at the nursery this week i was astonished to see such a variety of dahlias in bloom.
size.color and heighth.
can i create my own collection by self polinating like i did last year with my zinnias(whos results i am still waiting for)?i
i planted a month ago some dahlia tubers that developed from a packet of seeds-dahlia ponpon(quite small colorfull and long lasting bloom) i presume i will get the same flower in two months or so.

David, we do have a whole forum dedicated entirely to Dahlias here: http://garden.org/forums/view/...

I'm pretty sure that it will take a Dahlia plant two years before it makes a big enough tuber to produce flowers. That's why most people just buy the tubers, to save the time and effort of raising them to blooming size.

You still should post this question over on the Dahlia forum for more opinions on this idea, though. I haven't grown them in years.

If you buy a couple of different colors of those Dahlia plants you saw, and you cross-pollinate them then, yes you might get interesting new colors and flower forms OR you might get flowers that look like the parent plants which may not look anything like what you had bought. This is another plant that you will have to dig up the tubers and store indoors for the winter, btw.

I've grown lots of dahlias from seed and they all bloomed the first year for me, even in our somewhat short growing season (although they WERE started early in a greenhouse). So far, though, I've never gotten viable seed from the named tubers I've purchased.

thanks for your advices.......the zinnia polinating process was easy(well i need yet to get results)so i hope it is similar with dahlias. i will check the dahlia forum.i still cannot forget the variety of colors.and one thing we are blessed with in israel is many months of sunshine.