b'Id love to see a variety like the rose industry has called the Coco Loco, she says. I dont know if I can do it. Ive been trying for a couple of years, but Ive made some teeny steps towards it. Moreover, Albrecht says her ultimate goal would be to create a dahlia that could stand the test of time and become a long-term variety used.Sowing Seeds of KnowledgeAnother endeavor Albrecht is working toward is more educa-tion when it comes to dahliasparticularly so new hybridizers can access and understand more information. Social media, in particular, has helped her accomplish this goal.My daughter actually suggested signing up for an Instagram account because she thought people would like to see all the dif-ferent flowers, Albrecht says. Within a car ride to Los Angeles, I had everything set up and ready.When deciding how to use her Instagram account for educa-tion, Albrecht thought about what she really appreciated from hybridizers before her. I appreciated the amount of information they gave me, sheAlbrecht has lofty goals for her seedling patchincluding says. Going to my dahlia society and learning from them wasattempting to create a brown dahlia.PHOTO CREDIT: BRION SPRINSOCKinvaluable.From there, Albrecht worked to turn her Instagram pagePeople love the educational parts that I do probably even to an educational page, where she could show different dahliamore than the pictures, she says. When someones at home in growing techniques.the backyard struggling, they can message me and ask those questions Why isnt my dahlia growing? Its usually because it needs more sunlight, and they had it in the shade, or the soil has never been worked on.In addition to the social media, Albrecht wrote a book about hybridization in dahlias. We were locked down during COVID, so we self-published on Amazon, she says. The book details how to hand pollinate and open pollinate, as well as a few other strategies for hybridi-zation. However, one of the most exciting endeavors Albrecht had the chance to work with is through her position with ADS. The society is working with a professor at Auburn University to sequence the dahlia genome. Alex Harkess at Auburn University is working with a sequenc-ing lab, Hudson Alpha, to sequence the dahlia genome, she says. Thats going to be helpful to tackle why specific varie-ties have been around since the 1800sit could be a genetic reason. Hes going to compare these older varieties with modern day dahlias, as well as work to see what makes certain varieties more disease resistant.This project is in its fifth year and Albrecht believes this could eventually have a huge impact for dahlias.Dahlias are really close to sunflowers, so maybe this will lead to dahlias being brought into a lot of the scientific research being done on sunflowers, she says. Im really excited about it, and Im looking forward to seeing the results of that work.Want to check out more about Albrechts dahlia efforts? Follow her Instagram at @SantaCruzDahlias.SW16/ SEEDWORLD.COMFEBRUARY 2022'