eh, according to HelpMeFind, the two vanillas are different plants-introduced in different years at any rate...but at any rate they both seem rather short plants. Looks pretty tho:) I'm not familiar with it, but I grow Frederic Mistral, and he can get to be rather tall; a sort of upright but wide hybrid tea shape.. I have seen in ground versions top 7 feet when they're happy here. Not sure what zone you're in, but we don't get snow or even much frost here, so theres no winter kill. Not so sure you could get the two to be the same size-Vanilla Medilland is described as being able to be used as groundcover, which implies a totally different style of growth to Frederic Mistral.

It is common. Use stakes until stems are old and strong enough. Flopping is promoted by new, thin, green (as opposed to woody) stems. Compact cousins of panicles tend to flop less but are not necessarily immune. Windy locations like in the middle of the landscape by itself can also promote flopping but they do best against a house wall or in between two plants. Dense, large, heavy heavy, wet blooms of varieties like VS, Limelight and Phantom flop more than those of varieties like Burgundy Lace, Pinky Winky that develop lacier blooms. Shake off wet blooms after it rains. Consider not pruning more than 1/3 the length of a stem to minimize flopping. I could not gauge the picture dimensions but just as a fyi, VS can get large; not sure if that planter will work for long so just be ready to use a larger container should it ever become necessary. Enjoy.

Hmm, zero drooping may be an impractical goal with VS. It is common for VS, Limelight, Phantom and other large panicles with large blooms to droop (at least some) by late summer after storms. Varieties with dense, heavy blooms suffer from this problem if they develop those large blooms on green, thin stems. The only practical solution is to use stakes or to slowly allow the stems to thicken and to turn woody as woody stems are much stronger than green, thin stems. So there is some improvement with age. Try limiting pruning cuts to around 1/3 of the stem length or less. Placing VS in between two other plants can also help. Not planting it in the middle of the landscape by itself can help some. Using lacier varieties with lacy and-or smaller blooms can help; examples: Pinky Winky or Pinky Winky Prime; Chantilly Lace, Brussels Lace, etc.. Compact panicle varieties like Tidbit, Bobo, etc. also tend to have fewer drooping stems. Consider shaking off the water from wet blooms quickly after rains too. In preparation for winter, VS and other panicles typically just need water and mulch past the drip line. Water if dry at a depth of 4". Reduce the amount of water once the foliage drops but do not let the soil get bone dry at that depth. So, continue watering if dry and above freezing and the soil has not frozen. Stop watering once freezing temperatures arrive. If you live where there is heavy wet snow, consider deadheading as soon as it is dormant as opposed to deadheading in late winter or in spring in order to minimize bending or breaking of brittle stems.

That is the problem. They are awful. For six weeks I’ve been going in there waiting for them to stick their cards. I finally said something to them the other day asking if BM reps visit to stock. They are out of SO many stacks and just put other stack on the empty slots. You don’t notice unless you’re counting numbers. I live in small town and am lucky to have one but sheesh. I’ve been searching BM online and going in with codes for them to mix.