I feel your pain. I always lost gorgeous dahlias each year myself until I found a product through Gardener's Supply Company. They sell tomato and vegetable ladders (one is tall, one is shorter). See the link below. They sell them in groups of 5. Your hubby has to realize that you must have some staking system with dahlias, but I know where he's coming from. I always felt that it looked like a graveyard in my beds until the plants grew up. These ladders were the least obnoxious and most sturdy that I've yet to find. This was my first year with them and I can't recommend them highly enough. You can weave the plants through them as they grow or tie them onto the cage easily. These ladders are so much more stable than stakes or the usual tomato cages because of the way they are designed. The Achilles' heal of most staking systems is that the plant is a lot heavier than the stake that is used to support it - which is why they fall over. Not true with these ladders - they are substantial. Once you push them into the ground, they don't move. Plus the green coloring blends right into the plants; and you can attach your plant tags easily to the frame. I can only grow 10-12 dahlias in my yard, so for me they are worth the one-time investment. For people that grow more, it would probably be too expensive - it really depends on how many you need. We've had some large wind and rain storms recently and they have not budged. They're good with any plant that needs support, not just dahlias or vegetables, so they have multiple uses. I used one to grow a clematis against my birdfeeder pole and one for a morning glory vine, and you know how big and heavy those can get. Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato and Vegetable Ladders

A friend of mine uses a stake and fishing wire system. Her annabelles are typically 5 ft tall every year based on her pruning height (which I cant remember what that was) and form a hedge of five each. She uses stakes that are roughly 3.5 - 4ft out of the ground. Think they may be in the ground a foot or more, to keep from tipping over. She stakes them every few feet along the front and back of the hedge to form a frame. Then she takes heavy gauge fishing wire and wraps it around each stake, going from stake to stake. Once she is done with a row, she secures it tightly and does another row. Think she has 6 or 7 rows of wire supporting the hedge. When you place the stakes you dont want to do it too close to the plant, but not to far eaither. Too close and the flowers will still have a decent floop. Too far and the stake system will be visable and possibly miss mainy of the flowers. The problem with this method is its best to do it in spring before everything starts blooming. Suppose if you did it carefully you could do it now without damaging the plant. Plus it would give you an idea of where the stakes would need to be next year. Her system works great. Hope this helps some. Good luck.

What is your 'overproduction', too many new stems or multiple buds on a same stem? In first case nothing to be worry about. In second one, you may remove all secondary buds and than sooner than better, or if you have 2 or more secondary buds, remove the first one, leave the second (secondary!) one and remove everything down below.

I enjoyed looking at your photos, Alberta. I'll admit your bed is densely populated - but everything looks healthy. I see myself soon heading down this same path. jane