How do you stake your dahlias?

Nollie

With photos if you have them!

I have used a sturdy hazel stake, but then the dahlia tuber grew with multiple stems, so I pushed a couple of more in but they ended up looking a bit trussed up and the stakes stood out too starkly against my pale stone walls.

I tried a couple of metal plant hoops in a semi-circle, but they flopped over the top and looked messy.

Would a grow-through type arrangement work, maybe like a basket of pea sticks or a metal grow-through?

I am struggling to think of an aesthetically pleasing solution that does not detract from the plants while still supporting them.

How do you do yours?

Daniel Rutherford

I always have the same problem with mine too, I normally use canes and try keep them small so they don’t stick out the top of the plants.

i always think each year if I should try something different but yeah most things look terrible among the dahlias so have stuck to strong canes so far!

Mr. Vine Eye

I grow dwarf varieties that don’t need staking!

Dirty Harry

Mr. Vine Eye said:

I grow dwarf varieties that don’t need staking!

I only grow in containers but I had Bishop of Llandaff and Leicester without stakes and they were fine last year. Not exactly small ones.

Mr. Vine Eye

Dirty Harry said:

Mr. Vine Eye said:

I grow dwarf varieties that don’t need staking!

I only grow in containers but I had Bishop of Llandaff and Leicester without stakes and they were fine last year. Not exactly small ones.

I had a couple of tall pom-pom dahlias which stood tall without staking last year, but they were awful ugly things so I binned them!

Bright star

I’m not growing dahlias this year but when I have grown the taller varieties, I used a 4 foot long stake approximately 1 inch squared. I hammered it into the ground before I planted the dahlias in front of it. Once the dahlias got growing the stake completely disappeared but the plants were very supported.  I didn’t bother with supports for the lower height ones.

Nollie

Yes it’s the taller ones that need staking (I don’t do the dwarf ones either). I did exactly the same as you @Brightstar, but my beds are curved and I could still see the stakes when I walked past and they annoyed me! Someone on the web mentioned wire ‘tomato cages’, which are basically just obelisks with the wide bit at the top from what I could tell, not sure how they would support the big-headed ones though. My Bishop of Llandalf was also the one that needed multiple staking and looked a bit trussed up.

Bright star

Mine were planted quite close together at one end of my cut flower patch so they weren’t really noticeable and they sort of propped each other up! I did need to put a few extra smaller canes in for the bushier ones, but I found if I could get the main stem well tied in it wasn’t too bad.