Why Flower Stems Are Bent (and How to Straighten Them Next Year)

One of my favorite TikTok gardeners, GardeningGrant , complained about cross-eyed liatris, a typically arrow-straight perennial, earlier this summer. I’ve heard this complaint in several other places about other flowers, such as sunflowers and cosmos. While I don’t mind what I call “crazy stem” where the stems of flowers are crooked and wild rather than straight, I found myself wondering what caused it.

Stressed plants wobble

This type of stem growth can occur for several reasons. The two most common ones are simple: when a plant is injured, it may fall off the stem. In other words, the stem is like a diary of the plant’s life, just like the rings of a tree. For example, last summer I was weeding and accidentally pulled out a sunflower. I knew right away, apologized to the plant and stuck it back into the ground, all in thirty seconds, but the body is keeping score. The sunflower immediately developed a bend, and as it grew it was completely healthy, except for that one bend. Excessive heat, cold or water stress can have the same effect.

Plants will do anything to find the sun

Another reason stems go wild is when they seek sun. If you plant flowers where they are shaded by another plant or architecture, they will bend and squirm trying to find the bright sunlight they need to grow. It doesn’t really matter what the trail looks like – that’s why you’ll find flowers that crawl along the ground and then turn ninety degrees when they see sunlight. My space is always particularly good at this.

Crooked stems do not necessarily mean poor plant health.

It’s reasonable to wonder if these strange stems are affecting the health of the plant, and the answer itself is probably no. In fact, a plant that grows close to an obstacle may later become stronger for it. Most gardeners know that when you grow certain plants, such as tomatoes, peppers and onions, the shoots benefit not only from having a fan blown over them, simulating the wind so the stems become stronger, but also from having your hands touch them, causing them to grow. become more resilient. So straight stems may simply be an aesthetic requirement for our plants, but it’s still ok. We grow flowers for aesthetics.

Clumping bulbs can also cause this.

This brought me back to Grant’s problem with liatris, a perennial plant grown from a bulb. I was wondering why a plant grown from a bulb in full sun, without additional stressors, would develop a twisted stem. The answer, as it turns out, is that perennials tend to form clumps of greenery, and the flowers are forced to grow through those clumps, and of course, since the clumps are obstructions, they grow in meandering patches rather than straight up. .

How to make plant stems straighter

To remedy this situation, you need to be sure that you divide your perennials when they are dormant (the season we’re heading into), which will result in less clumping. You should also be sure to plant these perennials in areas with plenty of sunlight and no other obstacles.

Or just go wild.