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A nice red that I grew for a couple years was "Twister". I would think if a breeder were looking for something to get larger almost formal dahlias with; this might be worth a try. It is technically an informal decorative and it made crap for tubers; so that might be a trait not to mess around with. Corralitos sells it and I believe they introduced it. I quit growing it because it didn't seem to want to bloom until the heat went away; and it didn't make enough tubers.
Dang , the real Big Wow looks nice , I believe we saw the imitation one this Summer.. The local greenhouse sells potted full size dahlia and that was one of them this year . At first I thought it looked ok but when we went back I noticed the blooms fade out really bad to a very unattractive color and it did not seem to get more than 4' tall .
I like Jerry Garcia fine but it is too large and heavy to fit nicely in most of my bouquets , so I am eliminating it this year. It has been a good performer for me though. It makes a nice big flower or heavy substance and good color. Mine did not have open centers with I have heard can be a problem with it. I just find it a shape and size that I don't want so much to work with.
I have not had a Kenora Firefighter that would grow for me for many years. Either they don't grow at all, or they start to grow and stall out at 12"...I am trying again with one from Ferncliff this year.
I Had one bloom on AC Kuntz by the time it survived being broken off at the ground level last year. I liked it a lot and will grow 2 plants this year.
I am still looking for the best solid true or bright red miniature or bb...
Spartacus and perhaps Hrt's Bllod Red and maybe Jerry Garcia are about the only ones that even comes close to FD in a nice red that is fairly big . AC Kuntz is a semi cactus. I have been saying it over and over: breeding FDs in sizes BB and bigger is extremely difficult. Perhaps Benny could do something in this area as I know we are not going to have any. The Formby formal decorative flowers are the only ones that are really good. I believe that the Barbarry people have been trying to increase the size of their introductions so perhaps one could try to locate some of those. .
We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden.
I'm finding that if I cannot decide in a variety it definatly helps to ask the group ,
Our goal has never been to hybridize FD but I may have a great oppertunity to seperate some very nice ones , if they make seeds great if not they will be a very pretty garden . Will move part of this conversation over to the hybridizing thread .
Back to what Ted was saying , there are so very few nice FD in B or larger size as I look , Kea Lynn looks quite nice . I saw a bloom of Jerry Garcia at the show and thought it looked nice ( also have always been a fan of Jerry's music ) so we should probably try that out , Noni what did you do with your JG tubers ??
Have been looking at Barbarry varieties this morning but not seeing anything larger than possibly a small BB available on this side of the pond , Barbarry Triumph looks nice and in the UK they claim 6-8 " but I see it listed here as 4"-6" seems to be a discrepancy there , in photos it appears the smaller of the two .
Haha yeah they are some sort of metric , they list it here as a " Minature Dec "
But in the description list the dimensions as 152mm/6" - 203 mm/8"
In actuality that would be 5.984" - 7.992"
It is pretty though
Oh that would be swell Noni !! You're the best
I think this FD garden is going to look very nice planted out . Looking for a couple of other entries but I want to keep it simple and leave room for them to bush out a bit .
I never did post a photo of Aitara Rufus, those were some great red blooms even thought they did fade with time. That may have been due to the extreme dry heat we get here in Boise though. AC Rooster was always a nice red as well.
I can't wait to better gauge how close to true the colors are with my photos. This monitor I'm using is an old giant CRT monitor I've had since forever ago. I think the far left photo came out a little redder than it should have, the middle is underexposed, and it's a bit more yellow on the far right. That being said Aitara Rufus still is a very nice red that's somewhere in-between the first and second photo. AC Rooster's a little bit darker red than in that photo.
Love the red dahlias. We have some red seedlings we are evaluating. I tend to be very hard on evaluating the red ones and probably need to loosen up a bit as there are really so few nice red ones. Aitara Rufus looks very nice in the picture and we did grow it several years ago. I do not remember much about it other than we did not keep it.
We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden.
I have seen Aitara Rufus at shows here and it is BRIGHT red with great form. Love it. I believe it was previously classed as a semi-cactus; but was re-classed a year or two ago to be a straight cactus. I got a tuber from our society sale last year that barely grew. I ordered a couple of tubers from Parks(?) this year as I'd like to try it again.
I also got some new stock of AC Rooster; as it didn't do nearly as good for me last year as years past. Some, I can let go; but I liked that one too much to just forget about.
I'm also excited to be trying out HH Valentino and Skipley Bonanza this year. Can't believe it's taken so long for either of them to make it into my collection.
A couple years back, I compared a bloom of HH Valentino head-to-head with Dana Iris, and resolved to not bother growing the later any more, as HH Valentino seemed better in form and not fading on the tips. Unfortunately, after trading all my Dana Iris away because I obtained a HH Valentino cutting, that plant failed in my garden last season. sometimes the best-laid plans fall on their faces. I'm still holding out for another HH Valentino attempt.
sometimes the best-laid plans fall on their faces. 
I'm still holding out for another HH Valentino attempt.