b'In shows, color must be really, really clean. No grays, no browns, no muddy colors, she says. The colors are really stand-ardized for show. One of my friends, Erin Benzakein of Floret Farm, expressed some frustration with the colors because there were a lot of yellows and bright reds. She particularly liked to sell to florists, but those colors werent always favored.Albrecht says florists werent looking for yellow flowers, because yellow isnt a color that sells as easy. Instead, they were looking for more complex colorspinks, blushes, skin tones and even mocha colors.I found when working with my florist is that its all about color, she says. Form is important, but the flower doesnt have to go back to the stem. It can be flat because it works better in arrangements for longevity.Longevity is imperative for florists because typically dahlias only last around five days in a vase, Albrecht explains. She enjoys working with florists to find what they were looking for in a dahlia variety. We have about five local florists that we work withtheyre really talented, she says. Ill let them go through my seedling patch, and theyll point out which colors theyre looking for. Coming from the American Dahlia Society (ADS) side, that really helped me as a hybridizer with color.However, though the florists were an exciting opportunity, Albrecht says her love still is with the American Dahlia Society.I decided I was not only going to breed for the floral industry, but also for ADSs standards, she says. I wanted to help breed for the lacking color pallet, which was the creamy colors, blushy whites and the mocha-colored flowers.Her hobby paid off, one of her varietiesKAs Papa John, a large eight-to-10-inch white dahliawon the top award with the ADS. Not only did that variety meet ADS standard, Albrecht says its a good flower for big, floral arches at weddings. Discover Mystery Behind Seed BreedingWhile her dahlias are winning awards now, Albrecht says it wasnt all sunshine and rainbows when she started working with the flowers seed. I mentioned there wasnt really a book on how to do it, so it took me years to figure it out, she says. The first year, Albrecht says she left all her singlesdahlias that look more like daisies, instead of having a fuller flowerout. Pollinators, such as bees, like to visit those flowers 99% of the time. The result? Her flowers the next year were all open and singles.That wasnt what I was hoping for, Albrecht says. I was hoping for fully doubled, which has petals that go all the way back to the stem. I thought for two years that might have been a quirky thing because I was getting 90% singles. I tried again and was really frustrated when all my plants came out as singles again.With some consulting, Albrecht learned about different pol-lination techniques. One technique that changed the game for FEBRUARY 2022SEEDWORLD.COM /13'