My chinese asters do usually start blooming later than many things. I think mine started about two weeks ago. They are late, but in my opinion, well worth the wait. These are one of my favorites, and one of the more popular flowers with my customers. I always kick myself for not planting more. The main drawback, IMO, is that rebloom is not good. They seem to have pretty much one good flush, and the secondary bloom is usually too short-stemmed to be of use in bouquets. That's why I always wish I had planted more!

I have had the worst year ever with dahlias! My plants are barely a foot tall, only about a fifth of them even have blooms, and those blooms are on three-inch stems. I don't know if it's just the bad year that accounts for the three-inch stems, or if the description of what I bought as being "great for cutting" was a bunch of hooey. Very discouraging.

Actually, now that I think of it, I did grow some dahlias from seed this year (most of mine were bought as tubers) and those seed-started ones did start to bloom about a week ago. And they look a heck of a lot better than the tuber-grown ones.

I'm not sure, since I don't have a wide range of experience with dahlias, but I do think the bloom time can depend on the variety. I remember I grew one gorgeous one called "Summer's End" which I joked should be called "Autumn's End", because the darn thing never bloomed until November!

Dee

This year I had asters blooming in late July, but that's certainly an exception. Usually they don't bloom till August here in my Iowa garden. (I generally have some to take to school in Sept.)

I find that I have terrible luck germinating asters outdoors. I have to start them indoors where I have better control of moisture and temperature. This year I started them 8 weeks before frost, earlier than usual, so they were bigger when I planted them out. We had an unusually hot summer(and very dry July), so my asters are finished, mostly dried up now.

Dee and Jan (I assume!),
Thanks for telling me your experiences. I have never grown either til this year, so at least now I know it's probably just the way they're supposed to grow. I just thought that the China asters taking so long to bloom seemed a little ridiculous! Next year I'll try a few more of each from seed! :0) Phyl

I have planted some chinese aster seeds and I was wondering if anyone knew how long it usually takes for me to start seeing a bud, since this information was not on the packet. I don't want to think I am not taking care of them and not seeing a bud, when really i just need to wait longer.. Can someone please help me?