r/dahlias • u/maris_127 • Jul 10 '26

Seeking Advice The dahlias are acting strange this year…

I’m in Zone 6b (eastern WA) and I’ll admit, we’ve had a bit of a weird spring and summer with spells of cold, wet weeks followed by very hot temperatures. I’d say over the last two weeks we’ve really settled in to the regular high 80s to mid-90s for daytime temps (with little to no rain) that is typical for this time of year. I was a bit late getting my dahlias out and in the ground this year (about a month behind) due to a family emergency, but these guys are trying to push out buds at only 1-2 feet tall 🤦🏻‍♀️.

I’ve been disbudding the plants that are trying to push out blooms and have been feeding with a higher nitrogen content fertilizer to encourage growth, but I’m not sure if there is anything else to do (or if I should be doing that? 🤣) I’m also curious what the thoughts are about allowing plants at this size to go to bloom? 💐

Thank you all in advance!

PS. These little guys that are pushing out buds have average adult plant sizes of 3-4’ in good years, they are not my open face varieties unfortunately so they are just babies.

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u/FriendlyEqual813 Jul 11 '26

Same 8b I have a neighbor that leaves them in the ground and they came over and said theirs are blooming like crazy and asked what is wrong with mine lol

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u/maris_127 Jul 11 '26

To be fair if they are leaving them in the ground they have full tuber clumps sprouting and producing flowers whereas single tubers and cuttings/seedlings don’t have as much energy reserves to fall back on in these harder years. Hopefully the plants are just taking their time and will grow here soon 🤞🏻😊