Monday 17 September 2012

The art of staking

Weather: It was around 16 °C today. Sunny & cloudy


There were a lot of Dahlias in the Exotic Garden that needed staking today. As Emma who I worked with describe - it's like ballet - the lady in her tutu is about to do her jump and be caught by her partner and it is to catch them in time so that they don't end up legs flailing everywhere.

Dixter has a very special way of staking, it's quite hard to describe but I shall do so briefly and try to illustrate it better at some point. Basically green twine is used, a clove hitch knot is made around the stake, in this case bamboo. One loops the string around the stem of what they want to hold up - always best underneath a node. But it is done in this way that the string is still adjustable if needing to be tightened. Then once the string has gone round securing the desired stem(s) the two ends are tied together in a special knot that allows it to be easily untied if further adjustments are necessary.


Dahlia 'Grenadier' is one of the ones I have been working on today.

It is amazing how you can use it to manipulate a plant and that the string & cane can still remain almost invisible.

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