Among The Petals

21/06/2026

Let's talk waterlily dahlias for a moment.

Here in Australia, they seem to have earned a reputation for producing fewer tubers, with long, thin necks that can be more prone to breaking or rotting in storage. I've often wondered why that is.

Is it because many of our waterlily varieties trace back to similar breeding lines? Are these traits strongly inherited and likely to appear in their seedlings? Or is it simply that we've accepted these characteristics as part of growing waterlilies?

It's something I've been thinking about a lot as I work on my own breeding program. One of my goals is to breed waterlily dahlias that keep their beautiful form while also producing stronger, more practical tubers.

It also raises another question. If I were to grow an absolutely breathtaking waterlily seedling, but it had the same issues of poor tuber production, long, fragile necks, easily rots.. would it be irresponsible to release it? Or does exceptional beauty sometimes outweigh those shortcomings?

This seedling has given me a lot of hope, though. After drying in the shed for a week, this clump still weighed in at 3 kg. Once divided, it produced a conservative 25 keeper tubers, with another 10 discarded. The short necks certainly made dividing a little trickier, but they also feel far more robust for storing, handling and posting.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. If you were introducing a new waterlily dahlia to the world, how much weight would you give to the quality of the tubers compared with the beauty of the blooms?

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20/06/2026

If you have a dahlia clump and you need to divide it, here is a snapshot of what I do.

18/06/2026

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. 🤍