Pics or it didn't happen. :-)

Welcome! Yeah, it's been a weird season. In my case, I added many dahlia very late as well...so I'm running under a double disadvantage. I've still managed lots of pretty blooms, so I'm not complaining too much.

Dang, knew i should have picked up sky angel. I saw it and wasn't sure.....beautiful :)

Kogane fubuki. Camera doesn't show color very well, the outer petals are much more pink.
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Pretty sure this was labeled color spectacle, but not seeing white tips. Pretty though, i even loved it before flowering, nice stems and foliage.
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kousa,that photo of your dahlia is stunning!!!

Sky Angel is gorgeous; will have to get it next season.

carol

Auron22..........Several years ago I purchased a dahlia

from one of the big box stores that was labeled Color

Spectacle. Mine ended up without white tips also;

so I thought it was just mislabeled.

carol

My color spectacle are just starting and they've never bloomed before. Indications are that mine will also lack the white tips, but I'll post a photo when they're in full bloom.

I find I don't mind. The flower is pretty enough without it to pull it off.

I love dahlias . . . I have very fond childhood garden memories linked to dahlias. I do not have any right now, since I'm 28 and just starting my first real garden after moving around a bunch the past few years - cross-country and back, then around town three times . . . yuck. I'm also in OH, and I was amazed by the 40's in the middle of summer!!!! Weird weather after that hard, harsh winter!!! I was wondering, those dahlias that the nurseries and stores sell as "annuals," are they really annuals? Are they different from the tuber kind? I had one once, but I had to leave it so I never got to experiment with it. And I was on Swan Island's site, Dahlias.com, and I saw mixed seed for sale. Do they bloom the first year? I got seeds for Mignon in a trade the other day, and I was going to hold off until next spring to plant - is that OK? Will it become a new plant with a tuber I have to dig up each year? Sorry I'm hijacking this thread . . . but I felt the same way when I saw the title of this thread - I am a new dahlia lover and I've just appeared on this site like a week ago :-) If anyone is trading, I really, really, really need "Pooh" - for my kids and I to enjoy!!!! I'd rather not have to buy it for big bucks - I can trade for it, and I can be patient enough for seeds to grow, just as long as I have the hope that I will have those pretty little blooms!! That reminds me, what are all the different types? I know of the dinner plate dahlias and the collarettes . . . Thanks!

Queen-Gardener,

I don't mind at all :)

I don't know anything about dahlia seed in particular, but i can tell you that no plant seed conceived naturally is the exact same as the parent, in some plants the differences are negligible, but in others it is greatly varied. Things like that don't bother many people...but for some reason i'm weird about it. Everything has to have a name for me....

Unless i have this wrong, i'm pretty sure all dahlia's have tubers and are tender perennials, not true annuals.

There are quite a few dahlia types.....i'll provide a link to a list i found on google.

someone more qualified than me will probably provide some input soon.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dahlia types

>>Unless i have this wrong, i'm pretty sure all dahlia's have tubers and are tender perennials, not true annuals.

Correct, although I treat my Harlequin as annuals as a general rule. I don't have to, they could be lifted.

Really, a lot of plants in our gardens are short-lived perennials we treat as annuals in our respective climates.

>>I don't know anything about dahlia seed in particular, but i can tell you that no plant seed conceived naturally is the exact same as the parent,

By definition, although I've collected seed from plenty of Salvia species and the daughters are the same as the mothers, for the most part. Over time, the Salvia splendens are getting a bit taller and I did breed a few cultivars together to get the leaf and flower style I wanted.

Dahlia are incredibly unpredictable. We humans have two copies of each chromosome. Many flowering plants have more than two (even some with odd numbers like some zinnia species--Profusion has three). It helps if you can't meander around and find a mate whose genes don't resemble yours by keeping harmful mutations from reinforcing as easily.

That's why plants can self-fertilize and the daughters usually do just fine.

Dahlia have eight copies of each chromosome! (The technical term is "octoploidal.") The number of possible recombinations just on a self-fertilization is incredible.

Unfortunately it means it's hard to breed any two plants and get anything you expect.

The only reliable way to reproduce a dahlia with the same characteristics as the parent is by cloning. You can split the tubers, or root a green shoot, both work fine.

Most of us split the tubers to reproduce our dahlia but some people around here do root cuttings.

Thank you guys for the information! So I guess I shouldn't be asking for "Pooh" seeds anymore! :-) I'm going to try out the Mignon seeds I just got in a trade, and that seed packet on Swan Island's website is so tempting . . . because of the beautiful picture!

I have a "Color Spectacle" which produces flowers with and without the white tips on the same plant, and sometimes a random flower will bloom as a single instead of a double. Any which way, this is one of the most stunning orange dahlias, which I believe is best viewed in a strong moonlight after having had a martini or two.

Those are absolutely beautiful dahlias..where did you buy tubers ? I buy from swan island every year...very disappointed this yr...small sparse blooms...