October dahlia garden tour and breeding update | sarah kay home

Okay, so we did in fact get our first frost warning for tonight. Low of 36. So I know that every time you plan for the worst the best happens and every time you don't expect the worst it happens. So I'm gonna prepare as much as possible. All of the dahlias that we've hand pollinated at least and definitely dry out the ones that need milking. Christine at Santa Cruz always calls it milking but she's got some really good videos. I'll link them on Instagram. My plan is to take notes of everything that's been hand pollinated thus far and take really good pictures of where everything's at right now because there are some flowers that I definitely want to keep that are being open pollinated. So we've got some hand and open pollinated and obviously the tubers that we're gonna save from a few plants. So I realized that I gave absolutely no details about where I've been and how I got here. So in 2024 I bought and planted some of florets and Erin from florets her petite dahlias and I had some success. There were some that were kind of wonky but I kept them in ground throughout the whole season of 2024 and then there were some that were beautiful and so the handful that were worth saving I dug up because I was nervous and I didn't want to lose these tubers that I'd grown for from seed for the first time. So I dug them all up and I created them with craft paper, cardboard, kept them what I thought was healthy over winter and then replanted them in the spring of 2025 and so my raised beds were full. I also added a new addition of raised bed on the end with fresh compost along with dirt that I was gathering from other places where I was revamping different beds. Anytime I was removing sod I was shaking off the dirt and putting that dirt into the new raised bed. So all of my dug up tubers and tubers that were still in the ground, it was about half and half, were in my original raised bed areas. So old soil but I mean relatively healthy worm activity that kind of stuff. So I noticed about probably July as everything started to turn green there was just some suspicion about okay this might be virus I'm not sure. So I kept an eye on everything. I did not fertilize which I really should have so that is something that I regret not fertilizing but lesson learned. I took a lot of notes um and pictures and stuff. I was kind of keeping my eye on everything and then I kind of realized like okay wait it's started smaller okay now it's kind of touching everything and the more and more I looked the more it seemed like it was mosaic virus to me. So without having anything sent off which I didn't to be tested you really don't know. Like you're looking at pictures compare your leaves to the leaves that you're seeing on the different Dahlia Society websites but you really don't know. Because I had never seen this I was immediately like okay I just kind of sucked it up knowing that not only were there older dahlias that I got like tubers from Costco tubers from Swan Island in 2023 but also the the seedlings that I had overwintered some in the ground and then some pulled and and stored for the winter. At that point I was like I'm cutting my losses because I have all these new seedlings in this new raised bed next to and potentially going to be touching soon the what I think are virused dahlias. So I went ahead and pulled everything. I pulled every single dahlia that I thought looked like it had a virus and I threw them away. That killed me. I just kept saying like everything happens for a reason. I luckily had enough things that I was starting from seed and our local youth farm to purchase some of their starts at the beginning of the season so I was able to move stuff around and not have huge empty spaces and beds for too long. And luckily because it was the middle of August everything was full because I pulled everything and moved everything around I now had new room and kind of a fresh appreciation for all the dahlias that I was growing from seed new that year. It was seed that I had collected from my petite florets from 2024 and then shooting stars, can cans, and bees choice. So there are three different seed packets that I bought late in 2024 and didn't have time to germinate and plant them so I just saved them knowing that I wouldn't plant them this year. What I've started to do now that they're taking off and really healthy in this new bed with the new soil new compost and healthy soil and I've got natives around them I am hand pollinating some and bagging them with organza bags. My main goal is to I mean I think I also got really lucky I think the ones that I have grown from the seed that I bought are all I mean stunning. I just this is what I wanted the whole time last year from the petite florets and I wasn't really getting it. There was one that was super healthy but the stems weren't super strong. So basically my goal is to cross and hand pollinate the ones that I love with the ones that I love. This is not one-for-one genetics so there's really no telling and I'm following along closely with Erin at Floret and kind of her journey and she's writing her book. She's been doing seed saving courses and will share what she's learned about all of her her breeding program. I've got a few that are tied up with organza bags and what I did was cut up a cereal box into little pieces and Christine at Santa Cruz uses jewelry tags that aren't coded but because we get a lot of rain here especially this time of year I cut up cereal boxes into small pieces and then wrote what the bloom is x what I crossed it with and then the date that it was hand pollinated and then I taped just used packing tape to kind of laminate the the pieces and put them in each of the bags as I was hand pollinating and I did use one singular brush for each cross pollination. So for just my one initial sweep not knowing how many more blooms I would get before hard frost and these dahlias die and I cut them back I crossed one with one so it wasn't like I was taking one and putting it to the other and then tossing the or you know cleaning the paintbrush. I was crossing this one crossing this one crossing that you know going back and forth between the two. They're in organza bags and I've been trying to just stay steady milking them because you don't want the the seeds to rot before they produce. So I am going to do two separate videos. I'm going to do dahlia hand pollinating and kind of just tour of what I've got speckled throughout and then I'll do kind of the rest of the yard zinnias and then front yard as well. My hummingbirds are here and there's no telling where Max is. So let's get started. I just want to start with some hand footage. This is shooting six which is a variety that is definitely staying. It did not get hand pollinated but this is it in its final form and this this bud I'll have to check is quite old. She's a keeper for sure and then this is OG 8.3 I think. This definitely could be something else but this was one of the main centers from last year and this is one of my favorites. So we've got one that's been hand pollinated with shooting two. This is the newest bloom and it's just absolutely pure butter lemon yellow and just I mean long and sturdy stem so obviously a keeper and then this is a little bit of an older bloom. This is at least I think a week or two old but it ends up with pinks frilly centers and this is what I've been hoping and dreaming for from my florets. So we've got one that's been hand pollinated then two that are open pollinated on this one and this is like the strongest and sturdiest stem. I did tie it up twice the other day just knowing that we were going to get heavy wind and rain. This is its sister. This one I think stays a little bit more bright bright bright yellow and this one has more of a kind of pointy tips and then two hand pollinated with different crosses and then one open pollinated and then we've got some definite buds coming through. Stems are still long but they're a little bit more floppy I think but I still think it would be strong enough in a vase but this one is just I mean it's just electric. It's kind of difficult to even tell in this light but it's got some a little bit of pink striping on the back but not as much as her sister and I think these are about the same age-ish. I'll have to review some tape. So we've got an open pollinated the shooting two with og 8.3 which is its sister and then this shooting two with shooting three which is I'll show you in a second. There's mammy. Okay here we've got og 8.4 which is a singular stem and pretty strong. The stems are not as long as some of the others we're keeping but this one is just kind of a classic. Oh look at the little spider booty. So we've got one that's been hand pollinated that is this og 8.4 with shooting three. One and then this is how it starts out. This is two that are going to be open pollinated. This is the shooting three that's been crossed with a couple of the ones I've already mentioned and it has medium length stems not as long as some of the others but a relatively healthy stalk. We do have some mildew but it's to be expected. So we've got kind of an older bloom. Got a little bit of a wonky petal here but that's okay. We love a bit of wonk. This is the darkest. You can kind of see some of that maroon. The darkest stem so I was expecting a darker dahlia. I'm not sure if that's actually correlation causation vibes but I was expecting and hoping for a darker dahlia. So this is shooting three. It does have some wonky petals but I think it's worth saving. So this one I did already milk this morning. There's probably a little bit more. So this is shooting three that was crossed with shooting two. I've also got shooting three with og 8.4. So two hand pollinated and then hopefully at least two open pollinated. This is a can can one and this one is a super thick sturdy stem with some shorter stems unfortunately but some variety here. This is almost an exact middle-ish ground between the two sisters over there. This has got the same amount of curly cues. Probably a little bit thicker of curly cues. This is kind of a very middle ground between the two sisters over there. Bright yellow with some pink on the back as it ages. I can't remember how old this one is but we've got at least one. This is how it starts out. Two. Just the cutest. So unassuming right? Two open pollinated and then this one's been hand pollinated. Can can one and og 8.2. And then this I'm pretty sure is not a B4 but in fact iced tea from last year from Swan Island um that just got everything when I moved everything around and pulled some stuff well everything it got mislabeled. Okay then we've got og 8.2 here and it's struggling because it was stuck between all the the big boys over there that when I transplanted it didn't really have a fighting chance. We have hand pollinated this 8.2 with the can can one. Okay then we've got this unknown which very well could be the B4 which is the mistaken for the iced tea so that's what I'll call it. We didn't get any blooms out of it but it is also fighting for its life over here isn't it? Okay then we've also got shooting one which also has no blooms but again was fighting for its life. It doesn't look the healthiest but it is a darker stem. This is an unknown I think but it's not doing the best um but this has definitely not been fertilized. Now these are the aren't those just splendid? That's definitely what the cucumber beetles have at them but that's okay. This I have no idea what it is but it's a mini winnie and it is also kind of fighting for its life. This is B3 which is got transplanted very late in the game but is super healthy. Lots of green a very large leaf but no blooms yet. We have got this is the purple um I think it's a shooting of some sort that I brought in one of them inside so we'll let that open pollinate and then this is an old labyrinth that has only bloomed once. Okay the bugs have an absolute field day over here but maybe this is two separate plants right because these leaves I mean they've all been munched so heavily. I'll have to figure out if this is a nutrient deficiency or what. This is another shooting star which has not bloomed but again was transplanted very late. The monsters are moulin rouges. There's a cancan 3 back there which was transplanted very late and looks otherwise healthy. Why are those like the most stunning weeds? Okay there's also this thalia which was transplanted very late in the season but otherwise looks healthy. There's also this one that never got staked looks pretty healthy especially for the level of neglect and has not yet bloomed but I imagine should bloom soon. And then here are the thalias that have the, I googled it, it's called like a wolf mutation but there's one, two, I left these outside last night by accident, and then three yeah so they're kind of smushed but otherwise healthy to have survived all night last night in the frost. And then this one's kind of smaller but poor.