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ken

Thanks Ken,
Fixed it.

I use peony rings to support peonies and baptisia/false indigo as well as sedum which tends to flop in my garden no matter how much sun it gets. (I blame it on my healthy soil--I do NOT fertilize.)

I use individual supports for tall, airy things like gaura/wandflower & crocosmia/montbretia but tend to avoid plants that need staking or support just because I don't want to be bothered with having to provide it.

I do have trellises for clematis simply because they vine and need something to climb. I anchor them to something with fishing line so they aren't knocked over when the wind blows. They still get knocked over when the wind blows but after so many years I figure it's one of those things I have to accept as a gardener.

I use a peony ring on my gas plant. You're careful with the seed heads, right? I had one stem brush against me one year and I had welts and oozing and was scarred for about 2 years in the area. I still have it in my garden though! Not much can top the beauty of one in full bloom!

I use a peony ring on peonies, and stake lilies that are in part sun. I get a lot of flopping from spiderwort, toad lily and asters/chrysanthemums, so I use the C shaped holders that corral a group of stems at once. I also cut back the asters & chrysanthemums twice during the season to encourage bushiness and keep the flop in check.

I usually use bamboo stakes and those coated wire strips that wrap leafy produce. Not glamorous, but gets the job done. Plus the bamboos will "flex" with the wind, which is important because I'm on a windy slope.

This year, I propped my shrub peony blooms up on those thin, rectangular wire "frames" that normally hold up political signs. Again, not high tech or fancy but it keeps them off the ground. Of course, my poor blooms are getting drenched in the rain, but that's normal around here. [shrug]

I don't do staking as a rule (lazy and negligent) - the most they might get is the mid-season cutback (Chelsea Chop) and close planting to support each other. I don't fuss about falling plants. Too much going on. Now and again, I might remember to actually thread some string between the dahlias, using bamboo canes....although they have been in the ground for a few years now and are the size of large shrubs.....so I doubt I will be bothering this year. If I had prize-winning delphs, I might be persuaded to use a bamboo cane with wire threaded in a loop and bent into the central bamboo cavity.....and I do use pea sticks for my....peas (old prunings).

back in suburbia.. i fertd like the devil.. and everything fell over ... they just grew too lush ...

then i moved to acreage ... on benign sand ... and i couldnt afford truckloads of fert .. [and the lazy part campy refers to.. lol ]

and guess what.. everything grew a bit smaller.. and according to genetics.. was able to hold itself up ...

also ... on some level ... i want to see nature .. even if i created the mess ... and i have a hard time relaxing .. with all those stakes and hoops everywhere ... so i convinced myself.. that even if they fall down.. that is what God intended.. and i enjoy them in whatever form they wish to take ... see above re: campys lazy theory ...

and when something really starts irritating me.. i kill it and remove it ... rather than spend more money on it by buying stakes ...

as a new owner ... and perhaps a newb in the garden .. get it very straight in your head ... and i will yell... IF IT DOESNT PLEASE YOU .. GET RID OF IT ...

do not spend money and effort.. trying to fix the prior owners mistake.. it might be the single reason they sold and left .... lol.. and this is a very hard lesson to accept ...

everything you remove... is an opportunity .. to make your own mistake... [and then move ... lol] ..

i would rather spend $15 on something that makes my toes curl.. rather than investing in pieces of metal that will rust and rot away ...

you need to spend this summer.. it being your first .. just sitting out there.. perhaps with adult beverages.. and getting a hate on for some of this stuff.. and making a list of what has to go ... and then get rid of it .... NOTHING.. and i mean nothing.. is static.. in a garden .. if you spend more than two minutes contemplating whether something really has value.. in that 2 minutes.. i could have gotten the shovel.. and root pruned it into the compost heap .. and then the next day.. been at the nursery.. to find something better ...

ken

Great advice all, I'll check into some of those solutions!

Ken, you're absolutely right, and many things HAVE gone into the compost, or to the curb for brush pick up. This one happens to be one of the survivors, and until I plant enough new stuff around it (my removals left it pretty isolated) I'll be giving it other support.

And yes, adult beverages will certainly be involved.

Pea sticks work on perennials too. Best to get them in before the plant grows up though and then the foliage will hide the twigs. I dislike any kind of support which is visible and tend to follow Campanula's habits. Dense planting doesn't fall about much. Also not growing overbred blousy stuff with disproportionately big blooms reduces the problem. I do give Lilium henryi a cane, though, as they grow 5 feet and can lean.

I use a large number of stakes and put them in as required, realizing that it's necessary to anticipate some floppers which (given a chance) will grow and stay in a bent/crooked manner.

It's part liking the perennial garden to get higher through the growing season, part plant hygiene (air flow, etc.) and part favouring neat, if irregular, views of mixed perennial beds.

Re the stakes: I'd always favoured bamboo stakes, until last year. However, bamboo stakes only last here maybe three years, so I switched to the green plastic covered metal ones.

Have, in the past, tried to position stakes as discretely as possible, but now feel the green plastic covered stakes detract from the view of perennials much less than bamboo ones. Large numbers of them are also perhaps a little easier to store over winter and spring.

Some plants yes, others no. Plants grown up against the house seem to most require it. Not really surprising when you consider that they are only getting good sun from one direction and tend to lean a bit that way to begin with.

Lupine is a bit of a trial at my folks' place. They bloom beautifully, but the when their sprinkler goes on or a good rain comes along, the flower heads get so heavy with water and the flowers that they flop over ... sometimes snap completely.

For my gasplant, I cut off the pointy ends from a tomato cage, invert the cage over the gasplant (hopefully before it has leafed out) and then shape the metal pieces I cut off into "U's" to anchor the cage to the ground. Works like a charm and it stays in place indefinitely.