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Which of your plants need support?

CamelliadCamelliad Posts: 402
in Problem solving
So far I've put in hazel supports for peonies, some roses (only really the newly planted DAs), dicentra and hydrangea Annabelle. I've got some rusted metal supports too for when the inevitable happens and my hazel constructions fall apart...

I waited last year and put supports in too late and ended up breaking things and making them look awful. 

I have lots of new plants in the border this year that I put in as tiny wee things last spring / summer so haven't seem them in action yet.

Interested to know what (if anything) you will all be staking this year? Do you do it early or wait?

Posts

  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Veronica , artichoke and geum TT  I'm not organised enough to do it in advance. I suppose I should
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • herbaceousherbaceous Posts: 2,318
    I have to chivvy most of my plants, lazy lot.  Many a morning I find myself in the greenhouse shouting "Come on, you can do it!" but fear it is more exercise for my lungs than any support for my plants.

    When you have been locked away for a year it is odd the things you talk to   :*
    "The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."  Sir Terry Pratchett
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    I don't do as  much staking for protection for protection as I do for presentation and saving other plants.
    My clumps of Crocosmia 'Lucifer' have stout stakes permanently in place and will be tied back with baler twine as soon as they are tall enough to think about flopping. It doesn;t help that they are growing on a slope (all my garden is on a slope!) but seems to be a built in defect. My C. Emberglow grows near it and though it is shorter, has much thicker stems right at the base and stays erect, whereas Lucifer flops over everything around it.
    I put wire hoops round the potentillas for similar reasons. Though they do less damage, I can't see the flowers as well if they flop. I keep hoops ready for anything else that seems to need them. The garden is very exposed, so many plants adjust to suit as they are growing, at least to some degree, but variations in weather can affect their height/weight ratio.
    The very tall and thin Rudbeckia, new last year didn't need a stake though and seemed to enjoy the wind, swaying merrily. Will be interesting to see  if that changes as the clump gets fatter and offers more wind resistance :)
    My dahlias will be staked of course, and my delphiniums if they make it to flowering size this year (grown from seed). Most roses don't, except William Lobb and Cerise Bouquet, which both have long supple canes, so the flowers hide among neighbouring plants if not prevented.
    Growing plants close together helps a bit and avoiding plants that are clearly unsuited to the conditions, but accidents can still happen if I forget or just forget to check often enough. Be prepared is definitely better than trying to remedy things after the event though!
  • CamelliadCamelliad Posts: 402
    Argh I have potentilla, delphinium and artichoke. Yes will do those.

    Yes to planting close together - I'm going to experiment with the Chelsea chop this year. I'm sure I remember reading advice from Monty that overfeeding some perennials also makes them floppy. It's hard to know what to do for the best!
  • CamelliadCamelliad Posts: 402
    herbaceous said:
    I have to chivvy most of my plants, lazy lot.  Many a morning I find myself in the greenhouse shouting "Come on, you can do it!" but fear it is more exercise for my lungs than any support for my plants.

    When you have been locked away for a year it is odd the things you talk to   :*

     I think it's fine - I'm sure if I were your neighbour I'd find encouraging shouting to your plants far less disturbing than a menacing whisper...! 
  • PeggyTXPeggyTX Posts: 556
    edited April 2021
    Only plants I'm supporting are two new tropical red Mandevilla vines.  Must bring them inside for winter, so I'm leaving their large pots sitting behind the support.  Will have to unwind or cut back in winter to move them inside.  But I just love Mandevilla. 
    The Primrose Jasmine in front of the support needs no support.  It will cascade like an umbrella when it regenerates after our bitter freeze in Texas in February.  All above ground branches died and what you see has come back off the roots.  This 2 year old jasmine had just, the week before our ice and Snowpocalypse, bloomed for the first time! I hope it regenerates and blooms again soon.  I was hoping our arctic blast would have killed off the weeds in that bed, but no such luck.  
    My low-carb recipe site: https://buttoni.wordpress.com/
  • AthelasAthelas Posts: 946
    Helleborus x sternii: I support the flower stems once they appear with heavy buds with bamboo stakes + old tights, otherwise they go practically horizontal 

    Helleborus argutifolius: this grew really large for me, needed to support the flowering and non-flowering stems with bamboo stakes + old tights
    Cambridgeshire, UK
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    Dahlias and heleniums, mainly, but I do put tall hoops around saliva guaranitica types - amistad and black and blue - more for containment really as they can take over.
    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Everything over 6 inches. The wind here roars through, flattening everything in its path. Even with supports, sometimes just the stalks remain and every leaf and flower is stripped. Not every year....
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