On May 24th I put the dahlia tubers outside to harden off. The stem on Kasasagi had to be 18" tall, and with the winds we're experiencing I didn't want to take a chance it would be torn off, so I cut the stem and planted it. Today it bloomed! Had to have had a bud I must have missed but it's still a bit exciting to have a dahlia blooming in May.

You cut the stem and stuck it in dirt and it didn't die? Never heard of that. Well you get the "earliest bloom" award for sure. I am slowly getting my dahlias and annuals. In some cases the beds have to be dug up well and things moved before planting in new stuff. A few experiments. I was so tickled, I who cannot keep an agachsta alive over winter for love nor money, grew one from seed. It cannot be 2" tall and has the tiniest little flower (maybe a bud) I have ever seen.
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My back is shot from digging, raking and hoeing but very slowly things are looking better. The house is painted and I am over the fact that they stepped on many plants. Dahlias especially. Thomas Edison is gone along with Kelvin Floodlight. I am leaving the tubers in the ground to at least perhaps save them. They were my biggest plants. Oh the pain. But the house looks good and we can slowly get the yards and decks back in order.

Any work on the outside of a house is painful to the owners. Many workers have no idea where to step and don't ask. I hope the tubers generate new growth for you.

Happy to hear of your baby agastache!

I just cut the stem, threw away the excess and kept only the top 3 or 4" so I was stunned to see the tiny bloom (the size of a nickel) today! Now I'll have to try it with others tomorrow.

Congrats! - I have never seen a bloom on a dahlia that short, except for the little bedding dahlias from seed. My Poms often make blooms before the others, but they aren't even close this year.

It's a freak of nature but I'll take it.

My dahlias are getting ready to bloom. This
is the first to bloom - a few days ago. They do very well here in Northern California.
Cafe Au Lait

When you live in WI - gardening in N. CA seems like cheating.

Can you tell I am jealous? I actually have a few buds starting to form, but it will be a month at least before I see many flowers.

I only have Athena and Roselette. Oh, and a hybrid fernleaf. A peony bloomed at the botanical garden but it is mislabeled. Says Paula Fay but that isn't right. We will try to identify it. We have a list of the peonies that were donated and should be able to identify it.

One of the tubers I bought from @mandolls is blooming.




But I can't tell what it is!

Edit to add what I'd planted: Cafe au Lait, Candlelight, Kelvin Floodlight, Kelgai Ann, and Lover Boy.

It doesn't look like any of the above.

Let's hope Mandolls can identify it.

These Fubuki Red and White have been open for a few days.

@ssgardener - thats Candle Light. I recognized it even before I read your list of possibilities. It is one of my partner's favorite.

The one I kept for myself didn't make it, so I will miss it this year

I still don't have any open dahlia blooms. A Lucky Ducky bloom is partially open and I have quite a few small buds, but I rarely have blooming dahlias before mid July.

FRW and Kasasagi were the two most anxious to bloom right from the moment I exposed them to light.

Thank you for the ID, mandolls! I'm sorry to hear your Candle Light didn't survive. It is such a pretty dahlia. I think it's prettier than the pictures I've seen online.

I don't really know what I'm doing here, but I'll do my best to dig it up and send you a Candle Light tuber next spring.

Thats sweet of you. If you need tips on storing tubers in the Fall just ask.

I have so many new Dahlias this year that I doubt I will miss it, but is is a really nice flower, and usually a good bloomer.

I am sure I will have tubers I could trade you for a Candle Light next spring.

Last year I was given a couple of no-name dahlia tubers by a local gardener. I'd heard that they were sometimes hardy here so I left them in the ground, and they survived! We had a cold winter (well, cold for us in zone 7!) and it got down to around 5F a couple of times.

I don't want to risk it with the dahlias that I really like (including Candle Light!), but I'll continue to leave some of the tubers over winter.

I know someone else in MD that has had success with overwintering them in the ground. That is definitely not an option for me in zone 4. Digging the dahlias is the one fall chore that I always get done - sometimes I don't get the leaves raked before the snow comes down, but I always manage to get the dahlias in.

Same here. There have been times I didn't dig on purpose because I didn't like specific, nameless dahlias. Of course, by May they were all back! I figured they'd have the decency to die.

Even if digging isn't required for storage it's still required to split up the dahlias or clumps get way too huge and produce fewer blooms each year.

I am not even close to having a bloom on my dahlias. I do have some buds and the plants are becoming more robust but are still only about 12" tall.

Only my little cutting of Kasagasi along with Fubuki Red and White are in bloom. As long as they're planted I don't worry. August is soon enough for me to have that garden in full bloom.

My Fubuki Red and White is large and healthy. I am so glad. I agree on waiting for the blooms. Looks like they will take off about the time the lilies do. Peonies are popping one after another.