Garden Plant Support

Garden Plant Support

Although time-consuming and somewhat tedious, garden plant support can be very important to the well-being of some of your flowers. Depending upon the shape and/or height of the plant, there are different methods of supporting or staking flowers and plants in your garden areas.

If you're using mainly the easy care plants and flowers listed on this site, you should have minimal, if any, staking to do. An exception may be if you live in a very windy area and have planted a clump or two of the tall bearded iris or maybe you've planted one of the 4-foot spider daylilies. Then you may find that you'll need to provide these taller items with a bit of support.

For that clump of bearded iris, you'll want to use a stake and twine method to create a type of cage that provides stability in case of wind. Place a framework of 5-8 stakes or bamboo sticks around the iris clump. Loop twine around the stakes and weave across and between the stakes forming a web. Your iris will grow between and cover most of the stringed web cage.

** CAUTION **

Be VERY careful bending down around stakes ...
you don't want to become a one-eyed-gardener
from poking out an eye on a stake!

Another method for clumps is to set up a series of "X" stakes throughout the bed. This method allows for the stakes to provide support to some of the plants which, once they are supported, can then provide support for the other flowers around them.

Be sure to set up your clump support structures as early as possible in the spring before your plants and flowers get much height on them. Also, be careful when placing stakes to avoid hitting or damaging any portion of the plant roots or bulbs.

For single flower support, as in the case of your 4-foot spider daylily, you'll use a single stake or bamboo stick tall enough to provide firm support for the stem. Colored plastic or plastic coated steel, lightweight aluminum, or stiff iron rods are among the wide variety of other stake materials that are available.

For tying, use green twine or paper-coated wire, then:

tie 2/3-3/4 of the way up the stem
wrap the twine one around the stake
circle loosely around the plant stem
bring the twine back to the stake and tie a knot

To stake single stemmed flowers like that very tall daylily, wait until the plant has almost reached it's full height and then stake it before the flower buds actually open.

At the end of the gardening season as you're cleaning up your beds in the fall, remember to remove your garden plant support materials also. This will prevent any possible accidents and keep your garden looking neat and tidy over the winter.

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