I have a few Lavatera thuringiaca shrubs that have grown vigorously, but then flopped over. I'm looking for advice on ways to encourage them to stay upright.
Can someone suggest which of these are necessary or effective, or some other approaches?
They are really lovely in the summer, and draw bees or yellow jackets more strongly than anything else I have. And I like the way the blooms open for warm, sunny days, and close up in cool or drizzle.
1.
Someone told me they can't be watered or fertilized at all, if you want them to stand upright on their own. I had to move 6 in a hurry, so I moved them into existing beds, where they share water and minerals with anything else growing there. That didn't work out - they grew too fast or softly.
I guess I could hack some holes into my clay, shake most of the decent soil off their roots, put the plants into the holes and back-fill with clay so the planting hole won't turn into a mud-bath. (I have near-zero-drainage clay so that I have to use raised beds and/or trench each hole so that water has somewhere to drain out TO. It seems weird to make a raised b4ed and fill it with bad soil, just to keep Lavatera from growing too profusely!
2.
Someone told me that I should cut them down to 12" to 18" early in the winter, then 4-6" in late winter, so they regrow from the ground up. I've been doing this, so the wood is new every year
Should I be leaving the stems several feet long, so they get thicker and woodier? Lately they have been growing to around 6-7 feet.
3.
Should I prune every branch to less than 4 feet before blooming starts, so that the branches are strong enough to support themselves?
I bought them from Hirt's Nursery as tiny plants in pots that were around 1.5 or 2 inches square, hidden under moss, grass and weeds.
I believe they were Lavatera thuringiaca, but Hirt's said they were 'Barnsley' (a "periclinal chimaera" of the cultivar 'Rosea'). By the time I grew them up, they had been in small pots for a long time, and had reverted to 'Rosea', if they ever were 'Barnsley'
Thanks for any suggestions.
