Still Waiting

So, almost an entire week later, I am still waiting for that first dahlia to open. It has made some progress, but not enough for my liking. We have had a rough summer here so far. I first sensed the return of the leaf hoppers at the end of June before we went away for a few days. I sprayed when we got back, but had to divide my spraying over a few days because I ran out of spray. Then we had about two weeks without any rain and with scorching temps. The grass all died and all plants looked pathetic. It was tough to water everything because of the deep watering dahlias need. I have so many and ran the well dry for an evening once when I tried to give them a good soaking. (In fairness to the well though, we were running the washing machine and the bath at the same time as well.) Then I noticed some adult leaf hoppers (which are actually quite pretty) and some aphids the other day and sprayed again and again ran out of spray. I've also been combating Japanese Beetles and have one of those bag a bug traps hanging which I thought were so dreadful in my mother's garden when I was growing up.
At any rate, I think this dahlia will be quite lovely once it opens fully. If it ever does.