Supporting herbaceous plants

Hi, my herbaceous plants have gone wild this year and have been growing really well, e.g salvias, lysimachia and some tall Daisy like ones. Problem is they've taken a battering with the recent wind and rain and are flopping and covering up all the smaller plants around them. Can anyone suggest any options for supporting them? I've seen some plant supports online and there seem to be lots of different types so I would like to hear about any other options that other members have used. Thanks very much

 

Hi Nessa I have built up a collection of different shapes of supports for different plants - mostly from Wilkinsons when they sell them off at end of season. The circular ones like a grid with 3 legs are useful if there are a few thick stems eg lupins, delphiniums, but only if you put them on early enough (too fiddly to thread stems through the holes later). Link stakes are useful for when you have an arbitrary sized clump, because you use as many as you need - but they're a bit fiddly getting them all even in height otherwise the links bounce out. The sets of semi circular curves on 2 legs are good if you need to lift up a bunch of stems that have flopped due to rain. You can push them under the stems and lift them away.

I suppose pea sticks and bamboo are more natural, but these are robust and work for me.

 

Thanks Caroline, that's really helpful. It's probably the semi circular ones I need now, I'll have a look for some

 

Bamboo supports for me.
Plants grow prolifically here....good deep sandy loam means dahlias, heleniums, salvias and the like need strong supports.
I usually use 3 stout canes per clump and establish them early in the season. Right now the supports can’t be seen at all.
If supports are in place early plants grow strongly and upright ....if put in late plants are forcibly restrained and never look right thereafter I think.

 

Yes, I'll do that before they get too big next year, I need a solution for this year. thanks