Dahlia Experiments 2025 - Growing Dahlia Seedlings
Hello friends,
As part of my dahlia growing experiments this year, one of my goals is to grow my own dahlia plants from seed. I have a stash of dahlia seed available, including the Bee's Choice dahlia variety from Floret in the USA (which I bought from Emerden last year), Beeline I and II dahlia seeds from the breeder Doctor Keith Hammett in New Zealand, dahlia seeds from Susie Ripley's garden in Dunedin, and also open pollinated seeds from my own garden.
At the end of August, once I was able to garden again after my second cataract surgery, I sowed my dahlia seeds into two covered seed trays, and sprinkled them with enough seed raising mix to cover them.
With them watered, and kept moist in the trays, the dahlia seeds stayed in our dining room in the warmth while they germinated. To my surprise, most of the dahlia seeds I planted germinated, at a rate of about 95%, which is way more dahlias than I expected to plant in my garden this year.
They grew nice and strong, and soon they were ready to transplant out into bigger pots with potting mix. They've been growing safe and sound in my glasshouse since then, growing bigger each week. My plan is to plant them in the garden after the last frost, but for now I have to figure out where I'm going to put 43 dahlia seedlings...
I can't wait to see what dahlia flowers appear from these seedlings over the summer. My plan is to be quite harsh with them, and I'll pull out any flowering plant that I'm not happy with, to give other dahlias room to grow. I'll give you updates as I go...
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
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Dahlia Profile - Keith Hammett Mystic Sparkler Self-Seeded Seedling
Hello friends,
Today's dahlia is a self-seeded seedling of one of my other dahlias, Mystic Sparkler.
A dahlia with dark leaves popped up in my back garden over spring, and since I didn't plant a dahlia in that position, I concluded that it was a seedling from another dahlia in the garden. And considering that I only have two dark leaved dahlias in my garden, it was either a seedling of Mystic Sparkler or Dream Seeker, which are both Keith Hammett bred dahlias.
I bought the Keith Hammett Mystic Sparkler dahlia back when I lived in Wellington. When we moved back home to Dunedin in winter 2019, I dug up all my dahlias and brought them down with me.
According to the breeding notes: "Dahlia variabilis ‘Mystic Sparkler’ features unique single hot
flamingo pink flowers with warm yellow halos and dark central discs on
glossy mahogany-black foliage." Mystic Sparkler will reach 51 to 76 cm high and has flowers 10 cm wide. Mystic Sparkler is planted in the middle of my back garden in full sun.
My Mystic Sparkler seedling:
Flower Bud Opening:
Mystic Sparkler Seedling in full flower:
As you can see, the Mystic Sparkler seedling differs from the breeders notes. The flamingo pink and yellow colouring has been diluted into soft rosy pinks and yellows, but it has the most pretty striping ocolours. Unfortunately it looks like some earwigs have had a chomp at its flower petals before they unfurled, so she's not perfectly rounded.
I'm quite happy with the Mystic Sparkler seedling, it has more muted tones than Mystic Sparkler, and I love both, so I will keep them both in my garden. You will very soon see a dahlia profile for Mystic Sparkler, as I saw her first flowers unfurling this morning on my walk around the garden.
Have a wonderful day
Julie-Ann
Want to discuss my post? Feel free to chat with me on Instagram
or Mastodon or Bluesky.
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