Early Dahlia Blooms…musings – The Dahlia Dish July 14, 2023

When all your friends are happily sharing their first dahlia blooms…its mid-July already and your own dahlias are “taking their sweet time” to bloom …. Why!?!

“All good things come to those who wait” may be true! But! If you really want the earliest possible dahlia blooms gracing your garden, there are a few things that you can do. Here are some tips that might help you get earlier blooms next season…

• Select dahlia varieties that are known to be earlier bloomers (our website shop includes a filter for “bloom time” that you might find helpful)
• Give your dahlias a head start by eyeing up the tubers and potting them up indoors
• Pot up (transfer to larger pot as necessary) your early indoor starts and transfer them to an outside greenhouse when temperature permits
• Transfer those greenhouse plants to the outdoor garden after your frost free date
• Plant your earliest varieties first and put them in the prime location of your garden – where they get all the sun and all your attention!
• Ensure your dahlias are well fed from the start. Doing a soil test is helpful for both the novice and experienced gardeners. Fertilizers can be expensive – relatively inexpensive home soil test kits can help you determine exactly what nutrients you need to target. Garden soil is often nitrogen poor, which leads to lack of vigour and susceptibility to disease and slow growth. Be careful with adding too much nitrogen – you want a good balance – follow recommendations for application from your soil test!
• Avoid crowding your dahlias such that they get outcompeted by their neighbours which may set them back.
• Elliminate bugs and slugs that will set your dahlias back and in turn delay blooming.

You don’t NEED to do any of the above! Aside from selecting “early varieties”, the rest all take extra time, effort, and resources. If you prefer the “keep it simple and easy” type of gardening, its just fine to plant your tubers out directly into the garden near your frost free date and let them do their thing. Depending on your location in Canada, your first blooms will start appearing anywhere from June (early varieties in warm locales) thru September (late varieties in colder climates). In Terrace BC, dahlias really start putting on their show in late July. They are a favourite flower for so many folks for so many reasons and in particular because once they start blooming, they bloom continuously until the first frost (remember to dead head plants to keep them blooming).

…until next time, we’ll be out in the garden paying special attention to disbudding for longer stems and better blooms…enjoy the ride…take time to smell the roses…Grow Beautiful Dahlias!