This Beauty Bush came to me mail order with all the branches pointed in one direction. At first it wasn't doing much but has some new growth now. I have it in a gallon pot, and I've kept it with the branches pointing away from the sun in the hopes of coaxing them upward. It's growing more like a vine than a shrub. Should staking it be enough? I'd hate to cut it back hard at this young age, maybe wait a year and do that?
Plant it in the ground, mulch it and let Mother Nature do her thing - it should straighten itself out eventually. It's too large for a 1-gallon pot - it will do much better in the ground.
Thanks, Kay, it's going in soon. It really just started taking off a few weeks ago, and I want to wait til I'm reasonably sure it won't get hot again. But then, hot for me is nothing like what it is for you!
It will do fine if you water it well before you plant it, put water in the hole you plant it in, then mulch it - it needs to go in soon enough to get established before cold and freezing weather comes - about a month to get established.
