Flopping Plants whats the deal ?

Hi,I pop in here from time to time and am glad to see familier DG names.
I have a question.
My catmints and a few other bush type plants get the flops.
I want to know what you use for plant supports.
I was interested in theJardin half round supports but 20 bucks is steep.

I just realized the photo is missleading. Its a pic of Baptisia and I didnt realize it was the wrong photo until it was posted.
My Baptisias are in Peony cages.The nepetas are too low for those.
I saw the half rounds and wondered if they would work
Any suggestions would help.

This message was edited May 27, 2011 12:09 PM

Looks like you have had some intense winds or they are leaning toward the sun.

Thats just a picture .I have the heat on today.Fog and rain temp52*.
I am also wearing sweats.

Sorry I missed the support part. I have used the tomato cages with success, cutting off the last ring for shorter plants.
However, this year we got new dogs and they started running up and down the fence line prior to plants returning in early spring. I knew if I allowed it I wouldn't have any plants. So I purchased short wire fencing in 10 foot sections at home depot, placed it in front of my problem areas. Not only is it keeping the dogs out, it is acting as a support for the tall droopy plants like Columbine, mist flower, asters. I think is was a great investment.
Here is a picture with it installed, and it is barely visiable. The blue mistflower is growing up better than it usually does. You can see the edge just above the butterfly sign.

thanks for that idea

You could try experimenting with wire coat hangers (mine come from the cleaners) to find a shape that might work before actually purchasing some. Heavy rain and not much sun usually cause a lot of my stuff to flop. Sometimes I help get rid of the moisture from heavy rain by gently shaking some of the stems. Even my Campanula poscharskyana needs some help, especially with the longer flower stems.

I over-fertilized and over-watered some Lavatera that I planted in too-rich soil. Sprawling octopus shrub!

I uprooted them last fall and moved them to shallow, sandy soil with no added fertilizer, and no more water than necessary for their neighborhs (just incessant PNW rain).

Hopefully, this time they will grow "up" instead of "out".

Corey

We have had a wet spring and even sturdy columbines are too tall and falling over.
Thanks Corey

ge - I've also noticed plants getting a little taller than normal here as well. I've got Astilbe flower stalks at about 4 ft tall! Seems like too much rain in shade is not a good thing.

Ours in TX are falling over from lack of rain and 100+ temps for the last week!! Enjoy your rain!

Astilbes love it a bit wet.4 feet is a wowser.

I think you guys have had your share for sure.

4 ft is just unusual for my Astilbes. Of course, I did divide and move them 2 years ago so maybe they're just reaching their potential? If that's the case, I've been a lousy caretaker over the years. :)
I do feel bad for you guys in the southern zones. With your temps, I wouldn't even be outdoors. DD in TN is suffering as well but I think she got some rain finally yesterday.

Any "little" rain here just sizzles and dissapates like water drops in a hot skillet. LOL!

Ouch!

I found some 18 inch long x 12 inch high decorative 'fence pieces' at Home Depot that I have been using to prop up leggy catmints, butterfly weed, etc. I use the rings for the peonies and they are great.

But, in my "Well Tended Perennial Garden" book the author suggests that cutting back part or all of plants like salvias, veronicas and catmints when they are just a foot or so tall can keep them under control better thru the summer.

I do this with my Russian Sages and they behave beautifully. With some varieties bloom will be delayed but that can be a good thing. For example, if you cut back half the catmint, then half will bloom earlier and half later. Resulting in longer color in the garden. If you cut back 'half' you can divide the cuts by front and back, or you can go in and cut down fifty percent of the shoots thru out which is more tedious but can make a nice plant.

I had never thought of doing that until I read the book. Of course, I forgot to do it this spring so now I'm playing catch up.

tabasco - now you're making me feel guilty. I have that book as well and should study it. The only thing I cut back a couple of times are my perennial mums (or whatever you call those daisy type like 'Hillside Sheffield Pink' these days). I think July is the last time I can pinch those back.

I was gifted some of the Sheffield daisies last year and was excited when in the fall they began to bloom. The lady told me to cut them back in July also.

Great ideas! I have many tiny Columbine seedling coming along, most potted up to 3" pots. With luck, next year, they'll be tall enoguh to need flop-support.

I finally got one Deliphinium to survive into it's second year, and now its spikes are taller than I am. I had better get it some support before it tips that whole raised bed on its side!

Corey

Well, don't feel guilty! I just wanted to share because I was having the same problem with floppy stuff and it occurred to me too late to check "Well tended".

By the way, my son fixed my floppy yarrow the other day using the English idea of 'pea sticks'.

Here's a picture: http://www.allotmentforestry.com/fact/bbps.htm

Just take a few twigs from pruning, stick them into the ground spaced side by side, and making a little short fence to prop up the plants. The yarrow looks great now and I couldn't even see the sticks. Cheap and easy.

Long, flattish branches from pruning are also excellent to lead clematises from where they are planted to where we want them to grow.

Corey - congrats on the delphs! I'm jealous. Too much wind here and not enough room.
I've used the "pea stick" idea in the past on plants that tend to be a little more delicate. I have a Clematis integrifolia (non-vining) that'll get about 15 inches tall and then start leaning once it blooms. It's not real bushy (maybe not enough sun) so the sticks worked really well. Thanks for mentioning the sticks - I need to get busy.
The Sheffield mums make excellent cut flowers, lasting a week or more indoors. And the color is nice at the end of the season when everything else is winding down. I even had to make a penny-pinching last-minute small bridal bouquet with them and they held up well. DD in TN has some and her clumps get huge.

>> 'pea sticks'.

I especially like the idea orf pushing the thickest end of a piece of brush itno the ground, leaving the twiggy bits for peas to cling to.

I wonder if "bush beans" were origianlly called "brush beans" because they only needed a little brush to support them, not a string pole.

>> Corey - congrats on the delphs! I'm jealous. Too much wind here and not enough room.

Thanks! For me the limiting factor has been slugs. This si the first year anything got big enoguh to threaten top fall over. Last night I bought a stiff wire ring-on-a-tripod. I hat isn;t high enoguh to support the whole plant, I may have to raise some poles over it as a tall tipi.

Corey


Corey

Interesting thought re: bush beans. I always assumed it's because they weren't tall growers but you've opened up a new train of thought.
For your delph supports - maybe a tall piece of bamboo with a wire coat hanger ring attached to it? You could always paint the bamboo green if it isn't already green. I do grow larkspur but the plants are small enough to tuck into any opening in the garden bed that I can find as well as Delphinium tricorne - my only perennial delph.

>. maybe a tall piece of bamboo

Yup! Though I prefer bamboo tripods since I have no poles thick enough to give much support if there's just one.

My first garden ambition was to grow my own stakes, and be able to make hoop tunnels and trellises with my own bamboo. Well, three years later (or is it four?), I'm still encouraging my little Fargesia rufa to grow up, already!

It looks liike some of this year's growth may reach five feet tall, but thin and floppy.

I may have to rig some supprts for the bamboo if I wnat IT to stand upright!

Gardening teachs patience. And humility. And frustration!
But I do love that big green mushroom. Always touching the ground with its tips.

Corey

"big green mushroom" - LOL. I'm thinking that a lot of folks grow bamboo in your neck of the woods. DD in TN was out on a Sunday afternoon ride and saw a fella with a nice grove of bamboo clearing some of it way and was piling it towards the front of his property. After talking to the guy, DD was able to haul away as much as she wanted. She's made wind chimes and lots of supports for her veggie garden from the bamboo. Might work for you until yours gets a little bigger.

>> DD was able to haul away as much as she wanted. ...
>> Might work for you until yours gets a little bigger.

I am ALL in favor of that idea. I would trade something like potted flower seedlings or clean pots. I would love to build some hoop tunnels with plastic film.

One person suggested growing a different species of bamboo. Good idea.

I think that F. rufa might eventually be my ideal size, if grown under IDEAL conditions for it, maybe after 5-10 more years of growth.

I should probably start something now that would be BIGGER than my preference if grown under ideal conditions for decades. It might be a usable size in my yard after 3-5 years. And a Borg-like condo is now being thrown up next door, looming over me and begging for a TALL screen.

When mature, I guess I would be making stakes and trellises out of too-thick poles. Oh, well - maybe I would just use the thin ends or middles, and compost the rest .

Early in that Borg-Condo project, I thought I would give them some plants for the copious open space around the buildings. Little did I know that, after the first cluster of big identical cubes was plopped down, they would fill almost every square foot with yet more Borg Cubes, shoehorned elbow-to-elbow into all those once-open spaces. Like living in the Economy Class of a domestic airliner. Yuck.

Corey

Borg-condo! Another LOL. Might want to check out Craig's List or a local freebie website - maybe someone will let you haul some away. 'Bout the only bamboo I can grow here is in a pot but then I killed it. Has to come indoors in the winter.

Thanks, Cindy. At first, they were just banging away in the distance, then I came home one day and the Borg Cube was looming over my fence, close enough to look in my windows. Where Patrick Stewart when I need him?

>> Craig's List

It is a very good idea, and I keep telling myself that. I should add that to the list of garden plans I keep to remind myself of everything I should do right away or sooner.

BTW, what would you use to thin a big clump of bamboo? A hand saw? Very heavy lopping shears? I'm amazed at the prices that bamboo nurseries want to charge for poles.

Corey


This message was edited Jun 19, 2011 2:10 PM

Being totally inexperienced in harvesting bamboo, I would think either ratchet pruners (the larger types used for 2" tree/shrub trimming) or a pruning saw (especially if canes are close together). Here in the midwest, bamboo still seems like an exotic thing (not always easy to find) and I would have thought the market towards the west coast would have better options. Perhaps landscape centers might have better prices?

>> Perhaps landscape centers might have better prices?

Just recently someone local told me about a wholesale 'landscape supply' place. It HAS to be cheaper than the fancy-shamncy nursery where I see great variety and prices out of my range.

Before the Borg moved in, I was in no hurry and other projects seemed more enticing. Now, though, 'tall and upright' sounds awfully good to me.

Corey

Due to the invasion, I can now envision bamboo construction projects filling your summer - trellises, arbors, pergolas, screens.

It went through my mind to throw some wicked-invasive seeds over the fence, but i'm not that wicked.

Yet!

Corey

Hmmm - somehow I don't think they'd care about wicked-invasive weeds.

Yeah, they would have to be able to drill through particle board and asphalt.

Corey

That's what they have bulldozers for. :)

I read a short story where a grandmother was going around asking for signatures to stop a shopping mall development ... she braved the Hell's Angels flophouse and asked them for their signatures.

They didn't sign, but her chutzpah (spelling?) so impressed them that they gave their good-citizen-support in their own way.

It invoved an Army-surplus mortar ...

... but of course, that would be WRONG!

Corey

LOL! Support never the less! LOL!

LOL! Guess it depends on your definition of "wrong".

Definately wrong for sure.