I was asked would I like to write an article for ‘Impact’,
so here goes. First I would like to take this opportunity to thank
Dave McMillan for growing and staging Hillcrest Suffusion for
me in the seedling class at the Scottish National Show at Stirling
and WINNING it too. I would also like to thank the Bradford Parks
Department staff for their excellent upkeep of the dahlia trials
in a most difficult season. I would also like to point out how
lucky exhibitors are living in that area as they just have to
pop down the road as it were. I myself only get the chance once
a year - day after all night staging at Harrogate, like many other
visitors to the trials. I know I go with two matchsticks supporting
the eyelids just like many other friends of the dahlia.
I was asked how did Hillcrest Albino come about. Well it was the
long road game, yes line breeding. First off I had retained a
raising of my own that made for the perfect female seed parent.
I then used an unreleased raising of my own as male side of cross.
Both were white in colour. After back crossing the offspring of
the first cross and vis-a-vis a medium semi-cactus came about
that retained all the dominant factors of the first femaje in
the line; mainly being of good health; good stems and plenty of
power to the plant itself. Also, the centres were always perfect,
perhaps the most important part of any bloom. This gave way to
perfect petal placement, with the base of the petals being very
decorative in formation with good overlap. The tips of the petal
I was not happy with as they did not tighten up enough. Rather
than back cross again I decided to introduce a male that was a
white cactus with refined petal tips. I even thought about White
Moonlight but from another line I had been producing white cactus
with super petal refinement but always with thin centres. It goes
without saying what I did next and by introducing a male from
a new line I would produce full vigour and at the same time keeping
my fingers crossed regarding the centres.
Lucky for me the domination factor came through from the female
which had always produced good centres, so we now had Hillcrest
Albino as one of the offspring of that cross. A bloom with plenty
of meat in it; of good form; still retaining those super centres;
but most important good refinement to the petal tips. Also the
sheen from the male petal was passed on to the Albino making for
a hard petal and therefore quite weatherproof. The habit came
down the line and the roots are much the same as first female
in line. Maybe because of the above factors she thrives in the
sun so well. She just loves the heat of the last summers that
we have had.
One or two points I might mention, and I can remember it well
as I do record in detail. This point was easy as I was about to
prick out the seedling there were five very late comers breaking
through the surface. I gently removed them from the seed tray
and placed them in 2½” pots and placed them in the
propagator. They were very slow indeed and I planted them out
last to the edge of the seedling bed three weeks after the other
planting of seedlings. I always look after the late-comers as
they are the best by far (almost my motto). One other point -
it is also possible that Hillcrest Albino could never have come
about along with others, as bar for the last two seasons we nearly
always had an early frost in September so I used to cover the
seed heads if still green as they were that year, with newspaper
or paper bags, and if I made sure that there was an air pocket
inside the bag, the frost deposited on top of paper actually kept
the seed heads warm inside. I then removed them early next
morning. My fingers were always cold first thing in the morning
in September. Mind you with this greenhouse effect I need no longer
do it now; keeping my fingers crossed as I say that. One job that
I did not like was bagging up the seed heads, but I did it just
the same.
It might be worth pointing out that out of say 50 planted back
tubers in the second year you would be lucky to retain a dozen
of them and the odd few of ‘maybe I’ll try again’
for another year. Some seedlings can improve in the third year
just like they can fade. Then there are the ONE/OFFS like Hillcrest
Albino, but they are few and far between. Then there are the ones
with too large a petal for a small and too small a bloom to be
a medium and so on. What for next year? Well I do have a good
deep yellow, next size up to Albino and a white medium reflex
decorative.
My motto used to be:NEVER EXPECT ANYTHING THEN YOU WILL NEVER
BE DISAPPOINTED
but you never get used to those knocks.
With line breeding you basically require three things —
1) A modicum of common sense.
2) Seed parents with good domination factor, and
3) Like anybody else — lots of luck.