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Why is my Vanilla Strawberry not upright?

9 years ago

I noticed that a lot of people posted their Vanilla Strawberry on here and they are all upright. My tend to spread side way and the flowers seem to weight it down.

This post was edited by Joopster on Fri, Aug 8, 14 at 15:42

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Comments (9)

whaas_5a
9 years ago
VS is known to flop at a young age more so than most other H. paniculata. As some have stated as the wood matures and puts on caliper they'll hold up better.

Google vanilla strawberry and you'll notice many garden shots of VS are flopping but they are all young plants for the most part.

For a similar looking flower and color I believe Hydrangea paniculata 'Bokrathirteen' is a superior cultivar at the stems are more upright.
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
nice green lawn ...

consider that your lawn fertilization is affecting the perennial.. that does not.. perhaps ... it does NOT need so much nitro ..

and you cant trim the lawn under it either ...

put in a 3 to 4 foot bed of mulch ... and stop fertilizing it with lawn fert ... if it needs any at all regardless ...

what else is in there.. a glad.. or an iris???

when anything flops, when it should not do so genetically ..... consider that you are over fert'ing such ... if left to their own devices.. things grow properly ... when they grow so much.. that they cant hold themselves up.. resulting in floppage .... then consider that you might be feeding it like a child ... rather than like a plant ...

ken
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joopster
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks whaas and ken_adrian. Yes, that is a glad. Underneath. I never took the time to part the hydrangea so the weight of the flower just flatten out the glad. We don't use any fertilizer on our lawn because of our dog and kids. I did mixed a lot of pea moss into the soil when I planted the hydrangea last Fall. Should I tie it to the light pole this year so that next year it would be more upright? Should I also prune this fall?
Michaela (Zone 5b - Iowa)
9 years ago
Tthe canes should get stronger as the hydrangea grows and matures. I think it's very normal for young ones to flop, You could try a peony cage as well to help keep the canes upright.
October_Gardens
9 years ago
Cut those longer branches by half each season. They will thicken and support new offshoot branches.
dublinbay z6 (KS)
9 years ago
I tried pruning an older, established hydrangea paniculata that way--and killed it. Since then, I don't prune them.

My current Vanilla Strawberry is 4-5 years old and stands up by itself, although it does get a bit of a droop when the blooms are full and it rains. Nothing serious, however. I should add that I have never pruned my VS--it just got older and sturdier all by itself.

Until then, you could buy one of those wire green "fences" that are about 2.5 ft tall and circle it around the hydrangea so it can't fall to the ground at any rate.

You do know, don't you, that your VS will get about 8 feet wide and you will never again be able to get to that pole--but maybe you don't really need to.

Kate
October_Gardens
9 years ago
Are you sure you killed it? You're theoretically supposed to be able to prune paniculatas close to the ground if you want to.
dublinbay z6 (KS)
9 years ago
Well, it isn't there now. It was ancient when I moved on the property back in the 1980s, and I pruned it to death back in the 1990s. It might just have been too old by that time. But I decided then to let shrubs grow their real and natural size rather than to always be pruning them back in order to make them fit a smaller size. And if a shrub is too large, I don't buy it--I look around until I find one that naturally fits the size I want for that spot.

Kate
dublinbay z6 (KS)
9 years ago
Well, it isn't there now. It was ancient when I moved on the property back in the 1980s, and I pruned it to death back in the 1990s. It might just have been too old by that time. But I decided then to let shrubs grow their real and natural size rather than to always be pruning them back in order to make them fit a smaller size. And if a shrub is too large, I don't buy it--I look around until I find one that naturally fits the size I want for that spot.

Kate

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