Dahlia Grenadier

Hotwax

Hallo. This is my first post, so I hope i’m doing it right! I grow quite a lot of dahlias, mainly for cutting, and I especially like the vivid coloured ones - reds, purples, oranges etc. I was very pleased to find a lovely red called Grenadier and last year I bought two rooted cuttings. Unfortunately, the stems were very floppy, even though the actual flower was lovely. I overwintered them, but this year, they have been just the same. So has anyone else had this problem? Is it just the variety, or have I used too much /too little fertiliser? I’m sure they held themselves much better when I first saw them at a trial at Wesley several years ago. Would be grateful for any thoughts.

BobFlannigon

Are the stems quite thin?  Often if they saturate with water it can bend them over.
Do you grow them in pots or in the ground?

Hotwax

They are in the ground, and yes the flowering stems are very thin. Would more feeding make them more sturdy? I grow quite a few dahlias and the rest stand up well. 

Fairygirl

More feeding can cause a bigger problem, but it often depends on the type of food too @Hotwax.
If you can enrich the soil, that's usually better than using lots of additional liquid or granular feeds. 
Failing that, perhaps it would be worth simply using a nice support early on for them

Hotwax

The annoying thing is that the plants themselves are quite sturdy. It’s just the flowering stems that droop!