Oh my, oh my, oh my. Dawiff, I'm in heaven looking at these beauties.

Yeah the yellow, pink and white stayed true to seed. great news. save those seeds and I'll guide you on saving the tubers as well. got to save the tubers too.

that red collarete is beautiful too, save those seeds, some for me. and the one from lowes, oh that is something. too, stunning to say the least. pass some seeds on this way of that one.

Now the funny one, my first though on the pic was, oops she waited to long to get pics of that one. now you say that's the way it looks when the flowers open. yup, tissue is just what it looks like to me too.

But, i wonder what it would look like grown from saved seeds next year.

Did you get any blooms on the pink and white stripe one yet?

I haven't got any blooms yet on my collarette and a couple of them will no doubt not get to blooming size as they keep getting eaten by "my 4 legged horrors that are always hungry,"

Come to think of it, the dahlia from lowes looks like it might be a collarette dandy. it looks a lot like the one of the pics in the catalog from TMseeds from last year. But it isn't in the catalog now on line.

Don't panic, i have plenty more seeds left from both the collaretted dandy and the fireworks.

but check out the link below for a pic of the collaretted dandy from the UK catalog. the one on the bottom center of the pic looks like the one from Lowes.

Fran

Here is a link that might be useful: dahlia collarette dandy pics

Lovely blooms, Fran. I love Dahlias and have three pots that I have been bringing indoors every year for about seven years and I am getting a little tired of them, but I never thought of growing Dahlias from seed!! The tubers are quite pricey here but I must try WS next year. Thanks for the great idea.

Love that Red Collarette!

I had 100% germination on the dahlias I wintersowed, but still no blooms. Some are in a pot, and the rest went in the ground. The grasshoppers mowed one group down, but even the ones they didn't eat, while healthy looking, just aren't blooming yet. Maybe I'm too far north to wintersow them?

Bonnie

Beautiful dahlias! I'm surprised that they came true from seed as I have been told they rarely do. I love dahlias and planted 8 tubers that I bought in big pots. My plan was to make sure that they are dry in the fall, cover the top with plastic, tip them over so they don't get wet again, and leave them outside. I thought this might work as it is the wetness that causes the tubers to rot and not the cold. Any ideas on this?

I love them! It would be wonderful if the Lowe's one came true from seed!!

I WSed some dahlias this year,and some of mine bloomed about when yours did. They were supposed to be red, and I put them in the Red Bed. This was the first to bloom:

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pretty, but not quite red, is it? :) I do have at least one red in the group, thank goodness. I just loved how fast they grew big and bushy.

stage rat -- Oops! Bummer that they're not red. They are a very pretty shade of yellow though. Do you plan to dig them and store the tubers? That will get them out of your red bed at least.

proud gm, this is my first year growing dahlias from seed, so I don't know if they will survive being left outside to freeze.

Bonnie, I love the red one, too, I am really hoping it comes true next year from seed. The seeds Fran saved from hers last year seem to be true to seed, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Fran, I have had a couple of blooms on the pink and white striped one, but it doesn't look as nice as yours. The plant is small and kind of sickly looking, and the flowers are small. Can you post pics of yours again? I was looking for your pictures from last year and couldn't find them, I think they may have scrolled off the forum. The dahlia called Harlequin does look a lot like some of the ones in the Collarette picture. I did a search for Harlequin, and it almost looks like they have used the same picture for both seed mixes, cause it looks a lot like Harlequin too. Hmm, maybe Park's calls them Harlequin and T&M calls them Collarette? Anyway, I'll definitely send you seeds from any you want. I hope yours bloom before the end of the season, so we can see what colors you got from the same seed mix.

I'm not sure if I'll need to dig the tubers, my new garden is going to be in zone 7, and I have heard from others that dahlias will survive being in the ground in zone 7. I might leave some in the ground next year and store others. We'll see. This winter I'll pull the tubers out of the pots I think.

Here is a link that might be useful: Park's Harlequin Dahlia seed

Here you go, pics from this year's dahlia fireworks pink and white stripe. The flowers all bloom differently in various combos of the pinks and shades of pink and white and some flowers are bigger than others.

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A bunch of last years pics of the same plant

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last years dahlia fireworks yellow/pink/white. all the flowers on this one where pretty much the same size and the flower colors all stayed the same, no variations.
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pics from this year of dahlia fireworks pink/yellow white

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I looked at the pics of parks harlequin dahlia seeds and TM's collarette dandy and they look the same to me.

So many times now, I'm finding that the seed companies come up with new names for seeds that have been around for a while. Makes us think it's a brand new variety of a plant until we see it bloom or we know it already. Does get me angry to see it done too.

Funny too, TM doesn't have the collarette dandy in their US on line catalog now, but they have it in the UK one.

Fran

Fran, Thanks for posting all the pics of your pink and white dahlias. Here is a pic of the other one I have blooming that I'm not too impressed with. Now that I look at it, it looks more like streaky red and white, not pink and white. The flower is only about 2 inches wide, so judging by the shot of the bloom with your hand, mine is nowhere near as big a bloom as yours.

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The plant itself has had something, maybe earwigs, chewing on its leaves, but here is a pic of the whole plant. It's only about 12 inches tall.

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I do have another dahlia labeled Pink Fireworks that has buds on it, but it sprouted about a month later than these, so I have no idea when it will actually flower. We'll see what the flowers on that one look like.

They're all beautiful.

Karen

Hmm, now I wonder if I either labeled the seeds wrong that I sent you or some of the pods crossed with the another one.

OR, if the plant is really, really stressed, then the blooms and colors may be off.

The lace hole pattern on the leaves of that pink one looks a lot like japanese beetle work. They do like the dahlias.

That's why they have some 4 o'clocks in pots near them. The beetles are leaving my dahlias alone, having a nice time on some of the 4 o'clock leaves and dying cause those leaves are poison to them.

No, I'm not crying about it either. If the insect is stupid enough to eat the leaves that are poison to them, well, tis not my fault they are that dumb.

The fireworks only grow about 12 inches, so the height is correct and the leaves look the same and so does the color of the leaves.

See how some of the other buds look when they open, might look better than that one, which honestly, isn't that bad a color combo, but the petals need to open more.
Start talking to the plant and tell it to behave and open blooms properly.

Between your side of the country and mine, along with everywhere else, everything is growing poorly or strange.

My garden beds look so sad this year, I could cry. Even the zinnias are pathetic this year.

Thanks karen, I think they are really beautiful too.

Fran

Unfortunately, that's as open as the flowers get, the first one looked exactly the same, right up until the flower faded a few days later. I'm pretty sure the leaf damage is either earwigs or slugs, we don't have Japanese beetles in the PNW. We do however get ginormous mutant slugs. You really want me to talk to the plant? LOL We'll see what the other one that is a few weeks behind does.

Here is a link that might be useful: Reports of Japanese beetle infestations

Didn't know that about the JP out your way, lucky you.

Money is then on earwigs. and thanks a lot Dawiff, you didn't have to send those slugs my way. I have never seen such huge ones in my life and I've never in my life had so many of them either.

OMG what a mess, BUT, was trying to get some of them from under a pot a few weeks ago cause they weren't going into my shallow bowls of beer and couddn't figure out why it was failing me after all this time.

Well found these really odd black beetles and the thinnest looking milipedes or something right there underneath every pot that had slugs under them.
And all the slugs where dead too. There had to be a connection, so went on a google search.

Oh was I a happy camper. They are ground beetles and their larvae and their sole purpose of existence is to eat and kill the slugs and continue to breed to get the slugs all the time.

I didn't know there was such a pretty, beautiful black beetle before these and their larvae is even better looking, they get the slugs too.

If you got slugs, you got the ground beetles too and if you have lots of beetles you probably got dead slugs and it's earwigs. they can do bad damage real quick and they are night eaters too. try seeing if you can see them in the dark eating.

Fran

Beautiful Dahlias.I too love these plants.I collect the whole dried flower head every yr and have never found any seed,I just keep buying tubers.Can any one tell me why.Maybe I wait too long because it all just crumbles.
moonphase

dawiff,

This is what came up from the seeds of the rudbeckia cherokee sunset that you shared with me. Thank you!!

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Fran, I just got your email, it was in my spam folder again!! I would love to have the seasoning! I can even trade you a peony plant for it...LOL I work 4 days next week but will give you a call to make arrangements.

Great pics!

Lisa

I like all the pictures. Dahlias are just amazing flowers.

Oh I just love those 'Fireworks'!!! A must have for me...wow!

I did two different ones this year, but started them indoors this time. I had 0 luck wintersowing the year before. Only have the 'Early Bird' blooming...a pretty butter yellow and some are single and some double. 'Bishops Grandchildren' were so badly attacked by earwigs this year and never recovered. I'll be yanking them out here probably today :(

Well, I finally got my first bloom on my wintersown 'Unwins Dwarf Mix' dahlias. Okay, so it's only half a bloom thanks to the grasshoppers : (

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I was hoping for yellow, or red, or orange, but at least I got to see a bloom.

Bonnie