STAKING HERBACEOUS PLANTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

STAKING HERBACEOUS PLANTS.

Staking and tying are probably the most iinfiortant tasks in the flower borders during the next few weeks, and nothing tends more to make or mar the effect than the manner in which this work is done. Staking should be regarded as a necessary evil, calling for as little display of the material used as is consistent with effective support

of the plants. Many herbaceous plants can be effectively and unobtrusively supported by stout pea-sticks placed among and around the clumps. This method serves admirably for delphiniums, asters of the A. acris type, salvia virgata, and the heleniums, of medium and dwarf stature. The. taller heleniums, rubdeckias, solidagoe, etc., ore more securely held by driving stout stakes in and around each clump forming a group, and lacing a strand or two of soft fillis twine from stake to stake. If this is done with judgment no stake need be visible when the group is in flower. Michaelmas daisies are worthy

of more trouble in the matter of staking than is often bestowed on tliem. For these the ideal method is early thinning out of the growths, each of which should be secured sejKirately to a bamboo eane of suitable height; where this method is not practicable, however, three or four canes should be placed around each group and a strong shoot tied to the front of each stick, after which a strand of fillis may be laced through and around the clump to support the rest.