The sun is shining, the chickens are finally laying their eggs and the peach trees have started to blossom. The only thing we are missing are dahlias! Spring must be here!
The Challenge is On
From September 1st 2022, I am going to do an Instagram Challenge. I will post a photo of one of our home grown dahlia seedlings every day for a year. That's 365 photos of different seedlings The Dahlia Kids have grown from seed at Green Footed Kiwi! That's quite a lot!! I hope this will brighten up other people's computers and phones and share my love of dahlias across the world.
What Makes a Good Seedling?
The things we will look for in the new flowers and plants we are growing are:
- strong stems
- Slightly facing upwards blooms (45 degrees)
- Good tubers (no rot and lots of them)
- Lots of blooms
- Early flowering
- Unusual colours
- Unique
How Many Seeds?
Two years ago, we grew our first seeds. We were really lucky that our friends Dennis Rodgers and Awhina from Aunts Garden gave us some seeds to try and grow. We fell in love instantly. The next year, we collected and grew our own seeds (plus a few extras from Dennis). We grew almost 1,000 seeds that year. We kept 186 of these seedling tubers to grow again this year. Plus we have another 1,000 seeds growing right now in the greenhouse. There are seeds growing in every gap! I can't wait to see them all flowering! It should be easy to take enough photos, right?
Who Doesn't love a Good Flower Photobook?
The best part of all this will be my very special photobook! Look out for it next year! I have been working really hard on getting enough photos to make it amazing. This year it wasn't quite big enough, which made me choose to do this photo challenge on Instagram. I will work harder to get even more photos so I can share them with you next year! Keep your eye out for the new and improved Dahlia Delights by Gracie-Mae Photography coming out soon!!
