Name: Susan Virginia (Zone 8a) God is the only thing that matters.
Try the milk spray for the powdery mildew. I need to spray too because I have some on my Monarda didyma 'Raspberry Wine'.
That Dahlia sounds wonderful, please post some pics when it blooms.
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Mat.6:28-29