How big is the pot? I would start them in a warm area - I used a porch that got good sun as well as enough heat leakage from the house to stay reasonably warm, but I am in a much colder zone.

In your zone, plant the pot now and take out during the day and bring in at night or on days it won’t go above 40or so, though I can’t imagine that in zone 7 you will have many of those now. They will need good light to grow strong, so in a shed is not a good idea.

I don’t know if that particular variety will need staking.

Since my soils warm up slowly in spring, I always start dahlias in pots even though they are fully hardy in the ground. Container soils heat up much faster and dahlia tubers need warm soils to encourage growth. Otherwise, sufficient growth is not present until so late in the growing season, one risks frost damage when the plants are in peak flower.

Unless your container is quite large, I'd limit one tuber to a pot. Dahlias are by nature full, bushy plants and Deutschland will develop a 2' spread.

NHBabs, that's what I do with my cannas and this year dahlias. They are potted up and go outside on all days above 50. At night, they go back in the garage and I cover them with a blanket. I use a wagon and also a platform on wheels that i constructed to make it easier to roll them out and roll them back in. I've been doing my cannas this way for years. This is my first year of trying dahlias this early.

I always grow my dahlias in pots. Big pots! I put more than one tuber in the pot, but that is due to space limitations and the fact that I like a big show. I do end up having to add stakes but I don't worry about that until much later.

My pots are are 22 inches by 21 inches, pretty big actually. I was thinking of fitting at least 3 bulbs in each

I tried growing dahlias in pots but once it got in the 70-80° weather I noticed the eyes and tiny stems turned black... Does this mean they had too much heat or not enough moisture or both?! Help please!! I hate to see all these tubers go to waste.