help - flowers to heavy for plant

[kathymc]

kinda new to perrenials and I planted a geranium - I think its this Johnsons blue. Its growing quite well and just started to bloom, but the flowers are too heavy for the stems and they are laying on the ground (the plant is about 1 1/2 feet high) I don't know anything about staking - what can I do???

I think this is the plant I have - the Johnsons blue
http://www.shared-visions.com/explore/gardens/geranidx.htm

[amid chaos]

I'm not sure there is anything you can do. you could try staking it but I think that might be near impossible. Good luck.

[Snowwark]

The same thing happened to us the first year that we had our Johnsons Blue geranium. We didn't realize that it might flop over and ended up putting wooden stakes behind them, gently pulling them up and encircling them with some twine attached to the stake. It didn't look that great, but it worked.
Now we have a very fine metal grid support (about 3/4 of the way up the plant) that we can pull the stems through as it grows. You might want to try something like that for next year, inserting it in the ground when (or before), the growth starts to appear.

Here's a link with more info on Staking Perennials (http://www.ent.iastate.edu/ipm/hortnews/1995/5-19-1995/stake.html) .

I hope it helps, Kathymc! :D