COLLERETTE'S FOR 2011

	All Frills.		Shy.		Dream Cream.

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	Ghost.		Blueberry Hill.		Mexican Longhorn.

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	Jazz Night.		Party Princess.		Jeanie White.

I've learnt not to comment on first year seedlings, but my  enthusiasm for one particular Collerette on this page is so immense I will consider to break my own rules. So which is the guilty hombre?  It is obviously Party Girl which has everything a Collerette should have. Study the NDS classification rules, and you will see for your self. I quote "Collerette dahlias should have blooms with a single outer ring of generally flat ray petals, which may overlap with a ring of small florets (the collar) surrounding the central disc"

The Collerette's coloured in red aren't available until a firm called Bressingham's have trailed them, and told me if they want them for world wide release. Gilbert's dahlias, and my friend Yusaku Konishi will be agents if and when Bressingham's release them, as will my dear friend Jack Gott although he doesn't know it yet. Incidentally the name Party Girl had already been taken by a fimbriated dahlia so I told the registrar Sharon Mc Donald I'd settle for Party Princess. Since writing this - all the stock from who I thought was Bressingham's has been removed - the nursery holding it was really a firm called R. A. Meredith (Blooms) and if they hadn't had to call in the receivers I'd have never known. Luckily my saving grace was a lady called Hazel who is the owner of Aylett's of St. Albans who not only picked up all the stock, but is trialling it on her nursery. If there really is an all seeing God it sure moves in mysterious ways.

	Flashman.

Just as little bit more information about all the 2009 Collerette seedlings which came out of one pod taken from Flashman. The variety that supplied the pollen was Fontmell Irene, and that is where the yellow and white types came from. I believe you can get more control on what two varieties produce by hand pollinating - than leaving it all to the pollinating insects. Of course the added bonus is seeing what contribution past generations like Fontmell Irene and Fontmell Heather gave from a open pollinated cross in 2006 - these can be seen on the Collerette page. This years not so difficult mating was performed in the safety of the greenhouse during August. You can see the loss of pigment on the ends of the outer petals of Flashman which was transferred to this years fancy siblings, but extenuated to make them even more attractive. As well as noticing the loss of pigment - take note of the various lengths, and patterns of the smaller collar florets - those of Party Princess are identical to Flashman. One last bit of info - the three original varieties that formed the bones of my Collerette collection were Clair de Lune - Easter Sunday and Teesbrooke Audrey - oh you're wondering about the fading gene in Disneyland and Flashman? This came from Moonfire in my attempt to get a black leaved Collerette a few generations back, and even now I have dark leaved seedlings popping up in my Collerette seedlings, but so far none with black foliage and the Collerette form.

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