Hi!

Sounds like you are off to a beautiful Garden!

I am not sure what type of seeds these are, are they comercial grade, garanteed to grow true to the description, or are they someones home grown seed?

I have grown both Daisys and Dahlias from seed in the past, and I have a full window full of more this year!

I found i had terrible germination with the Dahlia seeds last year, but this year they have been great! (Different brand). The daisys though, they just about grow themselves!

I like using peat pellets, because they are easy and you can start a whole bunch in such a small area, providing good lighting ect is a lot easier when they are condensed!

For the daisys, I would suggest putting 2-3 seeds just under the surface of the dirt, and keep moist, but not "wet". They should come up real quick, may see some in a few days, They should all be up in 2 weeks. What you do is grow on the plants, then pinch out the weaker ones after you know they are going to take off.

For the dahlias, the same advice can be followed, however I may suggest planting them one to a pellet, and then if they don't germinate, you can use the pellet for something else Now, you don't "have" to use pellets, but the same placement can be followed. I do this because I would hate to waste a dahlia by pinching it out! And I am a little cheap!!

One thing you want to look out for is damping off, a fungus that attacks the base of new seedlings. I find if I don't treat my seedlings, they grow for a couple weeks, look fantastic, I wake up the next morning and BAM, I have lost 30-90% of them! I use a product called "No Damp" but i have heard Chamomile tea in a spray bottle works well.

With a lot of seeds I have found heating them from the bottom can help germination. One thing I do with stubborn seeds if a few weeks have gone by and I don't see any sprouts is I place them on a rack, over a heating register. Others use a heating pad. But, with these varieties it should be unnessisary.

The biggest downfall may be lighting, I suggest getting some floresent lights that can be adjusted to keep them the right temp / correctly exposed, or hold off on starting them until they can be moved outside in short order...
The most important thing, is have fun!

Very good advice homemommy! I dont know where these come from. Ebay! The nice lady told me that the pink cactus was what she bought. No name. I hate that!! But, I loved the picture of the flower, and if it breeds true, it's ok with me.

I'm not going to go into breeding. Just love the cut flowers in a bouquet.
I live in the so ca desert. It is always light here, so light is not a problem. Wind is the biggest problem. Thinking of putting some grape vines in, and anchoring my dahlias between the grapes.

Suzi

Growing them between the grapes should be really pretty, may also increase your grape production too, as they will likely attract pollinators!!

Desert Dance- don't be too surprised when your "Pink Cactus" dahlia seeds grow plants that look nothing like the parent. Dahlias don't come true to the parent from seed-- too many gene combinations for them to do that. We've been hybridizing dahlias for over 30 years & never had a baby identical to it's parent yet. Mostly what you get, unless the hybridizer grows nothing but fully double parents, is open centered dahlias with far fewer petals than the parents. Even if they have only fully double dahlias in the garden you'll still get a large percentage of the babies that are open centered- that's the original dahlia form coming through from way back in the past when all dahlias were open centered. You might not even get pink! We've had many different colors for babies from the same seed pod- one time we had the best white of the year & the best red of the year out of a seed pod from a yellow dahlia that I crossed with a pink one!

Wow, talk about variety of offspring and genetics, Plantlady! I'm so excited because for the first time in ages I managed to get several seed pods that were DRY in December, not our usual soggy, rotten, sodden old flower heads I never have time to protect. So I'm going to see if I can find seeds in them and if they sprout into something interesting.

One of them is from Ivory Palaces, but other than that it's a toss up as to what plant they came from. Could be fun.

I hope you something nice out of your seeds, Poochella. It was a good seed year around here, too. I did some really interesting crosses with Formal Dec. & Informal Decs. & I'm really excited to see the results. Last year we got some nice big FD's & ID's in velvety red & some deep purples.
I was out there last summer with my paint brush, Q-tip, nail scissors & tweezers every day for about a month- I hope it pays off!

Desertdance,

If you don't mind unnamed varieties, check out your local Sam's Club or equivalent, if you have one. I went to Sam's Club this weekend and picked up a box of 12 tubers for approximately $15! Not a bad price, I thought!

Here is a link that might be useful: Find a Sam's Club

Has anybody herd from Russ. He must be holding out some outstanding dahlias.

I hope you'll take pictures when they bloom.

Carla