For the dahlia breeder
Tools built for your hybridizing journey.
Seed and pollen parent are recorded separately, chosen from the same Library that holds the rest of your collection, so your crosses sit alongside your seedlings, your tubers and your garden. These are tools that help a seasoned hybridizer and guide a beginner through a first cross. Your first 20 seedlings are free.
Photographs
Every seedling from a cross, side by side, so a pairing’s results read at a glance.
Parentage
Seed and pollen parent as separate fields, from the Library or typed, or select open pollination.
Traits
Form, color, size, height, floriferousness, stem attachment, season by season.
Selections
Keep, watch, or cull, with a score when you want a finer grade. Parentage is kept either way.
One dahlia cross makes a single seed pod, and every seed in it grows into a different plant. Record the seed parent and pollen parent separately, or mark it open pollinated when the bees chose, then photograph each seedling as it blooms and mark it keep, watch or cull.
What it holds
Photographs, grouped by cross
Each seedling's photo sits with its siblings, so a pairing's results are visible side by side rather than scattered through a list.
Seed parent and pollen parent as separate fields
The seed parent and the pollen parent are recorded separately, so A × B stays a different cross from B × A. When the bees did the pollinating, check open pollinated.
Parents from the Library, or typed as you know them
A parent you grow is chosen from the Library's 8,000+ entries. If you're crossing with something that isn't in the Library, you can type it in.
The traits you already record
Form, color, bloom size, height, floriferousness, stem attachment, years growing, and notes.
Selections and scoring
Keep, watch, or cull, plus a 1–10 score when you want a finer grade than three words. A culled seedling keeps its parentage, so a cross still shows everything it produced.
Tuber yield and storage
Count and storage method per seedling, on the same record as the bloom.
Hybridizing FAQs
What does seedling tracking cost?
Your first 20 seedlings are free, the same way your first 50 mapped flowers are. Past that, and for tuber and cutting tracking, Garden+ is $39 a year or $5 a month and covers every garden tool. See what Garden+ includes.
Do you separate the seed parent from the pollen parent?
Yes, and it matters. "Café au Lait × Bloomquist Alan" tells you which plant carried the seed and which supplied the pollen. Recorded as one string, that information is lost, and the reverse cross looks identical to this one.
What if I don't know the pollen parent?
Most hobby seed is open-pollinated, so that's a real answer rather than a gap. Mark the cross open pollinated and the seed parent still counts for everything else.
What if I bought the seed rather than made the cross?
It is recorded the same way. Seed is often sold by growers collecting open pollinated seed from their own patch, so what you know is where it came from rather than which plant supplied the pollen. Record that source as the seed parent and select open pollination. A packet grown out gives you seedlings that share one origin and look nothing alike, which is why each is photographed and scored on its own.
Are my seedlings private?
Yes. Your seedlings are yours alone, visible to nobody else, and they never join the Library or your public garden unless you decide to share them.
Can I use a named variety as a parent?
That's the point. Both parents draw on the same Library the rest of the site uses, over 8,000 varieties with ADS classification, so you're recording against a real entry rather than typing a name and hoping you spell it the same way next season. Browse the Library.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. The app is built for exactly this: you're standing in the seedling patch with a camera in your pocket, and that's when the notes actually get made. See the app.
Everything a dahlia grower keeps track of, in one place. Your garden, your tubers, your cuttings, and now your crosses.
Start tracking freeYour first 20 seedlings are free. Garden+ removes the limit and covers every garden tool, $39 a year or $5 a month.