Among The Petals

29/08/2026

This is something I’ve been so excited to finally share! 🥹🌸 I have successfully imported dahlia seed from the USA to Australia! 🇺🇸🇦🇺

I have been incredibly fortunate to receive seed from Allison at Kale Lane Dahlias and Catheriya at South Moore Garden 🌻 by Catheriya , and I am so grateful to both of them for helping make this possible. ❤️

Allison has kindly shared seed from some of her beautiful Waterlily dahlias. If you’ve been following my breeding journey, you’ll know that developing beautiful Waterlily type dahlias for the Australian market has become a real passion of mine. I would love to introduce some new genetics and see what we can create! 🌸

🌸 Waterlily seed from Kale Lane Dahlias:
Hollyhill Serenity
Sandia Rose
Sandia Bertha
Sandia Susan
Sandia KC

Catheriya has also very kindly done all the organising behind the scenes, including arranging the import certification required in America and navigating the biosecurity requirements here in Australia. Thanks to her help, these precious little seeds arrived safely yesterday! 🌱💕

I also received Catheriya's American and European seed mix, so I’m very excited to see what comes from those too.

And now comes the really exciting part… 🤭

Because these Waterlily dahlias were open pollinated, we know the parent plant that produced each seed, giving us a rough idea of the traits we might see. But we don't know exactly which other Waterlily dahlias provided the pollen. So we have an idea of what they might look like, but we won't really know until they grow! 🌱🌸

Some may not be useful for my breeding goals, but hopefully there will be a few little gems that make me think, “Ohhh, you're staying!” 😂🌸

I’ll be starting these seeds in the next few weeks and expanding my dahlia growing space to make room for them.

I can’t wait to take you along for the journey and see what these new genetics might bring to my breeding program here in Australia. The seeds are here. Now the adventure begins. 🌱🌸

Please respect their generosity. Any future seed sharing is entirely at their discretion, so please don’t contact them with expectations. 🌸

📸 Photos shared from Allison and Catheriya with permission

South Moore Garden 🌻 by Catheriya Cat

27/07/2026

Here's a look at my first-year dahlia seedlings 🌸

These are the ones I'm most hopeful for, although I try not to get too attached just yet! It can take a few seasons to know whether a seedling is truly worth keeping, as consistency is just as important as a beautiful first bloom.

These all showed enough promise to earn another year. Some are staying because I love the flower itself, while others are being kept purely for breeding.

For example, #16 had the strongest head attachment and stems of the lot, and with its slight waterlily traits I think crossing it back into my lines could be really valuable. #17 has the loveliest dark reverse and petal outline, so it's definitely a keeper for colour. #15 is another colour keeper, with that buttery yellow pairing beautifully with soft pastel tones.

And of course, the waterlily varieties are my main focus, so they're all being kept both for breeding and to see how they perform over the coming seasons.

Do you have a favourite (or two)? I'd love to know which ones catch your eye! 💕

28/06/2026

High contrast in dahlias.

There aren't many varieties I've seen with this matte, chalky white on the reverse of the petals. The front is a soft, muted tone too, which makes the contrast even more striking. I have noticed that if the petals get damaged, the white underside can show through a little more, but somehow it still manages to look beautiful.

Its full form, long stems and prolific blooms were all big wins, even if it insisted on growing sideways across the path thanks to my less than perfect planning.

What do you think? Do you love this kind of high contrast in a bloom, or do you prefer petals that stay within similar tones?

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.