Pretty Dahlia Stakes

Many dahlias require staking, but there's a better look than rebar.

This article was originally posted on July 3, 2014. It was a good gardening idea and worth seeing again, so we hope you enjoy revisiting it.

For years I tried using bamboo stakes, wood stakes, even fiberglass stakes, but it always risked my eyesight, with the top of every stake holding a strong possibility for injury.

We had many leftover pieces of copper piping from our former vegetable garden and over the winter I came up with the idea of using cabinetry knobs for the tops of the stakes. I implemented the idea last week and I'm very happy with the results. No danger of getting an eye injury like this:

Here are a few examples of the new and improved copper dahlia stakes:

Ideally, each stake is pounded into place by using a dead blow hammer before actually planting the tuber. This eliminates the damage to the tuber that could occur if the stakes were placed after planting the dahlia tubers.