HS Party

Dahlia

Variety Description

Variety used for comparison: 'Moonfire'

Summary: 'HS Party' has shorter plants than 'Moonfire'. 'HS Party' has smaller flowers and shorter, narrower ray florets than 'Moonfire'. 'Moonfire' flowers are bicoloured, with a wide basal zone of red colour on each ray floret. By comparison 'HS Party' flowers are one colour, although there are faint streaks of orange red along the veins of the ray florets. 'HS Party' also differs from 'Moonfire' in the colour of the disc before dehiscence. The disc is yellow orange in the candidate variety but red and green in the reference.

Description:

PLANT: short, upright to bushy growth habit
STEM: light green, strong anthocyanin on upper part
LEAF: compound, few to medium number of leaflets, green tinged with purple, wings present, many shallow incisions on margin, smooth or very weakly rugose texture, flat veins

PEDUNCLE: medium length, medium to strong anthocyanin
FLOWER HEAD: moderately above foliage, moderately acute to upright relative to peduncle, single, one colour (with streaking), yellow
RAY FLORET: straight longitudinal axis, weakly concave in cross section, flat lateral margin, rounded tip, uneven colour distribution, yellow main colour, orange red streaking along veins, light yellow on lower side with blue pink streaks along veins
DISC: medium size relative to flower head diameter, yellow orange before dehiscence, yellow and orange at dehiscence

Origin & Breeding History: 'HS Party' was developed by the breeder at the nursery of Fa. Gebr. Verwer in Lisse, The Netherlands. The variety originated from a controlled pollination between the female parent, 'Classic Summertime' and pollen of an unidentified Dahlia plant as the male parent. The cross was conducted in 1998. A single seedling was selected in 1999, based on criteria for flower colour, plant habit, dark foliage and self-cleaning flowers.

Tests & Trials: The tests and trials for 'HS Party' were conducted in a polyhouse during the summer of 2006 in St. Thomas, Ontario. The trial included a total of 15 plants of the candidate variety and 10 plants of the reference variety. Plants of the candidate were grown from rooted cuttings, planted in 15 cm pots on May 24, 2006. Plants of the reference variety were grown from tubers, planted in 15 cm pots on April 25, 2006. Observations and measurements were taken from 10 plants of the candidate variety on July 11, 2006 and the reference variety on June 26, 2006. All colour measurements were made using the RHS Colour Chart 2001.

Comparison tables for 'HS Party' with reference variety 'Moonfire'

Plant height (cm)

Diameter of flower head (cm)

Length of ray floret (cm)

Width of ray floret (cm)

Main colour of ray floret (RHS)

Secondary colour of ray floret (RHS)

Click on image for larger view

Dahlia: 'HS Party' (left) with reference variety 'Moonfire' (right)