The Harder They Fall – and a Garden Book Giveaway
We have just emerged from a couple of weeks of constant rainfall, sometimes accompanied by strong winds. It’s been like living in a cloud forest, but without the exotic birds and insects. This is a situation that significantly raises the risk of someone in your household contracting IGS (Irritable Gardener Syndrome).
Between the rain and the wind, the worst thing that happened in the garden was the toppling of the best of the three Mexican Sunflowers (Tithonia rotundifolia) that grow in the Driveway Border. This did make me pretty upset, as Mexican Sunflower is one of the flagship plants of our front garden.
Mexican Sunflower is a plant that has inspired me to go on at great length about its many virtues. However, like many fast-growing plants, it is actually quite brittle. And so it was hard to set back upright with twine and stakes without breaking off lots of stems, in addition to the ones that were already broken. So the resurrected Mexican Sunflower was just a fraction of its former self.
But being the good plant that it is, it started growing and putting on new flowers immediately.
Beyond the Mexican Sunflower, there was a lot of general flopping about. This was especially true of the Brown-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba), Golden Glow (Rudbeckia laciniata), Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum), and New England Aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae). These were leaning into the sidewalk and the grass paths that separate the borders of the front garden. Seeing this always makes me out of sorts.
And so I made my way to the hardware store of a clutch of tall stakes and green twine. For some reason it’s important to my peace of mind that the paths around the garden (which, truth be told, are too narrow as they are) not be blocked by plants. It didn’t take too long to put things in order.
Staking can be too obvious, and sometimes makes plants look like they are wearing an excessively tight corset. But this is not inevitable. I just try to take care not to tie plants too tightly, and to hide whatever stakes I use in the foliage of the plants.
Of course, what we’ve experienced is relatively minor irritation, as opposed to the devastation that can be wrought by floods, extreme drought, etc. I try to remind myself of this, with limited success.
On a totally different topic, I have an extra copy of a wonderful garden book to give away: Great Gardens of London, by Victoria Summerly. For a chance to win the book, you need to 1) live in the USA or Canada; and 2) writes Great Gardens of London in the comments section. Just add it at the end of your comment, or just write the name if you want the book and otherwise have nothing to say.
We’ll pick someone at random from among those who comment by Friday, September 14th.
gardeninacity 
Oh no… Not the Mexican Sunflower! Your garden and in particular the Mexican Sunflower was a bit of sunshine for me during our dreary winter. However we have had half our annual rainfall this year so the day might come when you can sell your rain water!
I wish I could send you some of our rain.
IGS!!! So that is what it is! I can’t wait to tell my husband that I have a diagnosis.
Thanks for the smile and the giveaway!
Great Gardens of London
Prospects for a cure are uncertain.
Maybe some of your rain will come to us, we certainly need it! Nature always seems to catch us out, you have made a good job of your staking.
I hope you get the rain that you need.
You did well with your rescue staking but I know that you know that really the stakes should be put in before the plants grow.
I do that with some peony/tomato cages, which are used on many more plants than peonies and tomatoes. But I don’t like too many stakes being so visible early in the season.
I’m sorry Jason your Sunflowers suffered of heavy rainfalls. You’ve bought stakes and so did I for my high Dahlias because we have had strong wind and rain here.
Yes, Dahlias also have a tendency to topple.
I would love to visit the Great Gardens of London. That’s why I would love a copy of this book.
Sorry to hear about all your wind/rain, I would like some rain though. Am getting sore lugging jugs of water. Am always afraid of the wind, I grew tall sunflowers and after every wind I’m checking them out to see if they have collapsed. Only one so far but now it’s stems are growing up, so I’ll be getting flowers, too funny, no way could I set it up straight, 8′ tall. Would love to win Great Gardens of London, that would be an excuse to go see them!!
During those periods when I have to water by hand I tell myself that i am doing great exercises for my arms.
IGS … very funny and my husband agrees !
would love to win Great Gardens of London
After 14 inches of rain in August, I have IGS full bore. Finally should be able to get out in the garden this week, so I am in total sympathy. And yes, I would love to win Great Gardens of London.
And after all that rain, the mosquitoes will be miserable – or rather, they will make us miserable.
With our drought this year, I have had less flopping especially with a lack of rain or wind to blow flowers over….this time of year though I see the flop even more as plants begin to die back….awaiting my asters which are about to burst. I think my IGS is from the lack of rain making my veg garden only half perform. Hoping your garden can stand for a bit longer for you!
Thanks for the giveaway! Sounds like a great book so I am in…Great Gardens of London
Lack of rain can definitely cause IGS!
You did a fabulous job with staking those flowers! I also would like to win Great Gardens of London.
Thanks.
Thank you once again, Dr. Jason, for putting a name to yet another gardener’s ailment. I’ve got a mild case due to three days of rains, but it’s gonna get more serious as hurricane Florence heads toward the east coast later this week. Glad you got your Mexican sunflowers propped up again.
Great Gardens of London.
I always try to be on the frontiers of medicine.
I can’t even see the stakes and twine. Good effort!! I would love to receive the book Great Gardens of London. Thanks!
Oh I love Mexican Sunflower! I’m glad they held up and started producing for you again- the rains the past few weeks have been EPIC! Would love the book Great Gardens of London, would be a mini-vacation to read it! Thanks for the great giveaway!
Mexican Sunflowers are definitely my favorite annuals.
It’s infuriating when plants flop, I have a similar problem at the moment. Great recovery though. xxx
Thanks.
The key to sucess with my Mexican sunflowers this year seems to have been an early indoor start from seed and lots of early summer sun. I grow in large containers, and this year, roots grew right through into the ground, no staking required, first time ever! Great Gardens of London looks like a gorgeous book I’d like to own!
Up until now I’ve purchased seedlings of Mexican Sunflower from a local nursery. Sadly, they are closing after this year! So now I’m going to have to start inside. When do you start the Tithonia indoors?
Irritable Gardener Syndrome…that’s a good one! Lol!
We could really use some of that rain here right now (I think it’s finally supposed to rain tomorrow). But I can sympathize with the frustration of too much rain and toppling plants too!
Too much rain, too little rain, there’s always something to complain about.
I’m definitely planting Mexican Sunflower next year. Great Gardens of London looks like it would be a great book to read.
Oh, I feel your pain. The weather has been like yours over the past few days. My tithonias have fallen along with other striking late summer bloomers.
I’d love to read about and then visit Great Gardens of London!
Isn’t it aggravating?
I love the exuberance of your late summer garden. Your tithonias grow much taller than mine. Strong winds are the worst thing just now when everything looks so good. Hope your weather improves soon, IGS sounds very painful for all concerned.
Science is still searching for a cure.
Great Gardens of London
Sorry to hear of the calamity in your garden. Too early for that to happen.
You made my day with “IGS (Irritable Gardener Syndrome).” Too funny and so true. 🙂
I am a chronic sufferer.
Sorry that happened to your beautiful Mexican Sunflower. I know you saved it, but as you said, it isn’t quite the same after that kind of damage. Our Black and Blue salvia suffered a similar fate in one of our containers, only water didn’t knock it over, an off balance toddler did. Sadly, it still haven’t completely recovered.
Those big Salvias can be kind of brittle, I guess.
I like that grass path. I think it was a good idea to keep it.
I have to have something that lets me walk between the beds and borders.
I would love the Gardens of London book.
You share good practical info about things gardeners deal with. It helps us
I can’t see the stakes or the twine: success! Mine are much more obvious. 😉 I’m so glad the worst of the rain and wind are beyond us now. “Great Gardens of London” sounds like a nifty book!
Thanks. Of course you can see them if you look up close.
I’m not writing the name because I do not need another book that someone else can enjoy. Brown-eyed Susan blooms with smaller but more profuse flowers relative to black-eyed Susan? Is it taller too? The flowers look the same, but I can not tell the scale of them.
Exactly right. Brown eyed susan petals (rays) are shorter and more rounded, black eyed susan’s are longer.
Thank you. I do not know these.
To paraphrase that famous line from Jaws, I think you’re gonna need some bigger stakes! Well, at least the folks on the eastern seaboard are going to need bigger stakes once Florence gets done with them.
I’m just glad your rescue operation was so successful — at least, to my eyes. Part of the fun of flowers is watching them recover from the various insults they have to endure. They’re resilient, for sure.
One advantage of living in the midwest – no hurricanes. I am fond of plants that are more resilient.
Definitely worth rescuing and maybe it looks more elegant with one or two fewer branches?! I had a tall tagetes knocked over by wind a week ago, but there was no resurrecting that … so we’ve been enjoying a couple of very full vases of rusty orange flowers ever since.
Using them as cut flowers is a good plan B.
My Tithonias fell over as well (central Indiana). I used to try and tie them up but due to their fragility I usually leave them where they land. I’ve found that even when the main stalk is bent in half and shredded a bit it is still a quite sturdy plant and will continue to grow and bloom. If the fallen branches cross a pathway I gently move them over a bit, out of the way.
I was glad for the rain. My yard really needed it.
I think you’ve had a drier summer than we did. We also needed (some) of the rain, but did not need for it to go on and on as it did.
Regardless of my staking efforts during 3 days of Central Illinois wind and rain, my sunflowers and Tithonisas were overshadowing my husband’s spring planted dwarf fruit trees. Therefore, the end of the season clean up has started earlier than I would have liked. I have been able to leave a few Tithonisas and zinnia for the butterflies still remaining though. Great Gardens of London would be a day dream book to pass the winter time.
Well, I[m glad some survived. Zinnias and Sunflowers make good cut flowers, though Tithonias do not.
Great Gardens of London sounds like such a fabulous read!
Your diagnosis of IGS (Irritable Gardener Syndrome) is spot on! I was wondering why I’ve felt so discombobulated for the past weeks and now I know why. Well, one of the reasons anyway! I like grass paths but at the moment it looks like all my grass is crabby. 😦 However, the Great Gardens of London book would definitely be a welcome armchair respite from the late-summer weeds-n-woe hereabouts!
I try to pretend not to see the crabgrass.
Hello Jason, sorry about your Mexican Sunflowers, I hope they recover and quickly grow back for the rest of the season. It was amusing to read about how you don’t like plants on opposite sides of a path to be meeting in the middle, there are several paths in my garden where you have to push plants out of the way to get through, they have no qualms about invading your personal space – in a nice way. I cut them back but they just grow back again.
Exactly. It’s a never-ending struggle.
I have been having a lot of IGS this summer. Your staking and trussing up your plants went well i see. I hate that I missed your give away. I hope to get back to London for some garden touring. I would love to see what the book Great Gardens of London has to show. Did you and Judy do some garden tours there?
I would also love to see London again – I’ve only been there once. Some day …