BREEDING 2005

My breeding year started early this year, as quite a few of the new varieties I sent for budded up very early, a bonus in some respect but of course I got weaker plants as the result of it, but according to Harry Lawson this is know bad thing, the weaker the plant gets, the more it will want to reproduce.

Before I get into a breeding mode, let me tell you the story of a humble Pear tree that I inherited, it wasn't in my garden, but directly behind my back fence. When I moved in it's many branches were hanging over my side of the fence. Any way, I say I inherited the tree, because every garden I have ever made has had various shrubs and trees that do better for my living adjacent to them. So it was with this specimen, as my soil improved, so this moth eaten specimen of a Pear tree blossomed, and become a vigorous contender for `Best Pear Tree in the South' the only thing it didn't have was a Partridge.  This year however it surpassed it's self, it was literally covered in white blossom. Two weeks after it flowered it was dead, a victim of a fungus which I think is commonly called `Bootlace Fungus' it's a sad tale, but one I think describes the urge for everything that lives to try and hold on to life, by reproducing. Surely a lesson to remember when it comes to breeding dahlias.

This year all my breeders are in five inch half pots, should they start to yellow I feed with a high potash fertilizer at quarter strength, all we want to do is allow them to reproduce, so far the most vigorous of them have reached a mere eighteen inches, but most are only twelve inches tall. This is a plus, as I am doing all of my breeding on the staging, it meant taking the Tomatoes outside, but this way the wind can do the pollinating of their flowers instead of me having to tap the canes they were growing on. Harry Lawson recons I could reduce the pot size to three and a half inches, but so far I haven't had the neck to practise what Harry preaches, besides I need the varieties I'm using to make a tuber, or I'll have to buy in my breeders each year a fresh. Perhaps next year I'll give it a try on a few varieties. Talking of varieties, Hillcrest Hannah is a wonderful producer of pollen, and it also makes a cracking seed parent. All you've got to find is another good variety to mate with her. I can't tell you everything, as my Microsoft Partners Steve Saxton told me, it's no good doing the fishing, you have to teach them how to it fish.

 What a wonderful description from a very learned man who started me fishing on my own, and of course it didn't only apply to computers it applied to everything there is, thanks Steve.

Ready for a bit of colour? I thought so, in order of how they come off the assembly line. All names are working names as numbers and stuff like that doesn't register in my dyslectic brain. Some are excellent other iffy.

	Amy Rose.		Chinese Lantern.
	Mayan Fruit.		Monet Glory.
	Lavender Lass. (Worth a second showing probably)		Mayan Star.
	Monet Rouge.  (Almost but scrapped)		Mexico Max.  (Worth a second showing probably)
	Mexico ?  (Nearly, colour neither one thing or another)		Monet Glory. (In front of our kitchen blinds)

Most of he flowers above are not as good as I'd like them to be, even the two Mayan prefixed ones could have done with a little more petal, but both have excellent form for their category, and when grown well with more room and light the petal count will increase. Jack Gott mentioned he had a couple that were light of petal, and I should have mention this fact, I'm ringing him today so lets hope he hasn't pulled up the plants in question. Talking about Jack, his son Jack the younger is holidaying in Bournemouth at present, I'd been warned he'd be dropping off a couple of new miniature single bedders sometime. Little did I know it would be on the Saturday he was travelling down on, the front door bell went, and there he was standing in the porch. I offered him a cuppa but he said the children were itching to see the sea and he'd wouldn't stop, I'm not going to tell you when he left home in Cumbria or what time he arrived at my door, but I'd call the car Gonzalez if I was him, but then again I'm such a dipstick on the motorways of Great Britain, anyone's journey seems speedy.

There are a few more Small Water lily dahlias in this years seedlings, that are as good if not better than Monet Glory, which I'm particularly pleased with, just look at the form in the shot I took in front of the horizontal blinds in our kitchen and you can't help but agree, Jack picked it out right away. Another that I think could make the grade is Mexico Max, the improvement after an hour in a water was remarkable, so much so I took it's photograph again, scrapping the one I'd already placed on my site. The petal count will improve as I said, next year when grown with adequate room and the proper feeds, this one was a cross using Charlie Briggs and Wilholme Dianne of which it took it's form.

August 7th: During April of this year I wrote a letter to Defra asking, if a breeder would be gracious enough to wave his or her rights to any money a variety they'd bred, could the cost of `Breeders rights' be lifted allowing a variety to continue to make money for the charity the breeder had given it to. So far zilch, isn't it always the way with government run institutes. Anyway I phoned today Sunday, and much to my surprise a human being picked up the phone and told me to phone back in the week.

Getting back to petal count, I don't think you can generalize on just how many petals a variety should have, to give you an example, take a variety that had a very full centre in it's seedling year, named Kiminski, it had such full centres that I thought it wouldn't make exhibition flowers when grown in the conventionally way. So far it has produced very a good crop with perfect centres. On the other hand varieties I thought had perfect centres, namely First Born and Culdrose could have done with a little more.

	First Born.		My Sweet Larraine.

I'm not to worried as I always grow a well established variety in the same border, with the same amount of flowers on to compare size and form. Unfortunately I have grown to many flowers on all my varieties and although both First Born and My Sweet Larraine have shown a small eye on maturity, so has my established test variety L.A.T.E.  Size is comparable to Cornel which is growing the other side of both varieties.

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