Hmmmmm none of mine flop. I have a couple miscanthus the sinenses "Morning Light" which grows in huge clumps in the pond bed, a big patch of switch grass with is a panicum I think I have the blue one "Heavy Metal "which gets big and gorgeous and some newer patches of the zebra striped miscanthus both a taller and shorter variety. They sprawl a bit as they dry in the fall especially the switch grass but really don't flop. Mine are in very poor soil out by the pond.

I think grasses in general flop less in poorer soil which is why I get aggravated when I see gorgeous clumps of grasses at the grocery store standing straight and tall and mine flop all over! I have all of mine against my picket fence so I tie them up to the fence. I have also had a shepherd's hook pull double-duty with a decoration and then the grass tied to it.

With my peonies I started using those plastic-covered metal bamboo-like stakes (3 or 4 of them around the peony) and I wrap jute around them and that holds the peonies nicely. That might work for your grasses too and the grass would hide the poles and string.

There's a Sydney Eddison article in Fine Gardening (August?) about staking ornamental grasses and other plants. So I guess even super green thumbs like her have to do it sometimes. :-)

Sheri

Sheri, I'll have to check that out on the newsstand. Thanks for mentioning it.

Thyme, I wondered about the soil issue. All the grasses planted commercially seem fine.

how about a tomato cage painted a greeny-brown? you just
hold the clump tight together at the top and put the cage down over it. i have done that with other things.
min

No flopping here either LOL. Maybe it is just all the moisture in the soil and they will be fine once it dries up a bit? I've never staked or tied up any of my grasses. Just recently bought a clump of zebra grass. I love purple fountain grass - in the ground or in a mixed container.

Two stops today and no Fine Gardening on the newsstand.

The twine and stakes seem to be doing the trick for now. We've been in an extreme drought and even though I've been watering religiously that can't compare to the real thing which we finally got this week. Might have something to do with it.

Sheri, picked up a copy today. Thanks again for the heads up! I'll be shopping end of season sales this year for a few grow-through supports.

Btw, any of you who still read books vs. Kindles & Nooks ... Barnes & Noble is having a wicked sale on hardbacks. Dh bought 8 or 9 for under $60 ... cheaper than most paperbacks.