, to add to the challenge, the WL plant, in general, needs some work to keep its tendency to grow horizontal under control."
If you followed my posts on breeding WLs you know that plant vigor and height are pet peeves with me. Pam Howden's growth habits are a sick joke. It was dahlia vine in our garden and I picked many flowers for pollen off of the ground where they had bloomed. The cupping trait needs to be combined with vigorous tall plants that grow easily. We have a 6 foot third generation WL that we use for breeding and it has nicely cupped flowers and the seedlings are nice. However, we are introducing even more cupping from a despicably poor plant and I hope we can merge vigor and height with good round florets and cupping and proper rows of florets and closed centers and good stems and good tubers and good color and disease resistance and many more traits.
blown_dry Dec 30, 2020 4:02 PM PDT
Name: Amanda CA Redwood Coast - Zone 9b DahliaAddict.com
So lovely! Especially the center and bottom blooms.
SteveM Dec 30, 2020 4:59 PM PDT
Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
teddahlia wrote: Pam Howden's growth habits are a sick joke.
Pam Howden was the last waterlily I grew. I loved the flower but the labor involved to keep it tied up did not justify having it. I thought you had a bright orange WL that you were releasing this year but I guess she will be in the future. I look forward to your new WLs.
teddahlia Dec 30, 2020 7:10 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
"bright orange WL" Seedling did not meet our standards and was culled. Only orange one in the pipeline is the top one in the pictures and it is not getting a lot of votes in this informal contest.
Cosey Dec 30, 2020 9:52 PM PDT
Name: LeeAnn Zone 6b, Pennsylvania
I love the top orange seedling.
Ted- have you tried Rawhide as a seed parent yet? I have nothing but good things to say about the plant vigor (strong upright habit with cuttable stems, blooms above the leaf canopy)of its seedlings. It doesn't make a ton of seed but I like the offspring. Of course mine are open pollinated but even so the seedlings keep that cupped petal shape though they aren't necessarily WL form anymore. I wonder what a hand cross would get you.
teddahlia Dec 30, 2020 10:57 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Rawhide has a trait I do not like very much and that is a solid wiry stem. There are numerous old time WLs that have this trait. We are using the WL lines that came from Red Velvet and Pam Howden and others that have conventional stems. .
PNWGal Jan 4, 2021 11:33 PM PDT
Name: Linda Portland OR, zone 8b
The orange one is my favorite. I am a sucker for a bright, rich orange like that, and this appears to have a bit of the light pink on the back that makes Pam Howden glow the way she does. Form is a bit irregular, but I see a good amount of cup in the petals.
The center one has a form I would call incurved rather than cupped, since the petals are otherwise flat rather than dished. That does really show off the backs of the petals.
The bottom one has petals I would call cupped. Somehow they also fold to a point at the tip when they are young, that flattens into a round shape as they mature. It's an interesting look. I like the yellow in the middle, it brightens up the whole bloom.
And they all look even prettier with the purple petunias in the picture!
teddahlia Jan 10, 2021 1:16 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Margaret loves this 2017 seedling. We hope to sell it next year. It may be classified as either lavender or a light shade of purple. Although we have 13 tubers to plant, I am going to take several cuttings anyway. It grows to 5 feet tall on a very vigorous plant.
teddahlia Jan 13, 2021 9:32 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Hollyhill Letitia(name pending approval of Margaret, who rejects 90% of name proposals but Letitia was her grandmother)
This one makes few tubers but by taking lots of cuttings we will have about 15 tubers of it to plant. Sometimes planting tubers instead of cuttings gives you an adequate number of tubers. I really like this one. At the very least we can use it for breeding.
addicted Jan 13, 2021 1:53 PM PDT
Name: Em NY
Very nice!!
teddahlia Jan 15, 2021 10:39 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
Short video that Larry Smith of our club put together for the local access TV channel.
The first picture is Margaret's waterlily( she gets to own this one since she took the picture) and later there is her arrangement that won a prize. https://youtu.be/nXCy0kNM48M
I would like some more like Hollyhil Sweet 16.
I am a sucker for a bright, rich orange like that, and this appears to have a bit of the light pink on the back that makes Pam Howden glow the way she does. Form is a bit irregular, but I see a good amount of cup in the petals.
