I used to plant in early May. I was wanting to get a head start. However, I discovered that tubers that I planted at the end of May (early June) did just as well if not better than the tubers I planted in early to mid May. Dahlias really do need the warmer weather to grow.

I believe so. Generally in local nursery I find dahlia plants for sale in late may and early june..

50's at night, and you'll be alright...

Top

Same time as tomato planting works for me. Generally the last week of May works fine.

I am far enough along this season to report...

I grew dahlias from seed - and I brought in just over 20 tubers from a pair of vendors. One vendor sold cut and wrapped tubers, the other sold the big clumps of dried roots.

The seed-grown dahlia also spent every other night on a heat mat and their days out in the sun getting hardened off. I had a pair of 1020 trays with dahlias and they rotated on the heat mat. They went from 1" paper pots to 3" plastic. I ended up with ~25 surviving plants - and they all have thus far outperformed any of the plants originating from cut tubers.

The clump planted dahlias are ahead of all of the cut tubers and have grown better than about a quarter of the plants started from seedlings. It makes sense as they have a larger reserve to draw upon. They put up unwanted extra stems, but getting to choose the best stem is a nice side benefit in my opinion.

At this point, I've had no blooms but 7 of the plants grown from seedlings are soon going to flower. Only one plant grown from tubers has a bud growing.

It is also likely that some of the varieties of dahlias that I have are not especially fast starters. For instance, Ivanetti appears to be healthy and very happy to slowly grow.

Top

Topdecker said:I am far enough along this season to report...

I grew dahlias from seed - and I brought in just over 20 tubers from a pair of vendors. One vendor sold cut and wrapped tubers, the other sold the big clumps of dried roots.

The seed-grown dahlia also spent every other night on a heat mat and their days out in the sun getting hardened off. I had a pair of 1020 trays with dahlias and they rotated on the heat mat. They went from 1" paper pots to 3" plastic. I ended up with ~25 surviving plants - and they all have thus far outperformed any of the plants originating from cut tubers.

The clump planted dahlias are ahead of all of the cut tubers and have grown better than about a quarter of the plants started from seedlings. It makes sense as they have a larger reserve to draw upon. They put up unwanted extra stems, but getting to choose the best stem is a nice side benefit in my opinion.

At this point, I've had no blooms but 7 of the plants grown from seedlings are soon going to flower. Only one plant grown from tubers has a bud growing.

It is also likely that some of the varieties of dahlias that I have are not especially fast starters. For instance, Ivanetti appears to be healthy and very happy to slowly grow.

Top

Great report Top! My plants are only about 1 foot high at this point. I did have a couple of tubers that failed to come up. I do not expect any flowers until August.

Also, I did not expect an ad in the middle of your post:)

Now that I think about it, I do not think even Fackbook puts ads in the middle of a post. Clearly, NGA is a leader.

Best of luck with your dahlias, Top! Almost all the tallest and healthiest plants in the garden started as clumps. Every one of the duds, so far, has been a single tuber. Can't remember ever having a clump fail.

Very interesting about the ones that started as seeds. Hope they do well for you. I've never tried growing dahlias from seeds.

The seeds were easy for me, getting something besides "color" may be harder. Lots of green for the compost though!