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Selhars, Dahlias are wonderful plants to have. They started out as a wildflower in Mexico, making them tropical plant and not happy campers in cold weather. The knobby "bulb" you purchased or were gifted are not bulbs they are tubers. To most people this doesn't mean much but it sure makes a difference in understanding their care and planting. Since they grow from tubers and not bulbs they are not treated exactly like bulb growers (like tulips and daffodils) by planting in the fall.
Normally in all but the warmest parts of the country the advice is to "lift" the tubers as soon as frost has damaged the plant above ground and store in a cool dark place. Lift is a fancy word for dig out, clean off and dry for storage. The plant has gone dormant and the tubers do not require being in soil over winter. Many gardeners keep them in paper bags, mesh bags or cardboard boxes with small holes and surround them with wood shavings or even packing peanuts to keep them dry and unmoldy. The key is to keep them cool and dry. If they stay in above ground pots of soil out doors the chance is pretty good they will get freeze damage and/or rot. I've been lucky the last few winters in my zone 7 garden to have fairly mild and dry conditions and several of my dahlias have survived but it was not on purpose, I just ran out of time getting things dug up and left some in.
If the dahlia you have came packaged in wood shavings you can leave them in the packing and store somewhere like a basement where it is cool but not freezing. Plant the tubers next spring as soon as the ground is warm enough to dig in.
Alliums are all related to onions and when the leaves are bruised they will smell like it or their other close relative: garlic. They are indeed bulbs and one of the few plants the deer will avoid most of the time. Chives are in that same family and my deer discovered they were not too bad an mowed them down so never say never with those critters.
Plant the bulbs right now, today if you can; it is the perfect time to get them in since they will have a chance to root for a few weeks before it gets too cold, usually by late December.
Potting plants, bulbs included, to leave outside is hit or miss since they thrive better where their roots aren't experiencing big freeze-thaw shifts. Alliums are probably one of the stronger bulbs and can take potting better than most. If you only have access to pots for a garden then try using larger pots and keep mulch around the pots as close as possible to the rim as you can and add the mulch as soon as the ground gets really cold. The mulch acts as a kind of blanket preventing soil freeze and thaw that damages bulb and roots already growing in the soil. When spring arrives keep an eye out on the shoots and begin removing any leaves and mulch covering the top of the pots. Once you see other spring plants budding and blooming it is probably safe to remove all the mulch. As a zone 7 you may still have late spring freeze and thaws but the plants should be able to withstand them.
Once you plant the bulbs, as long as the weather remains mild, make sure to keep the pot watered a little every week to keep the soil slightly damp but not wet (wet will rot everything). Once things freeze over stop watering until spring where you need to keep the soil dampened a little once again.
If you have a lot of flowers in the spring cut off at least a few and put them in DRY vase, no water. I still have a few in vase from my spring blooming allium. They fade very slightly but generally hold their color really well and don't need anything else to keep them looking good.
Thanks. They're not my favorite flower...but I've wanted to try bulbs (need height) -- and have squirrels like crazy.
So we'll see.
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