I think it's too early also. I don't usually get blooms on my dahlias till August or even September, depending on the kind. I had one absolutely gorgeous dahlia one year. It literally put out its first bloom in late October - gee, might have even been November (it was a mild year that year). It was named Summer's End, which was a bit optimistic IMO. Should have been named Early Autumn or something like that, lol. You are lucky your dahlia came back. I wish I could leave mine in the ground. The whole lifting thing is why I don't grow more dahlias. :) Dee

This is my first time growing the tall dahlias. I started the tubers indoors, and they are getting quite big now. My question is regarding pinching them back. As I understand it, you pinch out all side shoots and disbud side buds in order to get larger flowers. This would give you larger flowers but less of them, right? I'd prefer more flowers even if they were a little smaller, so I am wondering, should I let them grow naturally without pinching? Or, are they pinched in the same way as other annuals, to give you more bloom? I've grown the shorter, bedding dahlias but these seemed to take care of themselves, and I am not sure about the tall ones.

I'm getting the same black/brown spots on the buds but not as much as your picture. I'll try to take a picture when I get home. When the flowers bloom, the tips of the petals are brown and the flower looks frazzled. I've been searching all over and found a blog that mentioned it could be from the hot temperature during the development of the buds and blooming of the flowers. We've had high 80's-90's a few weeks ago. I do hope that is the reason. All the leaves on my cactus dahlia looks good other than pests taking bites here and there. The blog also mentioned to deadhead the flowers so that new buds will bloom. I did that this morning and hope the new flowers look better.

Happier times (yellow) , wilting stage, new bloom (purple)