Dahlia problem

Hi
Grown from tuba and planted out about 2 weeks a go but less than a foot tall and starting to bud. This was supposed to be around 3 foot tall. What's wrong and what can I do?

 

Two answers come to mind.
Try something from the woodwind section, or....
Don't worry about it, it'll get taller through the season and subsequent years as the tuber gets larger

 

I had this happen on two different plants. First was Penhill Watermelon. It bloomed, then grew loads, then bloomed more. Your plant looks healthy and that might happen. You could try pinching off the early flowers. If you have not pinched out tips of growing shoots, you can do that now - it encourages branching and more flowers. My Penhill W is going strong 3 years later and a large over 1m plant -- second year it was very late to flower compared with others. Don't know why! Maybe it is temperamental.

The other plant it happened on unfortunately turned out to be some rather plain short orangey-red bedding dahlia, rather than the Art Deco dahlia I had ordered. I got a refund... In my experience about 30% of dahlia sold are not true to type you ordered - wherever you get them from.

Also, some dahlia are very early flowerers. Totally Tangerine usually going in June for example.

Hope this helps!

 

My Dahlias are just through the ground. At least some are. The rest are still to show.

 

Thanks for the reply.some good information. I was going to nip out the bud but think I'll leave it and see what happens