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.

Did you ever use this color? I was looking at it recently. If you have photos, please post. Thanks.

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.

Vanilla extraction made with alcohol technically creates a tincture. Using a lower alcohol percentage meaning it has more water means that things that don't dissolve well in the alcohol will likely dissolve in the water so super high percentage alcohols might not give the same flavor profile. The alcohol will act as a preservative as will sugar if you add that to a tincture (making a liqueur) The quality of your extract is going to be vastly different based on the kind of vanilla beans. Everyone has their preferences just as they do with things like coffee or cinnamon. You can use any sort of alcohol, but it will bring its flavors to your mix. I will often use brandy. I just toss in a lot of beans as we happen to have a lot and will do a second extraction.