Among The Petals

15/06/2026

13/06/2026

I wish these photos could fully capture the vibrancy of this hot pink dahlia seedling against the dark foliage. It stood out in the patch like a hot pink flamingo rising on the back of a dark horse from a sea of evergreen leaves. A dramatic and slightly silly image, I know… 😆 but it really was that striking.

As the season went on, the dark foliage softened into a deep green, but even the seed pods stayed pink. A second-year seedling and definitely one to watch. It didn’t produce masses of blooms this season, just a few large flowers at a time, though it was planted in the one bed where nothing seemed to thrive.

I’m very excited to see what it does next season 🌸

01/06/2026

This lovely caramel-peachy-brown-pink-orange... I don't know what colour it wants to be, but somehow it seems to work with almost every other flower because it carries so many different tones within the bloom.

It probably doesn't have the highest petal count, but it more than makes up for it in productivity. It pumps out blooms and earns its place in arrangements time and time again.

I do tend to disbud the side buds, as leaving them all on noticeably reduces the size of each flower. The plant itself isn't particularly tall either, which I appreciate, and it doesn't seem to require staking.

This is a Breannon seedling, and I'm bringing it into its third year. Whether it ever becomes anything more than a flower I grow for myself remains to be seen, but for now it's definitely earned its spot in the garden.

25/05/2026

For something a little different, here are a few blooms that won’t be making it into another season.

These are all first year seedlings and, for one reason or another, they just didn’t quite make the grade. Some were let down by head attachment, stem strength, petal count, or simply the fact that I didn’t love them enough to keep working with them. Others just weren’t quite in line with the direction I want my breeding program to head.

This is the hard side of breeding… but also one of the most satisfying parts. Learning to choose what stays, what goes, and what’s truly worth the space for another season.

Not every seedling can be a keeper, no matter how pretty the bloom may be.

So now I’m curious… which one would you have struggled to cull?

23/05/2026

When a bloom is so lovely you’re willing to give it one more season to fix itself… aka you completely lack the willpower to cull. Anyone else relate? 😅

This lovely seedling is in its second year. I honestly don’t remember it from the first season because I’m pretty sure it was one of the herbicide affected dahlias I decided to give a second chance to. Now here I am giving it a third chance because the soil it was planted in just wasn’t good, and none of the dahlias in that bed performed well.

Everything about it is lovely except the blooms tend to “clock face” because the flowers have such a high petal count that they become too heavy for the stems to hold upright properly. But weak plants and poor growth were a theme across this whole bed after I moved soil from an area that clearly wasn’t great for dahlias, so I’m still holding my breath and hoping next season tells a different story.

Looks like this bed might be getting cosmos and zinnias next season while I spend winter rebuilding the soil a bit. They’re definitely not as hungry as dahlias 😆

🌸

22/05/2026

Another one of my waterlily seedlings that I’m really excited to keep watching next season. 🌸

This one actually won second place at the Dahlia Society of Victoria State Show earlier this year in the category for blooms that don’t quite fit the standard. In this case, it’s because the petals are more pointed rather than the rounded petals expected in the traditional waterlily form.

I still think it’s such a lovely full bloom though, and I really love the soft watercolour pink-on-white colouring which changes slightly from bloom to bloom. Some flowers show more pink while others are a little softer and whiter.

My only criticism at this stage is that occasionally it can throw a few slightly wonky petals, although not on every bloom. Definitely one I’ll be keeping an eye on next season to see how it continues to develop. 🤍

18/05/2026

Today’s 1st year seedling highlight is this oh so romantic red. ❤️

Capturing its true colour has been surprisingly difficult. Depending on how the light shifts from my camera, it appears as a rich velvety crimson to a brighter glowing red, but I’d say it’s most likely closer to the crimson colour. One thing that stayed consistent though was just how beautiful it was in the garden all season.

This first year seedling gave me lovely rounded petals, beautiful head position, strong stems, and plenty of blooms to pick from. It really ticked a lot of boxes for me.

I did notice it was one of the first waterlilies to start declining in quality once the season began to turn. But I’m not entirely sure I can hold that against it, especially when I’ve been completely spoilt by a certain pink waterlily this season that somehow still hasn’t blown its centre yet.

Interestingly, its seed parent W1 produced a lot of red seedlings this year. The trait seemed incredibly dominant across the board.

Either way, this is definitely one I’ll be eagerly waiting to see bloom again next season.

17/05/2026

There’s always that one flower you take for granted because it’s just so reliable. The one that quietly puts on a beautiful display week after week, and somehow you realise at the end of the season you barely took any photos of it because it was always just there, doing its thing.

For me, it was this lovely second year seedling bred by Bec at .

To be fair, it was a bit of a strange season and quite a few of my seedlings threw hard green centres for the first few weeks of flowering as you can see in the last picture. Once this one settled though, it produced the prettiest pale pink centre that softened out to the perfect baby pink outer petals, though sometimes the blooms were baby pink all over. The petals also carry the sweetest delicate lines through them which adds to its soft, romantic feel.

A shorter plant, but with long, solid stems and an absolute abundance of blooms. It definitely needed a bit of disbudding to push for larger flowers, but it more than made up for it with how generously it flowered all season.

This romantic bloom is currently going by the name DEAR My Beloved, taken from “My beloved is mine and I am his” from Song of Songs.

16/05/2026

One of the goals slowly taking shape in my breeding program is exploring these fuller waterlily forms that are beginning to emerge from breeders in America and Europe. Some may not fit neatly within traditional breed standards, but they feel like they are opening the door to something really beautiful and different.

What I especially love is the high petal count combined with the nyctinasty traits, where the petals fold inward at night to create that beautiful closed ball shape. By evening they almost resemble peonies, despite peony dahlias being their own separate class. There’s something so elegant and romantic about watching that transformation happen through the day.

This seedling is one I’ll definitely be keeping to breed from. It has a lovely full form and closes beautifully at night, which is one of the traits I’m most excited about exploring further. It does have some faults, so it isn’t one I would consider releasing, but I see a lot of potential in what it could produce in the future. Sometimes the most important plants in a breeding program are not the finished product, but the stepping stones that help lead you there.