Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Perfect for gardening enthusiasts at any level, this podcast is your companion to cultivating success and beauty in your own backyard or flower patch. Hosted by Jane Westoby from Fuchsia Blooms Florist and The Hampshire Seed Company.
Each episode is a treasure trove of practical tips, expert advice, and insider flower farming guides designed to help you sow and grow with confidence and harvest with pride. Whether you’re dreaming of rows of neat vegetables or cutting flowers for bouquets all year round, we’ll walk you through every step.
Let’s grow together!
Jane Westoby (00:03)
Hey flower friends and welcome back to the podcast that believes that flowers should be local, seasonal, ungrown with love, not wrapped in plastic and flown halfway across the world. I'm Jay, the founder of the Houchi Seed Company and a flower farmer florist who's gone from wedding chaos to seed packet chaos. And these days I also help other growers to build blooming good businesses. So whether you're planning your first tray of cosmos,
or you're scaling up for serious sales, you're in the right place.
And today I'm going to be diving into something I get a lot of questions about. And I know it's a really, really hot topic right now and has been for a number of years. And it's something I always get really, really excited about. that's daily breeding. So a few years ago, so I'd been growing out a lot of my dahlias and breeding quite a lot of them. And three years ago we moved house and when we moved house, I lost all of my dahlias.
I mean every single last one. They have to go into some temporary storage and what I didn't realize was this temporary storage was not frost proof and it was the year when all of a sudden we got to like minus 15 which is not that common here in the UK and of course I lost everything. All of my
breeding varieties as well, whole lot. So I'm having to start from scratch, which is a little bit frustrating, but there we go. Okay. So the daily world, it is huge. There are so many growers and breeders out there, but the thing is, is that every single seed that you see in a catalog at some point, that was just a seed in somebody's hand. So breeding,
Breeding exclusive varieties are things you can't buy them anywhere else. The colors, the shapes, the sizes, you can decide what's worth keeping based on your criteria. And for small scale flower farmers, it's a really good way to add value to your crop. So whether you're keeping the tubers for your own production or whether you're selling them to other growers as well. And breeding is...
Breeding is a little bit of science, but honestly, it is mostly a gamble because for every say thousand plants, you might only end up with one or two viable varieties after three to four years of growing them out. There's obviously, there's some horticultural knowledge that you can use to increase your odds of getting a certain result. So knowing which plants to actually cross,
based on the traits that you want, like form and colour, and far's life or productivity. So that's one thing. Understanding pollination timing. So when the stigma is receptive and when the pollen is then viable, and then knowing how to harvest and store those seeds properly to keep germination rates really high. These are all the bits that you can control.
These are the methodical bits, the repeatable bits, and you can learn this from books, breeders, workshops. I'll go through some of it today. So that's, that's the easy stuff. Let's be honest.
But here's where, but here is where it gets a little bit wild. So genetics tend to shuffle like a deck of cards. So even if you cross two perfect parents, you can end up with anything from stunning keepers to absolute duds. And this is because dahlias are octoploids. It's one of the coolest and most
I suppose chaotic parts of daily breeding. The traits don't pass down predictably. So you might get a completely unexpected color or form or plant habit. And so, I mean, what does this mean in practice? Okay. So imagine you're shuffling a deck of cards, a standard deck of cards. So with deployed plants, which are most of the plants that you have outside in your garden, you're shuffling
two decks of cards. So you've got, you know, limited combinations there and you can make some, I'd say reasonable predictions about what traits will appear. But with Dahlia's, you're shuffling eight decks of cards all like all at the same time. And that's hundreds of possible combinations for every single trait.
It's the bloom form. So whether it's ball or cactus or anemone or color red, and then the color and all of those patterns within it. So the stripes, the tips, the blends, the solids, and you've got stem length, plant height, foliage type, vase life, tuba production. I it just goes on and on. And there are so many chromosomes in play that the genes will mix in wildly unpredictable ways.
And that's why even two perfect parents can produce offspring that are spectacular, an improvement on both of the parents, or just something that's average, you know, nice enough, but not particularly special, or completely useless for your goals with weak stems, poor vase life, unstable colors, and something that just looks damn right ugly. Let's be honest.
So this is, I'd say both frustrating and maybe fun at the same time. So frustrating just because you can't guarantee the outcome, even with like decades of experience, you know, you'll still get the duds. Fun because, you know, the odds of stumbling on something truly unique, they're high enough to keep you hooked, but not so often that you're going to have hundreds of them because you can line up the best parents.
you can do the perfect crosses and still get surprises that you just can't plan for and whether that's good or bad. And that's why daily breeding is addictive. You never really know what you're going to get until that flower opens and you can do everything right. But mother nature is shuffling that deck of cards for you, not you.
So how to get more reliability? actually that's probably the wrong word because they are totally unreliable. So if you want to get more of a chance of getting something which is aligned with your breeding goals, one of the things that you need to do is start with intentional parents. So don't just let the bees decide, although you can, and they will do a pretty good job. But if you want very specific traits, let's say ball form in a deep plum cover.
then you will need to select two parents that already show those qualities. You can also hand pollinate if you want full control. So if you cover the blooms with a mesh bag before they open so that the insects don't get there first, and then you can choose a bloom with mature pollen, use a small paintbrush or your finger to transfer that pollen to the stigma of your chosen mother.
bloom, which should also be covered with a mesh bag. And I often shake the pollen into my hand or into an envelope to then transfer it. And then you need to pop your mesh bag back on to protect that bloom and tag it so that you know that that bloom is already in a controlled process. So you place your mesh bag back over the top and then you'll need to repeat this process for the next few days. So maybe for the next two or three days.
so that you can pollinate as much as possible on that same plant. Although I will say that the bees will always do a far better job that we do. know, leaving them open pollinated, it will always give a lot more viable seeds than hand pollinating will. We're rubbish at it, I'll be honest. bees are so good at it. So you might only get a handful of successful.
seeds in that pod. maybe you might only get four or five or you know might even only get one or two. mean you should get four or five but you know from an open if if that same bloom would have been open pollinated you might get 20 seeds from that same bloom. So but you've controlled the process when you do it so that's the advantage there. And then after pollination those petals will drop
and that seed pod will start to form. But for some dahlias, it's actually best to remove most of the petals so that you can actually get to the pollen and the anthers really easily. And if you're using mesh bags, then removing the petals is best. Otherwise, when it rains, the mesh bag gets really soggy and the petals will really struggle to dry out. And you'll just end up with a big mushy...
mess inside your bags, it's not great. So remove the petals if you can, and then wait until that seed pod is dry and brown before you harvest them. Because again, immature pods are going to give really, really poor germination. You are looking for brown and black seed pods, not green ones. One of my tips is if it's particularly wet, which we do often get quite a lot of rain in September, which is when I harvest most of my seeds,
then you can harvest the full stem. So don't just pick off the seed pod, cut the stem like it were a cut flower and then pop it in a vase of water to dry out for a week or so indoors. So you can just literally treat it like a vase of flowers, but you know that's essentially your seed pods drying out because it is quite often really wet and soggy outside in September and you can't harvest wet, soggy seed pods. They really struggle to dry out. So it takes around
from pollination, normally takes around four to six weeks for the seeds to actually ripen. So you do need to make sure that you start early. know, don't leave it until mid September to start your hand pollination because that's too late and the weather will turn and you just won't have enough time for those pods to be mature and dry out. So, you know, right now in August, it seems like a world away, but
that time is going to come, you know, literally only in four or five weeks, we're going to see the weather turning already. So you need to be doing this now. And then once you have those seeds, you can remove them from the pod, separate the seeds from the chaff. And you can usually tell if a seed is viable because it's hard. know, when you push on it with your nail, it doesn't bend. Your nail doesn't go into it. It feels hard. It needs to be brown or black, not green.
So separate them out and just keep the seeds, pop them in a brown paper bag labeled and keep them somewhere cool and dry until you're going to sow them in spring.
So it's that simple, but let's take a step back because if you are choosing to hand pollinate, then let's talk about the traits because there are dominant and recessive genes that can help you to choose your parent plants. So firstly, you've got form, the shape, and this is generally more predictable than color. So your dominant forms here are singles, semi-doubles,
Colorettes. So colorettes often dominate if one parent is a colorette and the other one isn't, you'll most likely get a colorette. And anemone flowered, these pass on really, really easily. So they're all the kind of the easy ones to get. The recessive forms are the fully doubles, the formal decoratives, the balls, the pom poms, the water lilies are really difficult. So if you want
If you want more doubles, then you need both parents to be double. Or if you want water lilies, you need both the parents to be water lilies. And ideally from lines that do throw really stable forms, know, stable doubles, stable water lilies, crossing a double with a single will often give you more singles. You're not going to get that many doubles. Okay.
So the next thing is color. This is, I would say, highly unpredictable, but the dominant colors and patterns are the ones, the ones that quite often you don't want, the yellows. Yellow comes through really, really strong. Purple and magenta also comes through quite strongly and it can be very dominant over lighter pastels. Don't be surprised if you get purples and magentas.
from something that was a pastel. know, if you cross two pastels and you get a purple and magenta, then don't be surprised. It happens a lot. And then solid color also tends to override any kind of bi-color in a lot of crosses. anything that's so the recessive ones, so pure white is really easily lost. You know, unless both parents are carrying that white gene, you will not get a pure white.
Soft blushes and pastels are again really often overpowered by stronger pigment genes, so they are quite difficult to achieve. It's worth trying, but make sure that you are crossing pastels with pastels and pastels with whites. Try and get those light genes in there. And then clear bicolours or tipped patterns. These...
these vanish so quickly unless they're bred from two really, really strong patterned parents. So if you are looking for a specific pattern, like maybe a white with raspberry tape, both of the parents need to be pattern carriers. And even then only a small percentage of the seedlings will actually express it. You know, if you maybe so 20 seedlings or 30 seedlings, you might only get one or two that actually are of any use to you.
And then plant habit. This is really often overlooked, but it is really crucial. So dominant tendencies are taller plants with longer stems, which is great for us florists and strong, thick stems are also passed on quite often as well, just from one side, which maybe isn't the best when they're really, really chunky.
And the recessive tendencies on plant habits tend to be more like compact and bushy habits, fine, delicate stems, you know, like on the smaller flower forms. So always think about how you want to use your flowers. So you might have a stunning bloom on a plant that just produces really short or weak stems. So that's not going to be much good if you're breeding for cut flowers. So really think about that. And then the other traits worth considering.
are things like vase life. So you often need quite a strong inheritance from both parents for this to be consistent and also tuba storage quality. A parent prone to rotting can pass that gene on really, really easily. So you need to avoid paw keepers if your goal is for tuba sales. And that's why some of the
most popular tubers out there are really, really difficult to actually get hold of because they're really, really poor keepers and they tend to rot quite a lot. Although the blooms are really, really nice, they will rot quite a lot in storage. And then bloom production. So high production plants do tend to pass this on, but you do still get occasional duds. So if you've got anything that just isn't blooming that well, just get rid because that's not going to change.
if you are just starting out and you want to see some wow results, then try crossing a ball with a ball because you will get a high chance of getting ball form keepers. You'll get some color variation, but generally quite staple. So you could also cross
a water lily with a Stella for instance, and these can produce really elegant, unusual doubles with really great stem lengths. Or you could try something with a strong pattern and a strong pattern. So there's two strong patterns together. This will increase the odds of patterned offspring, although it's still a gamble, but you will increase your odds there. And then something with a deep color and maybe a white. Sometimes these can produce
really, I'd say knock out blushes and pastels, but with also lots of like muddy intermediates. So it's high risk, but when you get a good one, it's really, really high reward.
And then once that you've got your seeds that you've collected, you can then sow them in early spring as soon as possible though, because they do need a full season to produce tubers. So I plant mine in early March and then that gives them a full season right through to the end of October to produce and they'll be, they will produce tubers. They won't be huge, huge tuber clumps, but they'll, it will be enough.
But I mean, if you were just looking to fill your garden, then you can plant them as normal. But I'm guessing if you're listening to this podcast, then you want to actually breed yourself some rock stars. So you will need to grow a lot of them just to get a couple of winners and you need to plant them close together. So I plant them in really small pots, like 10 centimeter pots. And I plant them in a raised bed and then I fill in with compost over the top.
So I'll link to my blog post in the show notes so that you can see images of how close I plant them. The pots are literally touching. And then as they flower, I start ripping them out. So the ones that I don't like, I rip out and they go straight onto the compost heap. And the ones that I do like, I then remove them from the pot. And sometimes I actually have to cut the pot off the tuber. And then I plant them into a seedling bed, which then gives them a little bit more room to actually produce a bigger tuber.
and then I take photos, I tag them, label them, ready for growing out for a second year. I don't always grow, they don't always produce the same in year two. So you will then need a second cull.
you'll need a cull in year two and then you might even need to cull in year three. So you'll look at them again, the flower again, and then they may change slightly. This does happen with dahlias and this is why you need to grow them out for I'd say three to four years to make sure that they are stable. In that time, you can propagate them from cuttings to make more and increase your stock. So you can see if the plants are actually stable or not, because you can't do that from just one. You need a bunch of them. So propagate them.
from cuttings, split your tubers down as well, and then you can see if that form or shape is changing from year two and year three, et cetera. And this is why it's really, really important to label them each year, take photographs and label them so that you can track those changes if there are any, and then any that aren't stable, you would need to get rid of if you're a serious breeder. If you're not, if you're just getting them for your garden, then that's okay. So...
The truth here, honestly, out of a hundred seedlings, you might only get two or three worth keeping. And your selection criteria might be stem length for cutting, it might be color stability, might be bloom form and petal quality or vase life, or how well it produces tubers for the next season. can be any of those traits or all of those traits.
And there may be some compromises to be had as well. Some of the best varieties have compromises. So if this all sounds like fun, then I will pop a cheat sheet for you into the show notes with all of those recessive and dominant genes on. And if you don't have any seeds of your own, then we will also have seeds from our breeding patch again this year. Well, I say this year, I collect the seeds this year.
And then the daily pre-sale for tubers will go live 1st of November if you want tubers and they'll dispatch in early 2026. And then the seeds from the cutting patch will then go live on the 1st of January. So it's a really great New Year's Day celebration and a really great start to the season actually. So.
I'll pop the link into the show notes for that as well for you. If you were already signed up to our weekly newsletter, then you don't need to sign up again. You will get that link. So don't worry. So tips for beginners, start small. You don't need acres. know, even, you know, even a dozen or, you know, 40 or so controlled crosses can actually teach you quite a lot. They can teach you which
you know, which forms you're getting the traits from that you want. Keep records. So make sure you photo and tag everything. That's non-negotiable. You need to be photographing and tagging and be patient because it can take years before a variety is stable and ready for sale. And then finally, just enjoy the surprise factor. Some of the best blooms are total accidents, which is why I do both. I hand pollinate
and I also let Mother Nature do her thing as well. I do a little bit of both, okay?
Jane Westoby (21:07)
And who knows, the seedling that you grow next summer might be the next cafe au lait. So if this episode has got you dreaming about filling your garden with dahlias, including some of my own breeding work, then you'll want to be on my dahlias launch list. We open 1st of November and the best varieties will be gone before you can say octoploid. I know that, but I will do my best to get in as much as I can of the varieties that I know you really want.
So do sign up to get first dibs before public release. So I will pop the link into the show notes.
Jane Westoby (21:39)
If you love this episode, then do leave us a five star review and leave us a comment. Tell me what you want me to talk about next. That's all for this week. I will see you soon.