FAQs on Breeding Dahlias

  • I began breeding in the summer of 2019 by selecting the varieties I wanted to gather seed. It would be the season of 2020 (Covid), where I planted my first dahlia seedlings. From that first batch, I collected seed from the following established varieties:

    • Wynn’s Pinking of You

    • Hollyhill Black Beauty

    • Crichton Honey

    • and there was one or two more I don’t remember at present

  • Well, it’s super sad, but from the 2020 season, only one tuber survived from all the seedlings I was planning on keeping. This was from Wynn’s Pinking of You.

    I had all my seedling clumps in my unheated barn in February 2021, when my optimism got the better of me and a cold front came. All the tubers were toast except a peanut sized tuber remained.

    Moral of the story?

    Don’t think tubers will survive in an unheated space in the cold of winter & don’t overlook the little peanut tubers.

  • I am currently in the thick of hybridizing dahlias & raising teenage daughters (did I mention we got a puppy as well). One of my goals with hybridizing is two-fold when it comes to introducing them.

    1. I am aiming to get them classified via the ADS (American Dahlia Society), because I desire to breed dahlias which have stood against good standards for form in the dahlia world.

    2. I will always document how many years I have grown out a variety. This is due to the rise of hybridizers outside of ADS, and I don’t know why I should trust one hybridizer from the next when it comes to quality dahlias (in regards to form). I want to offer transparency in my hybridizing.