How to Support Perennials with Stakes or Rings
Because some perennials are tall, or tall and broad, you can support them with stakes or rings. Using stakes and rings keep perennials manageable, and prevents them from falling under their own weight. Using a stouter or larger support than you think you need never hurts; if your perennials are healthy and happy, they're probably going to need it.
Resourceful gardeners like to rig their own plant supports, and certainly, nothing's wrong with bending some old coat hangers or recycling sticks and stakes of various kinds, including tree branches or twigs. But your local garden center, home store, or favorite mail-order catalog offers affordable alternatives.
Plant supports can help your perennials grow better and produce more blooms.
Here are a few important tips to remember about using perennial supports:
Install early: Press a peony hoop over the plant before it reaches the hoop's height. This way, you can center the support right over the plant, and when the perennial does grow, the stems, leaves, and flowers will froth over the hoop and hide it from view. Early installation also reduces the risk of damaging the root system as you poke the support in.
Press the support in deeply: As the plant grows ever-larger, the stake or hoop may lean or slump. Anchoring the support deeply at the outset can make the support more stable and stronger. A foot or more into the ground is usually best, depending on the plant.
Help out with ties: As the plant grows, check on it and fasten the stem or stems to the support at regular intervals. To avoid abrading the plant tissue, use string or cloth; if you loop it once around the stem and create a second loop for attaching to the support, the plant will be able to move in a breeze but still be held gently but firmly to its appointed place.
Be tidy: Remove and store or discard the support at season's end. This step will also remind you to cut back the perennial (and mulch if your winters are cold). With a season's experience under your belt, you should now know whether the support is the right one for the job and thus worth saving or replacing. If you need something more substantial, add it to your springtime shopping list.
You really don't know whether a perennial needs support until you grow it. Whether a support is necessary depends not only on the type of plant but also on cultural conditions — a plant that may be self supporting in full sun in a protected location may need to be staked if grown in a shady spot or one with a lot of wind. Perennials that do need support need it every year.
Gardening Glossary
annuals
Plants that complete their entire life cycle within one growing season. The plant germinates from seed, grows and blooms, and then produces seed and dies.
Gardening Glossary
biennials
A plant that take two growing seasons to complete its life cycle. It germinates and grows leaves and stems in the first year; produces flowers and fruit (seed) in the second, and then dies.
Gardening Glossary
bolt
When a plant flowers or produces seed prematurely.
Gardening Glossary
cold frame
A wooden or concrete block box in which you can grow plants or hold dormant during the cold winter months.
Gardening Glossary
cole crops
A family of vegetables, including broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, and Brussels sprouts. They thrive in cooler weather.
Gardening Glossary
complete fertilizer
Any fertilizer that contains all three of the primary nutrients, N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium). Phrase is based on regulations governing the fertilizer industry. Does not mean that the fertilizer literally contains everything a plant needs to thrive.
Gardening Glossary
deadheading
The practice of pinching or cutting off spent flowers
Gardening Glossary
evaporative-pad humidifier
A humidifier in which fans blow across a moisture-laden pad that sits in a reservoir of water.
Gardening Glossary
harden off
The process of acclimating plants grown indoors gradually to the brighter light and cooler temperatures of the outside world.
Gardening Glossary
hardiness
The ability of a plant to survive is called its hardiness.
Gardening Glossary
humus
A stable end product of organic-matter decomposition that's believed to increase microbial activity in soil, improve soil structure, and enhance the root development of plants.
Gardening Glossary
Bacillus thuringiensis Bt
An effective bacteria that attacks only the larvae of caterpillar family insects. It is safe to other insects, animals, and humans.
Gardening Glossary
macronutrients
Mineral nutrients that plants need in the largest quantities: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur.
Gardening Glossary
mulch
Organic or inorganic material placed over the surface of soil, usually directly over the root zone of growing plants. Used to conserve moisture, kill weed seedlings, modify soil temperature, provide attractive covering to garden beds.
Gardening Glossary
organic matter
Once-living stuff like compost, sawdust, animal manure, ground bark, grass clippings, and leaf mold (composted tree leaves). Used to enrich soil and improve soil texture.
Gardening Glossary
perennials
Any plant with a life cycle of three or more years. Herbaceous (non-woody) perennials include flowering plants and herbs, mainly. Woody perennials include trees and shrubs. Longevity depends on the plant and growing conditions.
Gardening Glossary
pH
The measure of soil's acidity. Soil with low pH means it's too acidic; soil with high pH means it's alkaline. Most plants grow best in soil with a pH value between 6.5 and 7.2. Neutral soils measure 7.
Gardening Glossary
photosynthesis
The process through which plants take nutrients from the air and from the water in the soil to produce sugars that fuels the plant's growth.
Gardening Glossary
primary nutrients
Nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium are the three nutrients plants need in the largest quantities.
Gardening Glossary
root crops
Plants with edible underground roots such as onions, carrots, beets, potatoes, turnips. Most root crops are cold-weather crops.
Gardening Glossary
self-blanching
A type of cauliflower with leaves that naturally curl over the head and exclude light. Requires cool temperatures for leaves to curl effectively.
Gardening Glossary
sets
Small onion bulbs, about 1/2-inch wide, that were started from seed the previous year. Grow onion sets with the pointy end up.
Gardening Glossary
side-dressing
The act of adding a small amount of fertilizer around or "on the side" of plants after they're growing.
Gardening Glossary
succession planting
Planting small, 2-to-4-foot patches of plants every two weeks throughout the growing season so that you can harvest a crop over an extended period of time.
Gardening Glossary
thinning
The act of cutting the least robust seedlings in your garden to give the healthier plants more room to grow.
Gardening Glossary
vining crops
Crops that grow on vines, such as cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, and winter squash. They usually require support (staking, trellising, etc.) to keep them off the ground.
