{"id":142,"date":"2016-04-14T03:42:31","date_gmt":"2016-04-14T10:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=142"},"modified":"2016-04-14T00:31:06","modified_gmt":"2016-04-14T07:31:06","slug":"supporting-role-stakes-ties-and-canes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/supporting-role-stakes-ties-and-canes\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Role of Stakes, Ties and Canes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Lush growth in May and June will create abundant growth and plenty of colour. But by mid summer and early autumn a shabbiness of middle age may have crept into your borders. However a border that has been carefully staked and tied in spring and summer will not lapse into slovenly habits.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tips for Using Canes<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It makes sense to support single-stem plants like Hollyhocks, Delphiniums and Gladioli early in the season but it is never too late. When tying stems to a cane make a loose figure-of-eight with the twine or a tight knot will damage the the stem.<\/li>\n<li>You can make your own &#8216;pea sticks&#8217; from Hazel, Elm suckers, Beech or even Fir.<\/li>\n<li>If you want to grow your own canes then the bamboo Phyllostachys nigra produces unobtrusive black canes.<\/li>\n<li>Use thick canes if possible &#8211; buy 8 foot canes and cut in two with a fine hacksaw at a joint<\/li>\n<li>Freshly bought canes can be cut with secateurs<\/li>\n<li>Single canes are not appropriate for multi stemmed plants as the string just makes a noose for the plant to flop into. Put two canes at the back and at least one in the middle then a web of string can provide several supports.<\/li>\n<li>If your string slips down the cane your effort will be wasted. use a clove hitch knot slid down from the top of the cane and keep the know just above a joint.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Off the Peg Plant Supports<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Circular wire grids too set above a plant for it to grow through are available but are not cheap. The green plastic covering on the wire isn&#8217;t totally natural in appearance.<\/li>\n<li>Interlocking stakes with a hook to link to the next stake helps make a support shape appropriate to the plant can work quite well. I use these for Peonies.<\/li>\n<li>Semi circular hoops for the border edges are available to hold plants back from lawnmowers<\/li>\n<li>Part off the peg and part DIY you can use a wire grid supported in 4 corners to cover a wide area of the herbaceous border.<\/li>\n<li>Obelisks and a variety of cast iron towers are available for training climbing plants<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Special Staking for Special Plants<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><!--more-->Sweet peas can be grown like a cordon straight up an individual cane. more common is to have a Wigwam shape of canes for them to grow up. Special pea rings of wire in a split circle can be bought.<\/li>\n<li>Runner beans can be grown uo a double row of canes that lean in to create an inverted &#8216;V&#8217; shape with a cross cane tied in at the top of the &#8216;V&#8217;.<\/li>\n<li>For some soft climbing plants you can&#8217;t beat <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/products\/74\/trellis-and-plant-supports\/\">traditional trellis<\/a><\/li>\n<li>For Vines and Wisteria against a wall strong wire support is best tied to special Vine eye nails.<\/li>\n<li>Hazel branches can be long and strong making good supports for many circumstances<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lush growth in May and June will create abundant growth and plenty of colour. But by mid summer and early autumn a shabbiness of middle age may have crept into your borders. However a border that has been carefully staked and tied in spring and summer will not lapse into slovenly habits. Tips for Using Canes It makes sense to support single-stem plants like Hollyhocks, Delphiniums and Gladioli early in the season but it is never too late. When tying&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/supporting-role-stakes-ties-and-canes\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}