Flopping after heavy rain

Wrigs21

Morning all 

So first year of planting and starting to learn a few lessons. Didn’t put in any supports to some of my perennials and they have taken a battering after yesterday’s heavy rain. I will put that right next year but in the meantime what’s your thoughts on the plants that have flopped? 

Is there any saving or are they going to struggle to make it back, specifically yesterday it was the agastache that took a battering. 

bcpathome

They should recover to a certain extent. Wait till it’s dryer and see what happens. You will find that a lot of the gardening ‘thing’ is wait and see 

Dovefromabove

Giving them a gentle shake after the rain often helps them to perk up again. 

B3

You could try giving your plants a very gentle shake to reduce some of the weight of the water.

Wrigs21

Cheers for the heads up. Will get shaking today and hopefully next weeks better weather helps with a little recovery. Have just ordered some supports ready for next year! 

Biglad

I'm definitely a shaker as well

I'd put in supports to a point - they've been outgrown I've been trimming off anything that has snapped (to reduce the weight as much as anything else), shaken off the rest and upgraded the supports. I'm anticipating a full recovery

thevictorian

It's been a terrible year here, first we had the wettest winter for 100 years which caused everything to grow so lush, then we have been bombarded with rain and wind all year so very little is looking it's best. I've staked some but it's a year to forget really. 
There's a chap I follow that won't plant anything that flops in his garden and it always looks perfect and even he has suffered with flopped over plants this year due to the weather. 

bcpathome

It’ll all come good ……panic ye not 

Plantminded

That's interesting @thevictorianzFH0qqPW, I've banned plants which flop from my garden too - with the exception of ornamental grasses which can flop when in flower at this time of year.  I've found it better to let them recover naturally - shaking can sometimes break brittle stems!

Fairygirl

In wet windy areas, you learn very quickly about supports for planting. 
Other plants make the best supports - especially shrubs. Other than that, prunings from shrubs or trees are good, as they're less visible, or you can make a feature of them by using some of the more ornamental steel/iron ones.

I use some of these, especially for peonies and the later perennials
https://www.plantsupports.co.uk/
Getting them in early is key though.

punkdoc

One of the arts I have never fully mastered, despite many years of gardening, is to stop some staked plants looking like trussed up chickens.