Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
It looks like Islander (Noni) has another winner with "Salish Berries Au Lait", a BB in today's popular colors of cream and lavender. Long, strong stems even when grown under 30%-40% shade cloth. Fully double blooms on June 1 without supplemental light. Most importantly (for me) the blooms do not shatter and there is no petal drop after 3 days. Top photo was taken the same day as cut and the bottom photo was taken after 3 days at room temperature. Congrats Noni!
Oh Steve! I could cry with joy! I lost so many tubers last year, and where as I planted out a number of seedlings from saved seed, I was afraid I had lost most of my stock! Please, can you grow these out to make more stock this year! Those look very much like the originals I had before moving and I have not seen them do the wonderful muted colors here. I did plant a number of seedlings but it is great to see the original again! I will be sending them on to Triple Wren when we get tubers this fall and HOPE I get better tubers over all! Its going to look like I specialize in lavender colors, LOL. I really do have other colored seedlings!
Juliarugula Jun 5, 2022 5:01 PM PDT
Name: Julia NW Indiana
Noni, those dahlias are sooo beautiful! And great to hear about the vase life, Steve! I hope tubers become available soon!!
Julia, the first time I saw these bloom I thought they were the ugliest color imaginable..kind of a lavender-gray with cream. I was laughing about my ugly seedling on facebook and Sandy Boley stopped me short! She said that it was a highly desirable color combo for those late fall wedddings using "ashes of roses " colors...this was 3 or 4 years ago....I had a wonderful row of more than 6 plants. I almost lost them when we moved and Steve volunteered to try them out in the hotter temps he grows in. IT looks like the colors are even deeper when they get warm... And of course I really love them now...they are so much fun to arrange in the autumn!They did not do well their first year here but I did get some nice seeds and last years seedlings were interesting,,,my colors are much more pastel then Steves'. And of course this year I am growing "Amazing Gray" Poppies which would probably be amazing with them. We will see what pops up and blooms here.
I really think we should all team up with friends in other climates to grow our seedlings there and see what they are like in different temperatures!
Juliarugula Jun 5, 2022 5:39 PM PDT
Name: Julia NW Indiana
Yes, I’ve been curious as to how the new varieties I’ve added this year willl do in the Midwest. So many growers are on the west coast that I imagine there will be some interesting differences.
My poppies were a flop this year. I’m not sure why? In the past they’ve done great for me wintersown, but I got very few plants this year. It was kind of a weird spring weather wise. But none of my Amazing Gray made it through at all. Oh well. More room for other stuff!
I bet it would be a stunning combo to pair them with that dahlia!
MegMoon Jun 6, 2022 2:20 PM PDT
Name: Meg Alabama
I volunteer to grow some in my hot and humid Alabama climate!! I am growing Salish Sea Pearl and Twilight Girl this year!
What gorgeous blooms!!
I would be very interested how Salish Sea Peal and Salish Twilight Girl look in Alabama....would you please post a pic when they bloom? They were born to the very moderate temperatures of the "Salish Sea" area around Seattle.
DarcyD Jun 8, 2022 9:08 AM PDT
Name: Darcy D Green Oaks, Illinois
Yay Noni! And, good on Steve for keeping them going! Sounds promising!!
Juliarugula Jul 3, 2022 5:57 AM PDT
Name: Julia NW Indiana
My first dahlia to bloom this year is Bloomquist Golden. I have a lot of new-to-me varieties this year, and I always find it funny how different reality can be from expectation. BQ Golden was a variety I ordered on a whim just so I wasn’t paying shipping costs for only a couple tubers - seemed like it might be nice enough, but I hadn’t particularly looked forward to it. In fact, I was pretty disappointed it was going to be the first to bloom.
But WOW! I can’t get over how gorgeous they are! The colors are mesmerizing, and the petals have a great substance to them. Even a slight picotee edge…
I thought maybe I was so enamored just because they are the first of the year, but BQ Gennie and KA Snow Jo have bloomed now, and I’m still most in love with BQ Golden.
DarcyD Jul 3, 2022 1:31 PM PDT
Name: Darcy D Green Oaks, Illinois
Wow that’s beautiful, Julia!! Some of my favorites over the past years were those people sent me that I didn’t ask for I hunted down and ordered a handful of those this year.
teddahlia Jul 4, 2022 11:01 AM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
A comparison of my Canon G5x camera and the Google Pixel 6 cell phone. Flower is Seabeck's Hilda.
teddahlia Jul 4, 2022 12:41 PM PDT
Name: Ted Oregon We enjoy breeding new dahlias!
I adjusted the color on the Canon picture and it is sharper with more detail.
The cellphone also made the foliage a bit yellow.
Bottom line: cell phone good enough most of the time and it does a fairly good job. Canon has more potential but you have to do some adjusting to get a really good picture.
SteveM Jul 4, 2022 1:09 PM PDT
Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
Cellphones are making fast progress. Even with my old iPhone 6 I find myself using it more often than taking the time to drag out my Canon 5D. For web work I think the newer cell phone cameras are plenty good enough.
SteveM Jul 4, 2022 1:39 PM PDT
Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
Hollyhill Berry Purple - grown under 30-40% shade cloth. Captured with iPhone 6.
Pros:
- easy to grow, very strong plant. Photo was taken at eye level so these plants are 5' +.
- strong stems even at 30-40% shade and after several flushes.
- blooms do not shatter, great vase life.
- great clean color.
- tubers keep well and sprout easily.
Cons:
- at this latitude (day length) blooms are not fully double until well into June.
- blooms slightly smaller than I prefer.
- gophers prefer HH Berry Purple tubers over most other varieties.
I hunted down and ordered a handful of those this year. 
