I am new to gardening. I planted some daliah's last year and some this year. I have 40 plants that I started from bulbs I got from Costco, 3 unknown kind I got from a friend and 3 dinner plate that I bought from Wayside garden this year. Although I have big clumps of roots for each plant, only one stem shoots outs per cluster. They are tall and very skinny. And 2-3 flowers on top of that tall stem. Flowers are fine but I never can get them to be bushy plants I see other people have, not even after pinching. After pinching, I get two skinner stems.

I fertilize with slow release stuff and since we are in Ca, I do not dig them out either at fall, ( they were alive this year!) All the Costco varieties are in big pots (5 cluster per pot).

Please help me.

Wanttogarden