You can start them outdoors, but you will get much much better success indoors and you may actually get flowers before the end of the season (which will not be the case with dahlias started outdoors).

Why not try again indoors, but find out what you need to do different. Starting outdoors is not a miracle cure for seed starting although some of the testimonies on the winter sowing forum will have you think so. The only benefit winter sowing has compared to starting indoors is that the disease issues which you can experience has better growing conditions indoors in a warm room than outdoors in late winter, but the same can be said for the seedlings. I would start them indoors and pay attention to the few issues which are truly important:

1. sterilize all flats, cellpacks, tools in a 10% bleach solution (1 part bleach + 9 parts water). Rinse well
2. use only well draining seed starting media bought specially for this purpose. no garden soil and no potting soil
3. start seeds in shallow pan with drainage holes (or a pixie cup with two holes poked in bottom). Press seeds into top of soil and barely cover. Cover pan with plastic wrap and put in indirect light at room temperatures.
4. when germination occur, remove plastic.
5. use fluoresent lights suspended 2" above the top of the plants at all times. These "shoplights" can be puchased for $10 at home dept /lowes, etc. Well worth the investment
(note, keep plastic covered pots a foot away from fluorescent lights. the 2" above applies after plastic removed).
6. water from the bottom. Let the seed starting mixture wick (draw) water up from below until the top surface turns black and glistens. Then put aside to drain before putting back under lights.

As plants grow they need bigger pots and more water. Dahlias are fast growing and all of a sudden they need a tremendous amount of soil and water. Therefore do not start seeds earlier than 6-8 weeks indoors.

I would add that if you do try starting inside, don't forget to harden them off before you plant them out in the spring.
You could plant the dwarf ones & the small border ones directly in the garden & get blooms this summer just as you would marigolds or any other annual.

Thanks for the info I think I will try starting some indoors and some outdoors.
Thanks,
Laura

Fast growing is right! I planted dahlia Stargazer seeds on Saturday afternoon and they are coming up today (wednesday - and I only checked today, not even thinking to check yesterday ) - this is 4 days!

I checked my package to see what the germination time was but it didn't have anything on that.

Is this the norm??

When I start the seedlings some of them are up in 2-3 of days. Some of them take a couple of weeks-- they're all planted at the same time from the same sized dahlias, too-- AA sized ones.

I asked when to start Dahlia seeds indoors and someone replied that it is possible to WS them outside. Check out this thread
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/wtrsow/msg0217225414544.html?17

I'm going to try this. Good luck!

Best regards!
Jane