I bought some of ebay this year just to get something different from the norm. Will let you know how they get on.
Cairnsie the tubers are big from the dwarfs I sold some of them that I grew to customers and kept some myself and couldn't believe the size of the tubers.
While we're on dahlias..... (and I'm totally with you on the bee thing Matt!) Does anyone have any recommendations for seeds which are single coloured? When I grew them, they were a 'riot of colour', but I'm not dead keen on pink with yellow. But is it impossible to get a packet of seed with uniform colour? Last year I bought 6 orange coloured dahlia plants for 50p (going cheap at the GC, like everything else in my cheapskate garden) and I have tried planting some of their seeds, but don't know if they will come out the same or revert to type. Most seed packets seem to show that any colour is possible.
I have only grown mixed colours of the singles. I think your best way would probably be to split the tubers of the colours you want and pullout the colours you don't. As to whether the seed will be the same colour I'm not sure if you've grown different colours I'm not sure if they would change if cross pollinated. I guess time will tell.
It's an interesting question. There were no other dahlias in the garden apart from the orange ones. When I had my grown from seed ones, I did think about splitting the colours, but had got so blase about them coming up every year, and then we had a bad winter and that was that. The rest of the garden comes up yellow, orange, red in late summer, which is why this year I will be growing Thompson and Morgan's much publicised 'Brightness Mixed' cosmos as opposed to the normal pink, which does very well, but clashes a bit colour-wise. Not a lot of thought has gone into my raised flower beds over the years, at times they look great, but at other points, they are a bit random. I need to get my head round them this year.
Dahlias are one of the most promiscuous of cross-pollinators and you never really know what you will get from seed saved from ones grown in your garden. The clue is probably in the name: "variabilis"! There are literally thousands of scientific papers on the subject of their genetics.
Best thing to do is to sow lots then wait for them to flower and remove those you don't like. If you get one or two you really like and want to multiply, then lift the tubers over winter, start them off in a deep tray the next spring and keep cutting and propagating the new shoots, all of which will grow into identical plants to the 'mother' tuber.
A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
Posts
I bought some of ebay this year just to get something different from the norm. Will let you know how they get on.
Cairnsie the tubers are big from the dwarfs I sold some of them that I grew to customers and kept some myself and couldn't believe the size of the tubers.
While we're on dahlias..... (and I'm totally with you on the bee thing Matt!) Does anyone have any recommendations for seeds which are single coloured? When I grew them, they were a 'riot of colour', but I'm not dead keen on pink with yellow. But is it impossible to get a packet of seed with uniform colour? Last year I bought 6 orange coloured dahlia plants for 50p (going cheap at the GC, like everything else in my cheapskate garden) and I have tried planting some of their seeds, but don't know if they will come out the same or revert to type. Most seed packets seem to show that any colour is possible.
I have only grown mixed colours of the singles. I think your best way would probably be to split the tubers of the colours you want and pullout the colours you don't. As to whether the seed will be the same colour I'm not sure if you've grown different colours I'm not sure if they would change if cross pollinated. I guess time will tell.
Busy bee2 there are some on ebay that are single colours.
It's an interesting question. There were no other dahlias in the garden apart from the orange ones. When I had my grown from seed ones, I did think about splitting the colours, but had got so blase about them coming up every year, and then we had a bad winter and that was that. The rest of the garden comes up yellow, orange, red in late summer, which is why this year I will be growing Thompson and Morgan's much publicised 'Brightness Mixed' cosmos as opposed to the normal pink, which does very well, but clashes a bit colour-wise. Not a lot of thought has gone into my raised flower beds over the years, at times they look great, but at other points, they are a bit random. I need to get my head round them this year.
Many thanks to you all for your advice.
I hate that we have to buy "mixed" seeds. If I want a mix, let me pick those colours and I'll have a mix. Don't impose your mix upon me. GGGRRRRRRR.
Dahlias are one of the most promiscuous of cross-pollinators and you never really know what you will get from seed saved from ones grown in your garden. The clue is probably in the name: "variabilis"!
There are literally thousands of scientific papers on the subject of their genetics.
Best thing to do is to sow lots then wait for them to flower and remove those you don't like. If you get one or two you really like and want to multiply, then lift the tubers over winter, start them off in a deep tray the next spring and keep cutting and propagating the new shoots, all of which will grow into identical plants to the 'mother' tuber.