You can try disbudding them to try and thicken the stems, if that doesn't work you might want to try a different cultivar.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:651721}}

Hi bigcity al, Thanks for the advice. How would I do that? Do you mean when the buds start appearing in the summer take them all off? Or take them all off except for a few?

-Suling

I disbud the side ones, you can pinch or snap them off sooner than this also.

don't know how to do photos direct here.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:651722}}

to this

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:651723}}

To try and get to this. Like I said, that cultivar may just be prone to weak stems. I don't have any dahlias where I tie up individual flowers.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:651724}}

thanks for that info bigcityal and the informative picture. I think I will try this, it appears to allow the flowers to grow well above the plant, where in my case I tend to get blossoms hidden by the side shoots!

Thank you so much! I will try it.

No problem!

You can of course disbud those oppposite of that and remove just the middle one, but I think you get stronger stems the other way. Depending on how much time I have I will nip off those buds that will form flowers never to be seen.