Yes indeed - very late this year - I was hoping for a spectacular show for late August and into September. Let's hope we'll have a nice long frost-free fall.

Anna

Mine aren't blooming either. From what I have researched is that the nights in ohio have been to warm and the soil temps are to warm also. I am just sick over the fact that they are just sitting there. There are buds, but the few blooms that have attempted to flower are tee-tiny.
JEnniew

I know where I live (in Central BC) we've had quite a cool summer this year. I have SOME blooms, but not as many as I would like. Our night have been too cool and the days also have been cold and rainy. I know they've been sopping up the sun when it does finally get to them. I don't think it's been just you, as alot of people have been affected by the weather this year.

Redd~

Reporting in from The Puget Sound region with the same complaint. Interesting that we have both ends of the spectrum represented here...too hot and too cool. Where are folks having a super dahlia year? August was good for me butI have a number of new ones that have only put out 1 flower and now the whole dahlia garden is slowing way down. As I read through my list of plants there are some that I don;t think I have seen bloom at all. USually I would expecct Sept to be full of blooms and this slow down only occurring towards the end of it, then some dahlias still producin until frost in late OCt or early Nov. My friend had one still blooming for Christmas in front of her dryer vent last year. IT was a little on the pale side, buthey, can't be too choosy about Christmas dahlias!

Liza, I owe you an email, pardon my lagging! Did you get to the dahlia open house? I decided I better not go every year LOL!

Very slow, wet, cold Spring here led to a bit of tuber rot, late planting and I must say I don't think I had more than a handful bloom in late July. August was robust and they are still coming on strong. I have probably 10-12 varieties that have yet to bloom their first bloom. Marlene Joy, new for me, just busted out the other day in grand style.
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Poochella, What a beauty. Glad to hear I'm not the only one with some yet to bloom. We went from temps. daily in the 90's to now highs in the low 80's and mine are finally coming alive but I still have about half of them to show their first bloom. Now to try the new camera.
Marlene Joy, now that's one I must add!!!

How big are the blooms on your Marlean Joy Poochella? They look to be massive in size! Simply gorgeous!

THAT'S A BEAUTY, Poochella! I have one that is simlar but with less purple...or maybe just not enough sunlight. Just finished tying up my dahlias...actually got to it before a rainstorm this year. I always start out with such good intentions, sigh! I did find several plants that were small and submerged by sprawlers. Maybe they are some of the ones I am missing. I was hoping to find CHeyenne and Cheyenne CHeif but if I did they aren't blooming. I think I found the Paul smith I moved this spring. I seem to have ended up with about 6 different red-purple ball shaped dahlias and not sure of the name tags on any of them any more except that I did find a tag with Paul Smith when I found him blooming( in a gorgeous imperial purple0 in an abandoned bit of old flowerbed last year, late.

My favorite new ones have been Jax, Kaleidoscope, and Citroen du cap so will be looking for more like them at Connells on Sat. My buddy couldn't go last week so we are planning on showing up early morning on Sat.

The dahlia year here in Ferndale, Wa up by the Canadian border has been very good. The temp. has been high & we've only had a couple of days of rain this summer. Right now the New Garden has about 50,000 blooms in it! WOW-- what a sight! The East Garden & the Sheep Pen Garden are all covered in blooms, too. Love this time of year- not looking forward to ---blah--- winter.

I'm new to dahlias, and very relieved that I'm not the only one who is having these troubles. I planted 3-4 different dahlias, and only one has blooms. The others are about 2 feet tall maybe, and just sitting there. It looks like they are starting to get buds, but isn't it a little late now for blooms? I kept assuming I was just doing something wrong. Phyl

Phylrae, it can be weather, soil quality, fertilizer or just a slow tuber that causes delayed blooming. Even in our wonderful WA dahlia environment I have yet to see at least ten plants bloom. Some were planted very late, some in May.
Don't give up- just wait and see if you get a bloom that will tempt you to to try it all over again next year. It's well worth it, especially if you just started.

Dahlias are a case where you should put a one-dollar plant in a ten-dollar hole. As with other compositae, pruning during growth can give you a better result. As market farmers, dahlias are the cutflower that carries us through September.

Dahlias really thrive in the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast and the Appalachian Mountains. This means areas with generally cool summers. There are actually some dahlias farms here in Michigan. Ours being one. This has been shall we say -- an unusual summer and growing season for many of us.

So, yes, the answer is: It is just the year.....

I got a "good deal" on tubers late this summer, quickly put the slightly shriveled things in the garden, watered and waited. Dug them up today and they are all rotted. We got our long awaited rains, 6+", in a week, I guess it was too much. Live and learn.

My dahlias did awfully this year. I think the majority of the porblem was bugs and disease. Couldnt get ahead of them.

The single greatest defect of dahlias is the propensity for infestation and disease. As growers of cutflowers for market we have to spray the plants with insecticide regularly from the time the foliage first appears. Dahlias lack chemical defense against predators. They are subject to virus diseases, fungal diseases including sooty mold, mildews, fusarium wilt and others. They are affected by predation of all manner of beetles, leaf miners, aphids, thrips and mites, defoliation by snails and slugs. We constantly have to monitor our fields.

They are one of the most beautiful plants producing tons of blooms throughout the month of September........

This is one of my favorites:
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Whoa, poochella... beautiful. and flower farmer, what IS that dahlia? Gorgeous!

I have had a tremendous problem this year with slugs and earwigs, although I can't be sure which, because I haven't gotten out there with the flashlight. I was wondering... is is typical for slugs to eat leaves toward the base of the plant, and earwigs toward the upper leaves?

Here, the slugs are the bane of the young dahlia, although I have had some aerial artists climb to several feet up to feast on leaves, if I plant the dahlia too close to other things the slugs can hide under. If you bait early and regularly your dahlias should weather slug onslaughts fairly well.

Earwigs- well here they hide in petals or bud masses- dark and creepy seekers they are! I went after one with a scissors today- deep inside a tubular ball petal. There are no words printable here to describe how I loathe those little pincered creeps. And I guess this one feels the same way about me...
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Nice colors Flowerfarmer!

Redd: Marlene Joy is B size- these blooms averaged about 6- maybe 7 inches across fully opened. Not huge.

Aunt Net- you got not such a good deal after all. Sorry. Too late in the season to plant I guess, and too wet with all that rain, until some roots develop to pull up some of that water. I'd try to avoid the 'shriveled' tubers- they are real heartbreakers when they rot or don't grow.