How to stake plants
Picturing a summer garden in full bloom, it’s easy to imagine bursts of colourful flowers, striking upwards, their heads pointing towards the blue skies, perhaps a few drowsy bumblebees buzzing by, and a butterfly resting its wings on top of an echinacea…
The reality of a Summer garden filled with flowers can actually be a lot of flopping stems, flowerheads dangling downwards towards the soil and bare patches in the middle of plants where the stems have all collapsed outwards. (Sedum, we’re talking about you!) The bee buzzes past without stopping, the butterfly turns up its nose and flies off to a better gardened spot…
We’re joking, of course, about the butterfly and the bee, they’ll love your flowers however droopy the stems are. But it is true that a lot of the plants we grow for colourful, scented summer flowers can suffer from bending stems if not properly supported. The solution to this is simple: staking.
Staking plants help to support the stems as they grow taller, protecting them from the weight of the flowers at the end, and from winds. It’s used for a lot of herbaceous perennials, and helps to keep the flowers growing upwards, and the garden looking neater. It’s a really straightforward job, that just requires a bit of future planning, as you want to stake the plants before they actually need it.
Which plants need staking?
As a general rule, it’s mostly large-flowered herbaceous perennials that need staking. As flowers have been bred to be bigger and bigger, and stems taller and more impressive, they have sometimes become unable to support their own weight, and this is when staking is useful. Taller, lighter-stemmed plants are also more vulnerable to being bent or broken in winds, or in heavy rain. Adding in stakes as a support protects them.
Dahlias, peonies and delphiniums are some of the most commonly grown plants that need to be staked. Other flowers that climb, such as sweet peas, also need a stake or structure to grow through.
There are also many vegetables that are typically grown up stakes, such as beans, tomatoes or cucumbers.
We grow our sweet peas on homemade bamboo wigwams, which work perfectly and cost little…
What stakes to use
There is a huge choice of different stakes available. You can buy purpose made metal obelisks (sometimes at great cost) or just loop some string around bamboo canes—and everything else in between.
Stakes can be used as a single stake, such as a bamboo cane pushed into the ground, with the plant attached to it (a method that would often be used for tomatoes, for example). You can get ring stakes, which go around the outside of the plant and hold them upright in a circle. This could be a metal circular stake, or just some bamboo canes with jute tied between them. This variety is often used for ornamental flowers such as peonies. And you will find “cage stakes” – essentially lots and lots of small ring stakes joined together, to support a mass of tumbling stems. This could be used for a large scale cutting patch, perhaps with a jute network of squares, supported by poles at the edges.
If you’re not sure what type of stake is best for the plant you’re growing, have a Google and find inspiration from other gardeners. Though there is generally never one perfect solution, just a lot of different opinions and options, so choose something that works for your budget, your aesthetic and your inclinations as well! If it ends up not being perfect in that situation, you can always adjust next year…
When choosing the material for your stake, match it to the plant you’re growing. The heavier the plant, the firmer the stake will need to be. You can also consider how long the plant is going to be in the ground. If you’re growing an annual crop for eating, such as beans, then a temporary tepee made of string and bamboo canes might be perfect, as you’ll be dismantling it at the end of the growing season.
If you’re staking a permanent herbaceous perennial in the middle of an ornamental border, you might want to choose an attractive permanent stake that stays in place all year round and provides structure and interest even when the plant is dormant. (This might be when it is worth spending a bit more on a metal obelisk, for example…)
If you’d like a more natural look, pea sticks are often used to stake smaller, lighter plants. These are just small, freshly cut branches of willow, hazel or dogwood, which are placed into the ground for the plants to scramble over. As the name suggests, they’re often used for peas, but can suit a huge range of plants…
Metal stakes, as seen in our local botanic gardens, are sturdy and long-lasting
A simple series of bamboo canes, tied with string, offers support to perennials in this border
Inserting a metal wigwam stake in our raised beds, ready for plants…
When to stake
Whatever stake you’re using, the most important thing is to put it into the ground earlier than the plant needs it. You want to position it in place when the plant is still quite small, so that as it grows upwards, it will grow through the stake and the stems will be supported by it. Trying to retrofit a stake onto a plant that has already got too tall and floppy is frustrating and can end up damaging the plant more than it helps…
How to insert a stake
Place the end of the stake(s) into the ground carefully, taking care not to damage any roots of the small plants. But make sure it is firmly embedded and can tolerate wind and the weight of the plant that will be growing up it. As the plant grows, some plants may need to be tied onto the stakes (beans and tomatoes, for example) whereas others will just grow up through them. If you need to tie your plant in, tie loosely, so there is room for the stems to move without being chaffed. Ties that are soft and flexible will cause less damage to the plant. Inflexible ties, such as wire, while secure can cut the stems as they grow bigger. As the plants grows taller, you may need to continue to tie it in to the stake.
