Dahlias come in various sizes, colors, and shapes, adding unparalleled beauty to any flower garden. However, when Kelsey Hall, owner of Cattle & Cut Flowers, came across a unique dahlia form growing on her flower farm in Enumclaw, Washington she was in disbelief. After testing and confirming the rare flower is disease-free, Hall has decided to breed her discovery, which she has fittingly named “Daffodahlia,”
Hall discovered the new dahlia form at the beginning of September and couldn’t believe what she stumbled upon. “I honestly thought my eyes were playing a trick on me,” she told Martha Stewart. “Then every time another bloom opened like that I was just in awe and still can’t believe they are growing that way.”
The rare flower is a mutation of a ball form dahlia. “Instead of the petals rolling back they are fusing together to forming a ring to create a daffodil looking dahlia,” Hall says. To learn more about the mutation, Hall sent the Daffodahlia to Washington State University to have it tested. To Hall’s delight, the tests revealed the unique flower form has no known diseases or viruses.
While Hall still doesn’t know exactly what caused the dahlias to form the mutation, she feels confident breeding the flower. “This form of dahlia has never been seen circulating in the dahlia world,” she says. “Dahlias come in about 15 different forms and if this can be stabilized it would be a brand new form entering dahlias.”
So, what’s next for the Daffodahlia? Hall is working to see if the mutation can be stabilized. “We have the structures on our farm to grow over the winter months so we have propagated the plants hoping they carry the genetics on to the following season,” she says. “We have successfully rooted dahlia cuttings that are growing from the plants producing these blooms and we should see if they continue to bloom this way in later winter.”
In addition to successfully rooting Daffodahlia cuttings, Hall has also let the plants go to seed to try to carry the genetics on through seedlings. She also plans to keep the tuber clumps to see if they will bring back the genetics the following season.
While you can’t purchase Daffodahlia tubers or seeds just yet, Cattle & Cut Flowers will be selling seeds from its bridal tunnel dahlias which is where the Daffodahlias are growing, meaning there is a chance of cross pollination. “Like when hybridizing a new color of dahlias it’s the hybridizers responsibility to confirm the genetics are stable and that is the route we are taking,” Hall wrote in an Instagram post. “Before we would ever sell this stock we will confirm it is genetically stable. We still have no idea if this will happen again next season.”