Managing Overhang

Let's talk about overhang. Not the post Easter too much chocolate type, but leaves. 

Slugrings are really effective to just fit and ignore when the plant is a nice upright Delphinium, or a single stem dahlia. They are equally effective for multi stem plants like hostas or Ligularia but they require a slightly different approach and a little more attention. 

When leaves first appear inside the ring they are nice and tidy, but as they grow they go through a gangly teenage phase that can be tricky to manage. The stems are too short and floppy to hold the leaves high and clear of the ground and the surrounding copper. These leaves obviously can't be snipped off as the plant needs them to fuel growth. 

We have found the best way to deal with this is to create a collar inside the ring to hold the leaves high until they have reached their more upright mature shape. If you have a small copper slugrings spare then they are ideal, however I fashioned one here from a plastic soup pot to show how to do it with something you might have at home. Key things are to make a collar you can open so you can fit and remove without damaging the plant! Also be careful of the sharp edges of plastic against tender stems during fitting.

The collar can be removed or left in place to create a neater and higher mound to your leaves as they grow. The idea scales well to larger plants by using two connected large slugrings outside and one inside. A solution to last years!