A Dahlia Field Tour on our PNW Flower Farm

Let's see if we can do a little tour of the galley field before dark. So this year I grew over 12,000 galleys. This is not new. It's not a new variety. That's not 5,000. Okay? That's not 5,000. This is the little starlight girl. I show her several times. Really beautiful. Has a colorful backpack. Ah, very cool. Okay. This is definitely one of my favorite colors. This is probably my favorite green. I have a whole bunch of different colors out there. It's not really what I'm talking about. If you like light green, this is the perfect color for you. It's a natural green color. This is Cabot Indian. I don't know if you can tell. It's a lot darker. We're at the end of September, so I'm letting the dark die. I'm not reddening more. I'm more interested in lighter colors. This is Cabot Witch. Very beautiful. Pretty easy to find, actually. But I don't know where to start. The reason why I let them grow their seed is you don't typically grow dahlias from seed. But if you want to hybridize, that's where I'll start. This is TA's Boho Peach. I really love this one. If you want to plant dahlias in your borders, this would be a good one because it generally supports the sun area and it doesn't get wet. This one is Dutch Pearl. This one I had to show you. This is Peyton Cinder Rose. And it is just beautiful. Hard to find a dahlia this color, honestly, in the market. And as you can tell, it's really prolific. It also supports itself really well. So if you have a hotter climate, it might show more yellow in it. But in the fall and late fall, it starts to get a lot hotter. It's really, really good. But I personally really love this form. This one is easy to find if you want to grow it. I recommend it. This is Holly Hill Serenity. This was hybridized by Ted and Margaret Kennedy. And this is probably my second. So this and Holly Hill Daydream are my two favorite waterlilies. If you like yellow, Skiffley Moonglow is a really good one. If you live in a hotter climate, it's going to look more yellow. And if you plant it in the shade or it's cooler temps, you'll get more of a blush on the inside. This one I kind of just grow for fun. This is Leluna. I kind of want to collect seed from it just because, I don't know, it's different. And I'm not even a yellow fan, really. But obviously I'm still growing this like what we were trying last year. This one, in my opinion, is underrated. It's easy to find. It's not hard to get at all. But it is so beautiful. This is Tomato Buzz. And another one, High Patty. Love. Love, love, love this one. Also, everyone should know this one. Easy to get to. It's really, really gorgeous. And then, Ernie McRusty. I have so many of them. Because honestly, this is one of my favorites. Like the color, size, how prolific it is. It just pumps out the games. This is K.A.'s Grandma Sib. Very gorgeous color. It tends to have a little bit of a green center before it fully opens. But that mostly goes away. And Happet Pearl. Love that. This little cute one is one that I'm trying for a great value. Thank you. I have a bunch. That are gorgeous. This is an heirloom variety that's been around for years and years and years. It's called Whiparoo. I got this from Mr. Dario's. And Boomkits Mojo. I really love this game. A lot. It can sport to a lighter color. So, that is not uncommon. I broke this down when I took it off. So, both of those do not stay bright. That's pretty common. I've never tried Icelandic sport, but I think they're good. This one is New York City. These bells can go up. It's highlighted by Bonnie Williams when you look up, you know, Castle Rock, Washington. Here's Aggie's White, which is not white, but it's gorgeous. It'd be this bottom. They're definitely bigger than my face. And my favorite, Peach. Just like you, lady. I love her so much. This is hybridized by Bernie Wilton. And it is just so worth it. It grows really tall. And also, if you do get it, it makes these very long, thin tubers. Like, the width of my finger is normal. And they're like 12 inches long. So, just keep that in mind. This is Cadillac. And I like it a lot. It's a little white, but it's gorgeous. I like it a lot. This is Lee's Swiss Miss. And this is my robe. And, well, a lot of Glenmark Sky, which I absolutely love. I'm trying to work into a speed here, but it's just gorgeous. Like, look at that. It's really, really beautiful. I just really love this form. When you go all the way back like that, and the gradient. So, I think it's that one. This is definitely one I would recommend. Another one I love that was needed here when I first got this. Well, I actually did have it one year before, but somehow I lost it. Love this one. Very strong scent. I don't honestly have anything that I'm struggling with, but it's great. This is an Immature. It's a rhubarb. It's definitely not open all the way up yet, but you can see there's a bunch of petals there. This massive bush, literally like it's a hedge, is florally pirouette. Pirouette. It's super beautiful. This is two plants. That's two plants. This is Taehae's Creme Brulee. I basically, I mean, as you can tell, I painted everything with this specific thing on. In this row, which is cool, is the triangle seeds that have this one. So down here we have Taehae's Milk of Katy. This is one from Australia. It's called Green Yarn, I think. And RM has Twinkle. That one, I believe. And this is RM Cinnamon, which again just has that gorgeous, gorgeous reverse on the back side of the petals. I just really, really love that. Probably my favorite Dahlias have that on some level. Taehae's Rosy Joe. This is, which is for all of me, my favorite of my folks. Here is RM Cinnamon. And that one down there is Rosa. This is Alan Smith's Bones. This is me in this picture. I love this. I love the color. That's Tapit Rose Tree, I believe. Pretty sure. And that's opal. So a lot of this part of the field, well, not a lot, this part of the field is all kinds of either varieties that I've had, and I was just trying to go out, this is Miss Orange Country, or new varieties that I got so I kind of divided the field up in half. This is Bloomquist Firecracker. It doesn't normally actually have an open center, I'm just letting these blooms go to seed. This is RM Gluttony Penny. And this is where I cropped gold. I really love this one. The color is fantastic. I saw this at the PDX National Show a couple years ago, and it's really pretty. And then a favorite, Miss Honey. Super cute. This was hybridized by the Bullies. So the reason I divided my field in half was just honestly fishing. So it was easier for me to plant all the tubers first than to try and mix up tubers in bedding, so we just knocked all the tubers out first, and then we came back in, and we did the cutting back in. This is Jason's Contaminate. I love this plant. This is a Diva with Spirulina. Spirulina is a bad name. I'll save it for the end of the world. But it's pretty cute. And it's purple, and it's too neat. I like purple. It's perfect. So Rana's kind of here at this point. I'm going to jump ahead so you can see a bunch more foliage being cut all through the ground. Let me see if I can do some seedlings real quick. I don't have to do a part two another time. So this part of the field is basically my first year's seedlings, with the exception that there's a couple rows in there with one of them. I'm trialing for some people, but those are just completely separate rows. So this one, I might keep it. As you can tell, that first one was a little wonky, so I'm waiting to see what the next one will be. This one I'm definitely marking for another year. So you can see there's a more mature row right there. That one, I doubt I will keep. I'm just not that yellow. This is very yellow. That one, probably won't. So the first thing I do every day is I come through, I walk through every row, and I pull out the ones that I just know are not going to be good. So for example, tomorrow morning, I will pull this one because I can already tell that it's just not going to have enough petals. This one, I will keep. There's another one that's already past its prime, but this one has a lot, I promise. I found. Also, this one over there. Here's another example. This will get pulled tomorrow. I just do it one time a day, so I just do it at the beginning, but you can tell it's not going to have enough petals. That one will get pulled. This one, I probably will keep. Red is not my favorite, but this red is really good red. I'm just going to keep this one. This one, I'm not sure. The stripey petal thing is not generally something I go for. I also have a few seedlings that look similar to this. I might line them up and see if there's one that's the best. This one, I'm definitely tagging another year. This one, probably not. As you can tell, I let several blooms bloom because I just wasn't sure, but it's very clock-faced and it does not really... Let's see. I don't think it really has enough petals. It seems to pull its center faster, but I really do like the pearly petals. It also is wobbly, and that's just a hard no for me. Honestly, I rarely see my correct result. That one might be interesting. I just noticed that. We'll see what that opens up with tomorrow. So there's another one that looks similar to that one, just a couple like that. This one definitely does have enough petals. I don't know if that will get thrown out. This one, I'm just not sure of. It seems... I don't know. The white... The white underline is... is odd. Um... I don't know. If I'm not sure, I will keep it. But... This one I'll keep. I'm not sure I know what that one looks like. This one's similar to... to at least Rosie Cho. Yeah, that one I'll keep. This one I will keep, you know. This one I will not. It doesn't have good stem attachment, and there is one I'm growing This one, I haven't decided yet. Possibly, though. I'm waiting for this one to open all the way. Pretty sure I'll keep that, though. This one probably will get tagged. I'll wait to see a few more blooms. Um... I'm losing light here. This one, probably. We'll see if that green center stays or not. This one, definitely not that one. Also that one. Probably not that one. This one, I am keeping. Let's see. Let's see that. These ones, haven't decided. This one, maybe. See how the green center stays. Um... This one, I will. Unless the center's really bad, because it's little, and there's a lot of petals. Okay. Let's try and do a few more. I will do a part two. That one I'm keeping. Look at that. That's really something. This one I think I will, too. Can you see this, like, purple underline? It's interesting. Okay, so this one, I actually might keep this one, even though it has a green center. It just... I don't know. This one, first of all, it blooms a ton, especially for first year seedling. And the color is just... It's really interesting. This one I might, too. I'm waiting to see a few more blooms. This one's an overly mature bloom, but look how fluffy that is. You can tell I really like that. Fluffy... bloom. Um... That one I'm doing. It reminds me of Alloway Cottage, which just has more lavender. This one... This one is really cool, and I'm undecided, but I probably won't keep it. And the reason why is you can tell that it burns easily on the back. Like, there's a lot of blooms on it, and that's just... That's just frustrating when you grow them and they burn like that. Um... That one, maybe. This one, maybe. Oh, and then this one, I will. This one is so good. The center's a little wonky, but it's bloomed several times, and that's... that's not... normal. Oh man, that's weird. Alright, so obviously that center is horrible. But this one has, like, so many golden chips. Alright, that's it. I will do Part 2 another time.