teddahlia wrote:Diva may well be the best Swan Island variety and Nick told me it is one of ,if not the best, seller of all. It makes lots of easy keeping tubers and that is rare for a purple. As good as it is, the florists complain that it is not purple enough
The wholesale market (mostly wedding /event deigners) I sell to informed me last year that typically the dahlias that I had left over were the true purple and yellow varieties (HH Purely Purple, River's Purple Pinwheel). There is an increasing demand for deeper burgundy / purple. I am increasing production of Diva and Woodlands Miranda for this reason. Hollyhill Regal would be great for this too but I have not been able to find good stock.
So yellows are a hard sell for you also? It seems strange that the lovely sunny color of yellow is least in demand but I have found that true for my market also. I am cutting way back on yellows and keeping only the softest shades (Plus HH SunnyBoy because a few plants will supply all the yellows I need).
I haven't had any luck with HH Regal either for the last 3 years and it was so wonderful (before I put straw with herbicide on that part of the garden where it was). I tried it from 3 different sources last year and didn't see a single good bloom in my garden.Even though the herbicide seems to have worn off. I tried the tubers in 3 different locations even.
. These are what I cut in my garden as I took down the first half of the pink rows. THey were too beautiful to throw away and blooming like crazy! They include Chimicum Katie, Abbey, HH Sweet 16, and A seedling of Linda Taylors..the biggest flower. It starts out magenta purple but has lightened to this wonderful dark pink now.
Sweet 16 was one of those that didn’t grow for me and I was so looking forward to it , definitely want another try at it .
HH Tigress always makes such exciting seedlings, always lots of colors in that part of the first year seedling patch .
This is also a seedling of HH Tigress ( 2nd year ) that I kept over
Most of the Tigress seedlings have been variegated for us. Yours has a bit of a picotee edge. Yours probably crossed with a semi cactus or something similar.
We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden.
Rooted cuttings are good too, or cuttings I an root. The color looks similar to Bloomquist Dawn which really didn't do well for me this year. I would love to try something similar but new and vigorous.
I purchased what was called "Hillcrest Glow" from K Connell dahlias last year. I think it was in a 5 pack and it makes lots of nice tubers. I think I ended up with over 50 nice tubers. Anyway, I was going to sell some of them, but now I'm thinking it is "Hilltop Glo" instead. Anyone know anything about this?
My dahlia (purchased from K Connel as Hillcrest Glow)
. These are what I cut in my garden as I took down the first half of the pink rows. THey were too beautiful to throw away and blooming like crazy! They include Chimicum Katie, Abbey, HH Sweet 16, and A seedling of Linda Taylors..the biggest flower. It starts out magenta purple but has lightened to this wonderful dark pink now.
, definitely want another try at it . 
Our club orders from his bulk list for our root sale and they're always excellent, clean and true to name.