I bought four decent sized ones this Spring for the front of the house, and the ads say it supports the flowers much better than Annabelle. But after a few rains, all of the stems with blooms have flopped and stay on the ground. Not a great sight. Any supports for this kind of thing available or do I just have to wait for them to mature?
How to hold up an Incrediball?
My daughter recently went on a garden tour on Chicago's north shore. There she saw an innovative way some gardeners propped up falling-over plants. They used small tree branches that had forks in them. They stuck them in the ground in front of the stems they wanted to support, resting the stems in the forks. I tried it with my Liliums that always fall over and lay on the ground. I think it looks very natural and a lot better than laying on the ground or trying to stake individual stems. The more forks in the branch, the better. As soon as my Annabelles start to fall over, I will try doing the same thing only with stronger branches. Here's a picture of my lilies propped up using branches. My flash distorted the colors on the red lilies, but you get the idea. The lilies in the background are also propped up using branches.
That's a great idea. I was out tying up annabelle last night. That would look so much better and more natural.
I better get out and do my Annabelles. We've had several days of rain. I'm afraid to look at them.
mine were very sad and droopy but today we may not have any rain for the first time in ages!
How wide is it, Tod?
I've used an old lamp shade, stripped of all fabric, for my Baptisia and it does a great job.
So do all Annabelle hydrangea flop over? I hope not mine is just getting going nicly and I really like it a whole lot. I can see where they would I guess they are huge flowers. Maybe I will try the staking method also. Ronna
I guess you can't trust these plant marketing folks!
We make our tomato baskets out of concrete re-enforcement wire. When one get's too bent out of shape(from storing or hub's hitting them w/ tractor when tilling) I cut the bent part off then use the better half to cage my floppy hydrangeas.Works for peonies too They stays year round in the garden and since it's rusted you barely notice it.I use left over wire to make smaller cages for other tall,floppy perennials like tall garden phlox,penstemons and such. Plants grow thur them and you don't see them
I just saw some great plant supports at the garden center the other day. I was just trying to google them and couldn't find them. Of course I didn't write down the brand name which would've helped. They were 6 sided and 36" wide - I could use at least 6 of them and at $16 a pop decided that was too much money. They would be perfect though. I'm using 30" wide round ones I bought at Farm and Fleet for a reasonable price, but they're still a tad too little - some still grow outside the edges of them and I need to tie them up anyhow.
When I go back there, I'm going to get the name of who makes them and try to look them up on-line.
I never cut back the Annabelles this year and they grew much larger than normal and have just as many blooms. I don't think I'm going to bother with the extra work of cutting them down anymore.
Oh, my Annabelle is awsome this year. Wow for this being the first year in my yard it is so pretty. Very happy with it. Ronna