3,226 Garden Web Discussions | Dahlias
"Lets say a yellow flower is pollinated by a pink flower....Would it be safe to say that the resulting seeds will produce a pink and yellow flower that is in between the size of the 2 parent plants? What if pollen from more than one flower from different dahlias pollinates a single flower of another flower.... Will there be traits of 3 or more flower combined? "
A yellow flower pollinated by a pink flower will produce several color possibilities. Probably there will be a very few solid yellow, very few solid pink, many blends of the two and orange which in dahlias is a blend of yellow and pink pigments. There is possibility of solid red also. As the previous post said they are octoploid and the with extra genes, you get lots of possible color combinations. I would rule out getting any purple flowers and white would also be very rare. But all could happen.
The same is true for size. Many will be the same size as one of the parents. Some could be smaller than both parents and some could be larger than both parents. Most will fall into what you say about half way. It would be very unlikely that any flower would be two sizes bigger or two sizes smaller.
A dahlia flower when pollinated by a bee can get pollen from any flower the bee visited that day. If the bee visited all of the flowers in your garden that had pollen, the flower could have seeds pollinated by numerous different flowers. Having said that, the flower visited by the bee just before visiting your flower is the most likely candidate. Each seed can only have one pollen parent and by the way most dahlias are not self pollinated but some can be.
Most seedlings look terrible. about 2% look good and 1% look very good.
Apologies for reviving an old thread, but as an enthusiastic grower-from-seed, my view is that if you have a bit of extra space and time it is immensely rewarding to grow plants of many genera from your own saved seed. Yes, it's probably true that in the case of Dahlias you might end up with a bunch of undistinguished-looking plants, but equally you could end up with something lovely. There are few things more exciting than waiting for the first blooms on your seed-sown plants.
I've grown (and lost through frost) some attractive plants from saved seed of what was probably 'Bishop of Llandaff' crossed with an unknown red double-flowered Dahlia. Some of the offspring were rather gangly with floppy-stemmed single flowers. Others were more compact, with semi-double flowers. Flower colour ranged from orange, through reds and deep pinks. Leaf colour also varied but most were dark. The anticipation of their first blooms was like being a child waiting for Christmas!
Dahlias are so easy to grow from seed and such fast growers that it seems a waste not to give it a go.
"Black" dahlias need sun to set the dark pigment. They should do very well in the South. The blackest dahlias I have seen are Ebony Star and Verrone's Obsidian both as black as a black pot. A picture taken with flower in front of black pot showed little difference. One problem is that both of these dahlias have open centers. In fully double dahlias the blackest I ever saw was a miniature ball called "Pot Black". Fidalgo Blacky was nearly as dark. In larger flowers, the blacks are not nearly as black. I like to think that two of our introductions Hollyhill Black Widow and Hollyhill Black Beauty are about as black as any larger flower.
To keep from loosing your dahlia locations...it is suggested that you plant a stake at each one when you plant. All but the miniature varieties will need staking up later as they grow, so by putting in a stake even a small one when you plant you will know exactly where to put a taller sturdier one when they get up several feet high, without impaling the hidden tuber as you stake it. After many frustrating years, I now also bury a plastic tag with the plant name along with the tuber, so when I go to dig it up after its dormant I know which one I am diving and possibly giving away tubers to. A label just stuck into the ground by it will be pulled out by chickens, crows, children, dogs, ets. Been there, done that! Last year was teh first year with 4 chickens in my garden. They pulled out all 160 labels and flung them as they were scratching for bugs! They also unburied the tops of the tubers. THis year they are no longer allowed in there when the dahlias are growing!
I have too many for me to use any artificial lighting, so they just go into my west and south windows. Actually, this year some had to go into the northwest window, too. I find it depends on the variety whether or not it needs more light. A couple of my cactus that I grew from seed and keep the tubers of are waaay to tall; I was just trying to decide this am if I should cut them back or not--I should, but I decided instead to stake really well and enjoy blooms! The varieties in the nw window are actually not leggy at all. I am blessed with great light in the spring, and windows to take advantage of it.
Thanks for the response - What seems so weird to me is that I have about a dozen tubers that I didnt pot up - they were extras or hadnt eyed up yet. THey have just been sitting in baggies with a little potting mix, on my desk in my work shop. They are looking incredibly healthy. only 6" sprouts, but sturdier and greener leaves than the ones I potted up and put in the window. There is a fluorescent light above the desk, but at least 5 feet away. I definitely need to make some changes in how I do this next year.
We planted about 35 plants. So far so good. We had one casualty (brushstrokes, so sad, this was a new tuber for us!!!!) with a soaker hose moving and breaking the stalk from the tuber. We are hoping for it to grow a new stalk.... Thanks for the encouragement! Hopefully everything will continue on and remain healthy!
depends on, how pampered they where. If they never got direct sunlight their older leaves might get burnt, but they should produce new ones really fast.
I transferred some Dahlias 2 days ago, about 4-8 inches high, they looked fine yesterday. I had put them on the balcony frequently, when the weather wasnt too cold.
Just mind the slugs, then everything should be fine.
Bye, Lin
They are pretty dang tough. I always bury mien deeper in the ground then I grew them in their starting pots and they looked sad for about a day and the next they looked great.
Hardening off is another subject. Like said above, a few leaves might get burned, but very unlikely you will loose a plant. Just and FYI, if you snap off new growth by accident, try putting it in the ground too, you may get it to root and have more plants!
keriann~
Thanks for the info, I wanted to give them some fertilizer before I plant them in the ground in a couple of weeks so that the plants are growing well before I plant them. I always put bone meal in the planting hole but wasn't sure what other fertilizer I should be giving them.
Linda
Don't know if this is right or wrong, but I use Jobes tomato stakes, 2 to a plant and put them in after growth is about a ft. about 6 to 8 inches away from the plant.My dahlias grow well. I left them in the ground last winter, and they are all up and growing now.
The foliage is different. Just look at some images on the web and you should be able to tell easily.
I dont know how well Peonies will do out of the ground all winter.
Thanks. I had, of course already looked at google images of Peony leaves, but I just scanned the pictures. It turns out that when I looked closer at the actual articles, the leaves that were questionable, where not actually Peony leaves.