High Stakes Gardening
Plants with bad posture: can’t stand ’em. Which is a problem in a garden like mine, intended to have an informal, even wild feel to it. Also, I like to grow big plants generally and especially wildflowers accustomed to a lean soil. My soil is fairly rich, the topsoil deep and with lots of organic matter.
The result: plants generally grow tall, often much taller than it says in the catalog or reference book.
Some gardeners don’t need stakes, they have planned their gardens so well that the plants support each other. I am not one of those gardeners.
I don’t feel too bad about this, though, as I have seen stakes used in some of my favorite public gardens.
Over the years I have acquired a vast arsenal of staking devices. These include green metal hoops, some with grids and some without. There are also an array of stakes, ranging from cheap little 2′ bamboo poles to 10′ lengths of rebar (really). Plus I like to make stakes from the woody stems that are the byproduct of ambitious pruning projects.
It’s easy to get carried away with staking. Then you can end up with a big multi-stem plant that looks squeezed at the waist as if wearing a corset. Or worse, pinched near the top as if prepared for a hanging. This is not a good look.
In order to avoid the corset or the noose, I have learned to tolerate leaning. Plants are going to lean – it’s just a question of how far.
I do try to reduce the need for staking by cutting plants back, by not watering unless absolutely necessary, and by declaring a personal moratorium on the application of compost (except for edibles and a few coddled favorites like clematis and roses).
For a few plants, especially tall plants with slender stems (Penstemon, Veronicastrum), I use hoops. The hoops with grids work wonders for my peonies.
You don’t have to buy hoops, though. I get the same results by connecting three or four stakes with green twine, making a triangle or rough circle. If a grid is needed, connect the stakes in an X across the circle with the same twine.
If a drift of plants is inclined to lean in only one direction, I run some green twine between stakes at either end of the clump. The plants lean against the twine – not upright, but not sprawling on the ground either. I do this with the wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa), with results that are satisfactory to me.
This usually works better for me than letting plants lean against two stakes stuck diagonally in the ground to form an X (which is recommended by Traci DiSabato-Aust) – though I do that sometimes as well.
I am gradually figuring out how to let plants lean more on each other. A happy surprise this year is how mixing annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus) and Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) into perennial beds can provide sturdy supports to floppier perennials. But I think I will always do a fair amount of staking.
Staking doesn’t have to be unsightly. I have left hoops in the ground over winter and they are visible early in the season. Before long, though, they are hidden by leaves. Stakes can be placed just inside (or leaning into) a clump of plants so they are unobtrusive, and I generally find twine dyed green ends up almost invisible to most eyes.
Do you have a preferred method of staking, or is your garden a stake-free zone?
gardeninacity 
First let me just say that your last shot there took my breath away! Gosh is that a gorgeous bed! What else is in there??? And funny you should mention staking as I had to have a stiff drink when I came home several weeks ago and found that the tree trimmers were here to take off branches from the ash. Branches were falling all over the place and actually damaged several of my plants. My neighbor came over and we began the process of evaluating and supporting the ones that got the most damage. I now keep a tackle box filled with ties and what not to have on hand to make staking easier. I use the hoops too and find that if I just have the little rods from the hoops to help support a couple areas of the plant I do pretty well. But I hear you on the big guys and the fertile soil. Great post Jason! Have a great weekend! Nicole
Glad you like the bed. The other things in bloom that you see are mostly the anise hyssop and yellow coneflower – plus Tithonia, of course.
The Bergamot looks so natural so your method works well. In fact it all looks wonderful.
I use bamboo canes and twine for most of my staking because it is the cheapest method. The trouble is I try to do it so that it doesn’ t show and that means I risk losing an eye every time I work in the garden.
Most of my staking is also with bamboo canes and twine. Even cheaper than the bamboo canes are stakes you make from pruned woody stems.
Jason, I have much leaner soil so my plants aren’t leaning– no staking in summer. Just the peonies as precaution against early summer rains, and of course the gardener herself.
Hi Rachelle! Yes, you have that sandy soil up there. I hope you are doing well.
I also use hoops a lot, especially for my peonies . Staking is necessary, but it´s difficult to make is look nice/invisible. Bamboo canes are ok, and I also use string. The best thing is to have tall sturdy plants to support the floppy ones, as you experienced yourself.
Sounds like we garden in pretty similar circumstances.
I am trying to get to the point where only my edibles need support, by close planting and not enriching the soil, but sometimes you just have to, don’t you. My problem is that I am so resistant to staking that I leave it too Kate, I found – and promptly lost – a source of metal plant supports that I think could work as sculpture of a sort over winter, which is probably the way I will end up going. No getting away from the wind when you live 200yds from the sea!
I try to find plant supports that are least obtrusive, often a long stem from a shrub does the trick.
The best staking is done in early spring before the plants begin to grow. Mostly I don’t need to stake, the dry conditions mean stems grow strong and not leggy, the cutting garden that is irrigated has needed staking but it isn’t so important how this looks but I will try to stake earlier next year as it helps for straight stems which is what I need for cutting for a vase. Some plants are sprawling more this year because of the rain but I’m not too worried about that.
I agree it’s good to get stakes and whatnot installed early – the results are more likely to look natural that way.
I’ve used stakes and hoops. I noticed this morning that I have some grass that needs to be propped up and I need to take care of that. 🙂
I use hoops with Northern Sea Oats, and that works fairly well.
I have used vinyl covered fencing to form cylinders which I can cut to desired height and diameter, especially for peonies. A couple of repurposed sticks laid across give some internal stability. They vanish as the foliage grows. They have also been effective in keeping the rabbits away from the emerging coneflowers, etc. in spring.
That sounds like a good approach.
Except for my Russian sage and orange day lilies, I haven’t much need for staking this year……I DO like your method – and agree with Nicole about that last photo. Wow!
I don’t grow Russian sage … I guess none of my daylilies are tall enough to need staking, you must grow some tall ones!
I find getting support in early enough is the secret but there are some that slips through the net (no pun intented). If I find it rather awkward trying to stake late on in the season then some of these plants succumb to the chop rather then destroy everything else growing round about it as I try some last minute remedies.
Priority staking always goes to the peonies, not that they lean, it’s more a precautionary measure against the wind and rain.
The last shot is incredible and such a lovely border with not a support in sight. Well done!
Thanks, and I agree about getting the supports in early.
What a beautiful garden – I love your ideas too – perfect way to stake up those heavier plants.
Carole @ Garden Up green
Thanks!
I think that I’ve used every type of staking that you mentioned over the years. Each seems to have its own set of good and bad qualities but the grid hoops do work well for peonies.
Agreed.
Tithonia, Sunflower and Hyssop — stunning! Do you grow Tithonia from seed? The only staking I do here is for double flowered peonies. I grow Monarda, Veronicastrum, Penstemon with no staking needed. I guess that’s an advantage of wretched clay soil. Perennials are usually interplanted with grasses, I think that makes a big difference as well.
In my old garden in Glen Ellyn IL I used to do a pretty aggressive “clean up and cut back” in late summer to eliminate the floppies. This ensured that the fall garden was bountiful and tidy.
Northern Sea Oats was quite floppy in my shaded Glen Ellyn garden. In sunnier sections it stood upright much better.
I find Northern Sea Oats grows tall and floppy even in a sunny bed – again, I think the soil is excessively rich.
I love the height of your plants, they always look so pristine too. I always forget to stake and by the time it’s needed the flowers have gone over. You do have some lovely combinations here.xxx
Believe me, they are only pristine from a distance!
Things are really looking good there at ground level, glad no windowsills were used in this post! I’m generally too cheap to buy stakes and when I do it’s for a specific purpose. If I’m just propping up plants (my favorite method) I like to use twiggy shrub trimmings. Occasionally I’ll stick in a straighter branch if something needs tying up. My garden is not a fertile, deep soil… things grow lean here, and no cup plants, so the rebar is reserved for the pole beans.
Shrub trimmings can really work well, and you can’t beat the price.
I use hoops and bamboo sticks. It is worth looking around for hoops. I found some in a “dollar store” which were about 5 times cheeper than the ones in garden centers.
You are very skilled at staking!
I tend to use bamboo stakes and twine…especially with monk’s hood.
I don’t grow monk’s hood, but that long stem looks like it would need staking.
Hi Jason, I don’t tend to go in for plants that need staking, having said that, many herbaceous plants do and I’m reluctant to stake, preferring that they loll. If they are really hopeless at holding themselves up then they won’t tend to make an appearance in the garden. I don’t want to have the “forest of bamboo canes” look that can happen in herbaceous borders with tall plants.
I always forget to stake until it’s too late. What a great garden you have. Looks lovely.
I’m sort of compulsive about staking, so I often get out there early.
Not much staking as it seems I have plants supporting each other and my soil seems clayish and not very organic which helps the natives. I have special supports that are decorative for peonies that stay up all year.
You know, that’s a good idea – I think I’ll just leave my peony supports up the whole year.
Like you, I like neat-looking plantings, and so keep experimenting with the best ways to stake plants. I have a lot of plants that want to lean toward the south (so that the whole flower bed ends up looking as though you are viewing it through a fun house mirror!), so I definitely need good ideas to keep them more upright. I’m thinking about investing in some more of the hoops with grids as one solution. Thanks for sharing all your creative ideas.
I fear that the search for the perfect staking technique, like the formula for alchemy, will be never-ending.