Re: Lili Sweet Little Gift Part3 Full
Vida Hubbert
ROO
Roo is one lazy hound, as any good hound should be. He loves helping his pawrents decorate for the holiday and loves to sniff out gift bags. Best wrap those boxes to keep him from snooping.
Jordan Galey/Jackson, Tennessee
ROSCOE
A black lab, Roscoe shared his home with Tommy. Both were rescue dogs and brought personality and endless love to the family. This will be the first Christmas without Roscoe, so keep Tommy and the Fusillos in your thoughts this holiday.
Melissa Fusillo/Largo, Florida
FAITH
We talk about rescues, but this is a case where Faith was the rescuer. She arrived at a difficult time and immediately filled the house with joy.
Jennifer Frazier/Grenada, Mississippi
KADIBUG
Kadibug has been a sweetheart all year. But should Santa forget what she wants, we have a hint: squeaky tennis balls are her favorite.
Mary Higginbotham/Hoover, Alabama
LADYBUG
Ladybug loves sitting and posing in her Santa hat near the Christmas tree. She loves the excitement of the season and offers sweet kisses when family visits.
Debbie Streets/Maylene, Alabama
TUCKER AND BELLE
Mr. DeMille, Big Tucker and little Belle are ready for their close-ups. They became fast friends the moment they met, but were actually raised apart. See, both were found abandoned in dumpsters as puppies with each rescued by a different parent. Making the story even sweeter, their humans soon started dating and became man and wife, bringing Tucker and Belle together.
Loren Haley/Atlanta, Georgia
WALLY
Wally was rescued from the Ark of Cleveland (Tennessee) Shelter nearly four years ago. Now approaching 8, he is a loving member of the family who loves kisses and wearing different sweaters in the winter.
Cheryl Thayer/Kingston, Tennessee
BELLA AND SASHA
Bella, the Border Collie mix, and Australian Shepherd Sasha love chatting with Santa. This photo was at a recent Flyball Tournament. Bellas has been competing for years and Sasha, adopted in May, is training for competition now.
Kim Winsett/Hoover, Alabama
CLYDE
A 1-year-old Labrador Retriever, Clyde listens intently. When Mom tells him to look with his eyes, not with his hands, he meets in the middle and explores the ornament with his mouth.
Sara Sport/Hoover, Alabama
When I started growing dahlias I had no idea that you could grow them from seed. It was actually a good 10 years into my journey with them that I learned that there was a difference between growing dahlias from tubers or cuttings, which is how you clone a variety, and growing them from seed, which is how you create or breed a brand new variety.
Traditionally, dahlia breeders have mainly focused their breeding efforts on varieties that will rank high in competition, with the exception of Kristine Albrecht at Santa Cruz Dahlias who has bred some incredible varieties perfect for arranging.
None of the varieties that are in my breeding patch will likely ever win a blue ribbon at a dahlia show, but I think flower arrangers, farmers, and gardeners will love them, and that is who these magical varieties are intended for.
This past season it became really clear that the dahlia breeding project had ballooned to the point that it was in serious need of some focused attention and thoughtful organization. We hunkered down and mapped everything out with a ton of detail. Each row was numbered, every variety labeled at eye level and then detailed maps were drawn up.
Twice a week from mid-July to early October we walked the rows, observed the plants, selected which varieties would move forward, harvested flowers from the varieties that made the cut, measured blooms, wrote descriptions in our big breeding binders, and brought them into the barn to have their portrait taken.
Here is a little sampling of the flower portraits: There are so many beautiful little treasures emerging from this project and looking at them all leaves me a bit overwhelmed, in the best possible way.
C144/Firefly has pointed slightly incurved petals that are soft buttercream brushed with raspberry-red. They have long wiry stems and the plants are covered in flowers all season long. Pollinators love this variety and it also has surprisingly good tuber production.
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I would be very interested in purchasing seeds from your Dahlia breeding project. I fully realize germination rate and resulting plants may be all over the place. If they were categorized by type and color as a starting point with pictures of mothe rplants it would just as much an exciting surprise on my end.
Glad to see lots of muted, more antiqued shades. Palest pink, dusted brown and rich raspberry would be my choice. Hapet Pearl, Genova, Wizard of Oz and April Heather are some of my favorites in. Floret, Little Miss Sunshine and Firefly are all lovely
Beautiful write up and seeing all the pictures gets us excited for planting season. My dream Dahlia would be earwig free? and the color of a pink sunset or close to your precious metal variety.
I would be excited to see iceland poppies poke thru!
Thankyou
Looking forward to all thing Floretfarm!
My dream dahlia would be a dinnerplate with subtle color variations within each bloom and so full you would wonder how all those petals could possibly fit and in on flower and the petals would be textured (either ruffles or spikey) on the edges, either a bold dark purple-black or a soft salmon/peach color.
If I were to imagine a new dream dahlia it would be a white center fading out to a muted pink and then ending in a dark pink with slightly incurved petals. But honestly, all dahlias are so beautiful, each color and variety has something unique to offer.
There are already so many amazing dahlias, but if I were to image a new dream dahlia it would be a muted peachy pink with a light center and darker borders around the edges. That is of course, until nature creates something even more magical than I can imagine!
Just planted my first dahlia seeds from Green Witch Seeds.
They have germinated and are starting to grow. It will be fun watching them grow and bloom.
Long stemmed deep raspberry blooms with butter cream edges.. So many colours, shapes and endless possibilities.
My dream surprise would be a pointy petal of raspberry red, licked with creamy, buttery cream and a puffy dark red center. Long stems so that a vase full would bounce in the soft New Zealand summer breeze.
Dahlias are simply divine, simply beautiful. The ultimate dahlia is one that draws the eye into its petals with its iridescence. The color is undefinable and therefore perfect. The sanguine curl of the perfect dahlia petal delights and is not defined by a type but rather by the joy it brings. That is my dream dahlia.
I love so many colors , but I think I would love a bright apricot with tones of pink and yellow throughout. I would love having a variety of colors to plant out in my garden. Thank you for bringing so much beauty into our lives!
I am just starting my research to figure out what dahlias might grow well in Houston TX. Hoping to find some varieties to have success with. I love the color purple so a plum purple, soft but not necessarily pastel would be lovely, maybe a purple version of your c33/floret . I do love the beautiful peachy-coral-pink-yellow ones though. I am fairly new to following floret flowers and appreciate all the information and pictures that you have spent time putting together and then share.
I am a school garden coordinator and we were given one of your books by our local garden club. We are hoping to experiment with dahlias this year and I am really interested to know that we can try to grow them from seed. I tend toward more yellows and oranges, and love the larger dahlias that seem to have such organized centers with petals that get fluffier on the outside.
The uniqueness and beauty of dahlias bring me so much wonder, amazement, and joy. I feel so drawn to the funky fun ones, like how does that happen, such as Little Miss Sunshine! I love her form, a bit bigger with soft raspberry, watermelon colored petals and a soft peachy colored center. Could work in a bright or warm color palette theme!
Thank you for inspiration and make your dahlia journey bring you all the joy!
My dream dahlia would be a creamy lemon petals with bright pink coloring in the center. Fun and summery! I started my seeds a couple of weeks ago and would love to discover a creamy yellow informal decorative in my patch which would be a new color for my farm!
My dream dahlia would consist of a vibrant coral-raspberry color combination that would have a tight cluster of petals in the center but branch out into flared pink tinted creamy petals. I am really drawn to the flowers that are bright in the center, but that fade like a tie die in the outer edges of the petals. Its so dreamy just to think about all of the options!
My dream/fantasy dahlia would be a beautiful blue that would carry my blue garden into the fall. I could go from pansies to irises to delphiniums and morning glories to fabulous blue dahlias. Sigh. . .
My dream dahlia would contain as many different shades of pink as possible and be a ball shapped one! Thank you for all the inspiration you have given us first time flower growers! Honestly discovering your story has helped give myself permission to move big dreams to action plans! I am growing my first dahlias this year! I cannot wait for it to warm up just a little more here in Virginia!
A creamy buttery yellow with maybe a little purple coloring thrown in. My mom loved flowers and yellow was her favorite. I lost her in 2019 and everytime I paint yellow flowers I think of her. The purple is a reminder of the beautiful lilacs she planted outside my bedroom window when I was little. Waking up to the smell was heavenly.
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