Adella:
They'll bloom until the frost. Should start booming
between mid july and mid august. Make sure that you deadhead the spent blooms so that you'll get new flowers.
DB

Thank you! I'm excited...a flower that will bloom all summer.

Della, as Boy mentions, your dahlia will bloom continuously all summer....and yes, do deadhead to encourage more flowers.

About dahlia.....you can go into Dahlia.com....and read about the plant and about a particular way of overwintering the tubers....and continue to read messages here about the other....the old way...the more proven way...although you will get opinions about both.

Dahlia has this thing about being a draw to earwigs...where dampness is you will see earwigs and your dahlia blooms will be a haven for these suckers.

If you think to ever make a vaseful of dahlia blooms, do open up the petals to rid them of earwigs.

Some put the bloom upside down into a pot of tepid water...drown the rascals....or give a mild shake and see what pops out. But still open the petals.

Me, I gave up trying to take flowers inside a long time ago.
But you should at least see what you're up against and decide for yourself.

And before the plants get too big...and they will get big...arrange for their support. Stakes into the ground to which you form ties...much like peony has to be supported...except instead of the heavy blooms, in dahlia you get heaviness of foliage....lots of it.

Once you see the blooms you will be a dahlia lover from now on.

This is my FIRST time planting dahlias too. I got Bishop of Landhaff, Chocolate Sundae, Akita and a Japanese fringed white one whose name escapes me at the moment and Cafe. I think I'm going to plant the tall ones in heavy duty tomato cages (concrete reinforcement wire). I saw a bouquet with violet dahlias in it and they were SO gorgeous, I can't wait to see my home grown flowers.

Greenwich:

This is my first time with the decorative dahlias, too. Last year I grew the smaller types, started from seed, very successfully --it's really easy! So, this year I got brave and decided to try the tubers. Today I bought 3 packages (2 in each): 'Classic Elise', 'Pennylane', and 'Bishop of Llandaff'. I'm also going to try the tomato ladders, because of their sturdiness. The colors on the packages look stupendous -- Scarlett, Yellow, and Scarlet with white tips. Hope they do well. Any suggestions re planting, etc., is much appreciated!
Linda

we didn't have an earwig problem last year, since we are on a drying trend. Read: drought.
When you cut your dahlias for bouqets take a lighter out with you and sear the ends of the stems right after cutting. This helps create a moisture lock because dahlias have hollow stems. They will last longer in the vase that way.

I PULLED MY DAHLIAS OUT OF STORAGE THIS WEEK AND TO MY
SURPRISE THE GROWTH WAS ABOUT 1 FT IN LENTH. I'M NOT SURE
WEATHER TO CUT THESE BACK OR PLANT AS IS. THEY ARE YELLOW
(DUE TO LACK OF SUNLIGHT?)AND ARE NOT VERY STABLE.THE
BULBS ARE IN GOOD SHAPE,NO ROTTING ETC.PLEASE HELP
JAN

Jan- you can use the shoots for cuttings, or cut them off about 1/8-1/4" from the tuber & let them start again, or you can plant the tuber deep & just have a bit of the shoot above ground. Your choice.

Dear Plantlady,
THANKS
For the advice. I will cut the shoots back as I do not feel
like digging down to China to get these planted!!!!!
Jan

I had bad luck overwintering my dahlias in the basement, so I gave up on them for a while. Last year I planted some seeds I had saved and dug the tubers in the fall. I potted them up and put them in the laundry room (basement) for the winter. I watered them sparingly whenever I did the laundry. They started sending up shoots in Feb, so I put them in a sunny room. Now it's April and they're blooming! I'm planning to set them out in May.

Jan- you really don't have to dig to China- you can put the tuber in a trench-like hole & lay the sprout out lengthwise & sort of bend the tip up to the top. You will get LOTS of xtra tubers if you do this as each leaf node that you bury will put out another row of tubers.

Florrie I think you pulled off a laundry room dahlia coup there! Congratulations on your early bloom in zone 6b.

I did the stem planting thing one year, just a short little one foot shoot, but I did get a stem tuber or two that Plantlady mentioned. It really was no different than planting a regular dahlia except for getting the tip to emerge upright from lying sideways in the hole/trench.

I'd wager even if you didn't aim the end tip upright, it would find its own way out toward the sun/heat.

Do I deadhead the little ball that's under the bloom? I don't know if this is another bloom or what it is! They aren't doing anything since the bloom died. As you can tell, these are my first dahlias & they're planted in containers. 1 is Dalina-Midi Sumatra Dahlia, which is doing very poorly & the other is Dalina-Grande Hiva, which has the balls I was speaking of. Neither tag says whether to deadhead or not. HELP!

Absolutely deadhead. It will bring on more flowers!