The Perfect Dahlia: Breeding Standards, Seedling Selection, and the Cost of Improvement

Published as “The Future of the Dahlia” in April 1932 in the Bulletin of the Southern California Dahlia Growers Society

By J. J. Broomall

Original text by J. J. Broomall is in the public domain. Compilation, editorial notes, introduction, biography, and revised text copyright © 2026 by Steve K. Lloyd. All rights reserved.

By 1932, J. J. Broomall had spent decades breeding dahlias and had become increasingly outspoken about what he regarded as careless seedling selection and the indiscriminate introduction of mediocre varieties. In this essay he looks forward, defining his ideal “Dahlia of the Future” not simply by size or novelty, but by form, stem strength, color, keeping quality, and usefulness as a cut flower.

The article then turns from the qualities of the flower to the economics of producing one. Under the internal heading “The Price of a New Dahlia,” Broomall uses his own introduction Eagle Rock Beauty to illustrate the scale of seedling production, selection, labor, and financial risk behind a successful new variety. The two subjects form a single argument: improvement requires both rigorous breeding standards and enough economic return to sustain the growers doing the work.

This integrated 1932 publication state is especially valuable because Broomall brings the argument back explicitly to “THE FUTURE OF THE DAHLIA” in his final sentence. The same material also survives in separated catalog states as The Future of the Dahlia and The Price of a Good Dahlia. Those states contain several meaningful wording and numerical differences, but they are not combined here. The surviving evidence does not establish whether the integrated or separated arrangement came first. The text below follows the integrated bulletin publication.

I have been asked if we are to have better Dahlias in the future. To this question I will reply that beyond a doubt much better Dahlias will be produced in the future than those we have at present.

Notwithstanding the progress that has been made in the past third of a century in the culture and development of new and improved varieties, we are yet a long way from perfection in Dahlias.

My idea of the PERFECT DAHLIA would be a flower of perfect form, at least moderately large, set on a strong, straight stem so that it will look the passer-by right in the face. Tastes differ as to color, but my first choice would be pure pink, either rose-pink or salmon-pink shades, free from any mauve, lavender, or magenta shades or tints; my second choice in color would be in tawny orange or mars-orange tints; my third choice, coral or old rose.

Most important of all, it must have good keeping qualities, for the DAHLIA OF THE FUTURE MUST BE A GOOD CUT-FLOWER VARIETY.

When we get a Dahlia with all the good points I have mentioned together with a color that will compel immediate attention, then in my opinion we will have the PERFECT DAHLIA.

Some may think that it will be impossible to obtain such a Dahlia as I have endeavored to describe. But to my mind nothing is impossible in this day and age concerning the improvement of plants by hybridizing, intensive cultivation and discriminating selection.

We cannot expect to see such a perfect flower in one year. That is very improbable, but with intelligent endeavor we may reasonably look forward to some improvement each succeeding year.

To a great extent the growing of seedling Dahlias in the past has been carried on in a more or less haphazard manner without regard to parentage or scientific breeding, with the result that a great number of seedlings have been put on the market that did not have sufficient distinctive merit to justify their introduction.

This condition of affairs should be rigidly guarded against, for nothing will do more to cause the public to lose interest in the Dahlia than the indiscriminate introduction of unlimited numbers of mediocre varieties.

I do not believe that the public in general and Amateur Growers in particular will lose interest in the Dahlia if new varieties of merit continue to be introduced. People like new things and beautiful flowers just as much as they ever did, and it is up to Professional Growers to supply new varieties of sufficient merit to awaken a desire for them among the flower-loving public.

Many Amateurs are inclined to think that the prices asked for new varieties are exorbitant. Few of them have any idea of what it costs to produce a really good dahlia. If I were to tell them that a Dahlia that is listed at $25.00 or $50.00 per root had cost the originator $500 or $1000 to produce, they would think I was exaggerating. Having had some experience in producing a few Dahlias that are considered worth growing, I am going to tell something of my experience in growing them, and then you are welcome to form your own conclusions as to what they may have cost to develop them.

During the last ten years I think on the average I have not listed in my, or other catalogues, more than three out of each thousand seedlings I have grown, and not more than one of each of the three stood the test of time in the flower-buyer's market.

The year I grew Eagle Rock Beauty (1925) I raised more than ten thousand seedlings, and while I obtained a few others of merit that year I regarded the one just mentioned as the most desirable out of the ten thousand.

On account of very limited stock I put Eagle Rock Beauty on the market in 1926 at $50.00 per root. Not that I expected to sell many at that price, but I wanted to let people know that I had it, and did not want to sell short on a new variety, for the originator will never receive what it has cost him to produce it.

Now then, what did it cost to produce it? Those ten thousand seedlings, of which probably 95% were discarded as soon as they bloomed, had to have the best possible culture in order to determine their merits. The growing and care of them, coupled with incidental expenses, represented nearly a whole season's work for one man. If no one is willing to pay a good price for a flower that has taken so much labor to produce, how is the grower going to come out even on the proposition, to say nothing of making a living?

I know there are growers who introduce many more than three in each thousand of their seedlings. BUT how many prize-winners have they put on the market, and what have they done to improve the excellence and popularity of the Dahlia?

If anyone has found a way to get a worth while Dahlia without a lot of labor I must confess they have beaten me, for so far I have found no easy road to success.

To obtain anything of merit generally requires intelligent effort and a lot of it, and if we would have the admiration and support of the people we must do our best to deserve it.

If every grower puts forth his best efforts toward the improvement of the greatest of all garden flowers there can be no doubt as to the FUTURE OF THE DAHLIA.

J. J. BROOMALL

1. Integrated and separated publication states. This material also survives in the 1932 Success Dahlia Gardens catalog as two separately titled pieces, The Future of the Dahlia and The Price of a Good Dahlia. The separated catalog versions preserve several substantive differences. In The Future of the Dahlia, the catalog reads “intensive cultivating” where this bulletin state reads “intensive cultivation.” In The Price of a Good Dahlia, the catalog gives Eagle Rock Beauty’s introduction price as “$50 per plant” rather than “$50 per root,” and describes the discarded seedlings as “more than 95 percent” rather than “probably 95%.” The surviving evidence does not establish whether the integrated bulletin arrangement or the separated catalog arrangement came first.