I have two 'Illini Warrior' Peonies. One has a support made from barnyard fence, the other has none. I usually use 54" tomato gages cut in half for peony support, but Illini Warrior is just too big. Here are two photos (taken today). Can you tell the difference?

The plant on the right is outstanding, and neat looking, full and lush. The plant on the left is pretty, by like my peonies, floppy in appearance. I would love to know how you made the support with barnyard fence. I have some plant rings, but sometimes they just don't do the job.

Farm fence is usually 4 feet high. I usually cut it down to 2 feet or so. Depending on the size of the plant, I make a cylinder of the appropriate size. I use two fiberglass poles to secure the support. The photo on the left is a dwarf conifer that died this past Winter. In this case I was using farm fence to protect the conifer from my dogs. At any rate, this should give you the general idea on how I use farm fence for plant support.

Thanks for sharing this info. I'll have to see where I can get some. I guess you used a wire cutter to cut it? And, how pliable is it?

Normal farm fence come rolled up. It is pliable, you just unroll to use it. And yes, you would need a 12" wire cutter.

Thanks Frank! The farm fence looks stronger than these spindly plant rings that I've been buying. I really appreciate you sharing this info.

Thank you for the fence info, too. I recently went to another person's garden with mature peonies and they were massive. Peony rings could never have held them. I think he might have done something similar. As far as which look is better - loose vs upright - I think it depends on your garden. I like both but I tend toward the freer one.

I use a plant grid, but Frank's way of doing it is easier on the pocketbook.

So it is just called "farm fence" huh?? I get a green fencing from Home Depot in both 4 and 5' tall rolls of about 50' each. They have 4" grids. I cut them for whatever plant I need to restrain. Some only 12-18" some a full 5' (delphiniums).

Oberon46 said:So it is just called "farm fence" huh?? I get a green fencing from Home Depot in both 4 and 5' tall rolls of about 50' each. They have 4" grids. I cut them for whatever plant I need to restrain. Some only 12-18" some a full 5' (delphiniums).

Farm fence has smaller opening at the bottom of the fence to keep the smaller animals contained. At the bottom, the openings are 6" wide x2". These openings grow in size until they reach 6"wide x7" at the top. It is galvanized and available at my local farm store in 330 foot rolls.

Is the home depot fence 4x4", or 4x2"? Sounds more like chicken wire fence?

Went to the UofM peony garden this week and noticed they used bamboo stakes around the perimeter of their plants with heavy twine wrapped around and through. It blended in really well and provided enough support to keep the blooms off the ground but still looked natural, think I'll try their method when I get home, have several,plants that could benefit from a bit of help! Will post pics of their method sometime this week.

That would be great Liz, always good to here about other ways to support plants I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures.

Here's a picture from the UofM peony garden that pretty clearly shows what they did. I actually took several pics up close of some of the larger shrubs but can't see the bamboo supports in them! These few were tan rather than green so they show up better. It looked like a pretty simple design, just 6 bamboo stakes pushed into the ground so they were around 18 inches high with heavy twine wrapped all the way around. Several had the twine stretched through the shrubs as well to provide internal support. Seemed to work pretty well and looked like it could be adjusted if needed. Almost all of their shrubs were supported this way, could only see it on the ones that were fairly upright anyway, the droopers didn't show the supports at all.