Yah, yah, pretty indeed. But look at those stems on Bonaventure! Holy cow. You do have a heavenly view to work your dahlia magic, Plantlady. I'm coming to visit this year for sure. I hope. LOL. Said that last year too. You might have to tie a winch to my waist to get me OUT of there! Do you happen to have a picture of Peach Sorbet? I could only find one online in Europe. But anything you show us will bring on the sunshine I'm sure.

Annabeth- yes, a seedling is a new variety that we have hybridized. We grew it from seed. The first year I plant the seeds in flats & when they've got 2 sets of leaves I transplant them into deep 3" pots. They grow in our greenhouse until the end of May when Walt plants them out in the seedling garden. We usually have around 750 - we will keep about 150 of them to evaluate the second year. After that we keep evaluating them until they're either 5 years old or we get rid of them if they don't make the grade. In order to get a seedling into the trail gardens it has to be 3 years old-- & some gardens require the seedling to have won at least 1 first on the hort. bench in a show or have scored on the 1-10 in a show. Then it goes to the trials for a summer & then is either introduced or not the 5th year. It's taken a lot of years to figure out what seed parents to use in what combination to get good seedlings. We specialize in the biggies - AA & A sized - but if we get a nice B or BB we're not about to toss it out. We haven't decided if we're going to introduce 0386 (yes, I goofed up on the number- it's 03 not 02) next year or not. We might send it to the trial gardens to see how it does all around the country. It won Best AA in Show at the Fraser Valley Dahlia Show in Canada last weekend- we think it's going to be an AA rather than an A since it seems to want to grow BIG! You're right- there's no AA or A sized FD purple or dark burgandy dahlias- & only a couple of ID ones-- that's why I was so excited when we got some this year. I just tagged some more today-- going to use that combination of parents more for sure! Meanwhile, we have a really nice 8" dark purple seedling that looks like a dark purple Edna C. Walt calls her Primadonna! I was going to post a picture of her for you but Photobucket seems to be having a maintenance problem right now & I can't get in to get the picture. We would ALL like to have a giant with Hillcrest Kismet form-- wouldn't that be wonderful!

I was determined to have a red and white flower bed at one point. From spring to fall, I loaded it up with seed, bulb, perrenial and annual plants. It was going to be striking and pure! The white daffs turned out to be yellow, blue forgetmenots the floated in from another bed crowded out any seed that might have germinated, pink evening primrose muscled its way in from a neighboring bed, and the red lilies turned out to be an irritating orange. The white azalea failed to bloom, and annuals got eaten up by slugs before I noticed the danger. That's okay, the riot of color still tickled me when I passed, and I gave up on trying to micromanage mixed beds. My dahlia beds, on the other hand, I plot and design in winter to chase away the blues, and tends to stay true to plan. I tried five gallon pots of dahlia at one point, but watering has to be very consistent for them to thrive in that environment. Most died, with one hanging on until a rainy month where it could grow and bloom. I'm a bit better where consistency doesn't matter much. ;-)

I also live in the U.P. so our growing season is to short for me to not try and overwinter as much as possible. I have a banana tree (from seed two years ago)and a large elephant ear that come inside. Cannas and gladiolas, oxalis,a lantana I grew from seed this year and a nice containerof Ganzia and tricolor sage and Orange celosia I refused to give up to the cold. I have a small grow room that I start seedlings in the spring that most of the pots are at with a sunlamp for light. I have two special geraniums that Im trying the no soil,brown bag method. I have a large strawberry pot with rosemary, thyme and a curry plant in the southside kithen window. A eucalyptus and sunset hibiscus and two types of Abutilion in same window. Ive had two large Hibisus that Ive had for ten years that come in and out depending on the night temps. Ive had good luck keeping rosemary alive most of the winter in a cold porch with brightlight but this year Im keeping it inside and well watered, keeping my fingers crossed!Even if I lose this one It wont be till after Xmas and It makes a nice xmas plant.