It is true that once dried and dead they are incredibly tough, and will list through a couple years. I angle cut the bottoms to make them sharp enough to get well into the ground, and they also make beautiful natural looking tri-pod trellis' and can be formed into great square trellis' when straptied together. Some of my favorites are 8 to 10 feet long.
You will be seeing pictures of them in use in the gardens here these coming seasons, and its amazing what the cost is for even the tall Bamboo stakes that don't last at garden centers these days.
These look better and create a beautiful cottage garden look, as the old European styles looked and still do...
I appreciate all the thumbs ups, and Thank You!
David
P.S.
You are so right about not using green stalks for stakes or markers of Crape Myrtle,... Greene! I would have a new tree everywhere I had put one if I had used them green. I love Crape Myrtle, yet down here have enough. They can easily become hard to get rid of and do try to crawl in my gardens with just the 6 old beauties my property came with.
