I like all dahlia colors. Never used to want red (mostly to keep down the numbers of flowers in my beds) now I have all kinds of reds and just ordered more LOL. Way back when I started out with Chimacum Topaz and a very miniature orange dahlia, then realizing there were thousands more shapes colors and sizes to choose from, I stuck with oranges, bronzes, yellows to "match" what I had growing. Then came the purples, lavenders, whites, pinks, later the reds LOL..... you know how it goes! I'm sure Susan Ambrose has forgiven you. A college friend had me over to their newly bought home. We toured from room to room while she lamented about the former owner's hideous color schemes in various rooms and the work involved in redecorating. The kitchen was behind a swinging door so when it opened, we were assualted by the most hideous smothering blue. Of course, I empathized with just how hideous the kitchen was..... only to have her tell me "I know. This didn't turn out like we had hoped!" LOL My bad.

Not a dumb question at all---the "secret" to getting good dahlias from seed is 30 years of trial & error, a hybridizing program with copious note-taking & evaluation reports & lots of plain old work! I have to laugh when someone tells me they are sooo happy because they bought seeds to grow, for instance-- pink cactus dahlias-- & then I get angry because someone has taken advantage of them & taken their money under false pretenses. Chances are there won't be a pink cactus in the lot & most of them will be very poor dahlias. For every 1000 planted you're lucky to get a few really good ones. We only grow fully double, AA & A sized dahlias in our seed parent garden, do hand-crossing of the ones that our records show to be good parents with a good rate of success. We don't grow any open centered dahlias anywhere on the farm. We start with really good show quality dahlias, & cull ruthlessly any seedlings that aren't up to snuff. It's better to start with good ones than to try to breed out flaws. We do breeding back- using the seed parents with the seedlings from them when doing hand pollinating. The first year you get, maybe 3-4 tubers from the seedling. Then you have to keep the tubers over & grow the dahlias for 4 years before you can send them to the trial gardens. After that you can introduce them -- so every dahlia that we have introduced we have grown for at least 5 years, entered it in shows to see how it does, sent some to trials-- some we even send to other countries to see how they do there. We have a couple of friends around the US & Canada & England that we let grow some of our seedlings to see how they do in regular gardens-- not just in the trials. It's a lot of work but like Christmas every day in the summer when a brand new seedling baby opens up & we get to see something that no one has ever see before-- & quite a few that no one will ever see again, too :)

We have 2 or 3 cactus varieties that came from seed packets we got at home depot. Most seed packets you see in seed racks are usually dwarf types and they do well. I have a few beds of dwarfs but they don't give the blooms that the larger varieties do. Local florist like large blooms and they want long stems. We breed some and buy seed to expand our gardens. I was hoping some breeders would connect with me and we could exchange seed or I could buy some. It's not easy to breed dahlias a lot work is involved.

I use tomato cages to stake my dahlias and they hold up much better than individual stakes. The dahlias grow fast and their foliage completely hides the cage really quickly. The cage holds several stalks together which really hold up better to the wind. Plus it's easier, no tying.