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Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
Are there any green dahlias commercially available or has anyone spotted a green dahlia on the seedling bench? By "green" I am referring to the color of the ray florets (on either a single or double flower) and not merely a dahlia with bracts but no ray florets. I am predicting the next color craze with florists will be the baby-boomer-memory of retro green shag carpet. Now is time to start working on hybridizing a green cut-flower dahlia (if none are available).
I have cruised our thousands of seedlings for over 20 years and have never seen a dahlia in any shade of green. Even the slightest hint of green would give you some hope. You are dismissive of green bracts but in anenome dahlias, the colored petals in the center of the flower are not ray florets but are the tubes that cover the pollen parts of the flower. What rule is there that bracts could not be bred to be larger to simulate green flowers?
There is a disease of dahlias that causes the loss of the colored florets so perhaps there is hope of turning off the floret gene and emphasizing the bracts. The flowers on these diseased plants had green "flowers". I was elated to see them until I found out it was a harmful disease. Now do not ask me the name of the disease as my feeble brain has filed it in a "do not access" memory bank and several weeks after I write this, it will release the information when I forget who was asking about it.
We like to place a sign on our porch that says: We are in the garden. Really, we are always in the garden.
[quote="SteveM"]. I am predicting the next color craze with florists will be the baby-boomer-memory of retro green shag carpet.
Green flowers have been very popular in the floral biz for 20+ years, going back to the green fuji mums, the multiple varieties of pompon mums (Kermet, Athos, Yoko Ono and more), trachileum, Green Trick dianthus (as well as other dianthus of the carnation persuasion), hydrangea, zinnias...but alas, no dahlias....
Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
Thanks Ted, maybe the green dahlia will have to stand in “the GMO†line behind Mr.Blue Dahlia. I do have some hope. My father said he judged a green dahlia (on a first-year seedling bench) but it was never promoted to the second-year bench because of the poor form. This was twenty, or maybe more, (speaking of feeble minds) years ago. I never did get the grower’s name because, at the time, I wasn’t interested in green dahlias.
I am not averse to green disk floret dahlias. However, green-bract dahlias would be limited by their color range. I can only imagine the torture I would have to inflict on a bract dahlia to change it into to a florist-friendly-lime-green.
Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
Thanks Drew, out of curiosity, for what purpose (weddings, special events, etc.) do your customers order lime-green flowers? What percent of your sales is in green flowers (not including filler). I don’t get a chance to talk to florists directly so it is great to have your feedback.
Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
blown_dry wrote:I love chartreuse flowers. They go with everything. Would definitely be interesting if that was part of the dahlia color palette.
Ha! "chartreuse" is the the color my mind was searching for...no matter, I couldn't spell the word "chartreuse" without using Google, so I would have to use "lime-green" anyway. Aside, when I am discussing orders of "Cafe Au Lait" with my broker I refer to them as the "Dirty Pink" dahlia and he refers to them as the "Antique White" dahlia. I never thought I would have to be multilingual when I started raising dahlias.
The green dahlia almost seems as elusive as the blue one!
I’m growing some white dahlias for a wedding in late Summer. Bride’s colors are white and green. If she decides that she wants green flowers, she’ll get Sun Fil green sunflowers or some spray painted dahlias. 😛
I went through the green flower phase about 18 years ago (I remember when it was because I was making my new gardens after moving into this house...I did find some supposedly green roses and one of those is still around (it is just slightly a green shade of white). I still love limey green flowers...Especially the lime toned zinnias.
Name: Steve San Diego Commercial cut flower grower
I haven't been to a dahlia show for many years but I was hoping, by now, the seedling bench would be overgrown with green dahlias! If none of the members here have spotted a green (or even a hint of green) dahlia then I agree the future doesn't look bright for a naturally occurring green. Might have wait until a dahlia enthusiast hits the lottery and hires a team of scientists to insert the lime-green gene, from a mum or zinnia, into the dahlia genome.
