Dahlias only bloomed at the beginning of summer.

My Dahlias only bloomed at the very beginning of summer and then just sat there the rest of the summer without blooming. They are finally forming more buds, but it is too late in the season now as I expect frost any day now. This has happened to me every season I have tried to grow them.

How much sun, water & fertilizer do they need every day to bloom well? Any suggestions for next year? I live in Upstate New York.

I used no fertilizer at all this year and have tons of blooms. My fear is that you may have used something with a high nitrogen level that pushed leaf growth and didn't push flower growth. What food did you use and what are the numbers on it, like 5-10-5, etc.?

Hmm...So the whole time they sat there, they looked like healthy plants? Did they continue to grow in height/width? I had a very similar problem (bloomed early on, very nicely) but then they died or were very bedraggled due to too nuch rain, mites, etc. But, it was very obvious they weren't healthy. Any sign of disease during the non-bloom time?

I will leave the sun, water, etc. questions to some others who are more qualified to answer. I had such a bad dahlia year, I hate to even open my mouth.

Regardless, they are to gorgeous to give up on-at least I keep repeating that to myself over and over and over. Good luck!

Carrie

I grew them in pots and the leaves were nice and lush. I did not fertilize them at all.

I'm thinking they may have needed fertilizer, as plants in pots seem to require feeding more than those in the ground. I'm also wondering if perhaps they outgrew their pots. I grew a few border Dahlias in containers, and those were the only ones I fertilized (every couple of weeks with all purpose soluble stuff). Even with the feeding, they still didn't bloom as heavily as those in the ground. All the Dahlias I planted in the ground just kept blooming once they started.

I also didn't use fertilizer this year. I only used some compost this winter to make the ground more loose. We have clay here. And I had tons of blooms.

Hmm...okay, Anne, where did you get the dahlias? Were they from a good dahlia grower or a bulk source?

Yes, they were good stock. I will try fertilizing them next year to see if that helps.

What was in your potting soil? Some of it comes already with fertilizer so that may have come into play in your case. Lush foliage is a good sign, not underwatering for sure, but maybe too much N, as Pirl suggested. When I had some full size dahlias in 14" x 12" deep pots I had to water twice a day in our hottest weather. Those pots were black, so moisture just evaporated from them.

Full sun is best: at least 5 hours a day and preferably much more, unless in a hot southern climate, which does not apply to you in NY.

Good stock is a plus, but the number of blooms varies widely from variety to variety. There are some that are just born to bloom over and over again and some where you get one flower per season. Lots of variation there.

Also: were your dahlias the shorter 'garden' variety that you get in a pot at big box stores? It seems like those bloom early, and then fade just when the larger dahlia plants are coming into their prime, at least that's how it worked here.