When I was at the Natural Gardener, I talked to them about this. They said that to prevent this, when I cut the stalks down in the fall to go dormant, I should cover the stalks with a solid layer of compost. This will make the roots deeper, which will prevent the stalks from falling over. Makes sense, I will try to remember to do that next November.
Her in-the-meantime suggestion was to tie the stalks up. Since the bending over of the stalks already caused one or two to die, I decided to try this when tidying up the garden this afternoon. I only had two garden posts, so I used two tiki torches as well :o)
This hopefully will keep the stalks healthy, but it also had the added benefit of allowing me to see the smaller, newer plants, to water them.
While mulching the bed, I counted 21 total stalks.
A few of these were so small, I am not confidant they will make it through the summer. I ended the year last year with seventeen stalks. Two did not make it through the winter. I guess that means that fewer than half of the crowns I planted in the winter actually lived :o(
Before
After
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