Oh, what an absolute beauty!! Thank you for sharing!!!

How do you get it not to flop?

You can’ prevent it completely. You can reduce the chances of flopping by not pruning so the paniculata stems will turn woodier/stronger; choose a variety with lacier or smaller blooms that weigh less (like Pinky Winky); choose a location with some wind protection; etc etc.

I find that if you prune it hard with less branching, the new wood that comes out is really - really strong and even at 4 feet of new wood growth, it's strong enough to not flop. The more branching though, the smaller the new wood, so YMMV on floppers.

Luis, the flowers emerge greenish but with sun the flowers begin to turn white, then pink and by fall it turns a purple/pink color. It’s really beautiful spring through fall. I trim back the weak and downward branches almost to the main branches on the tree. One year I trimmed it back so hard I thought I had killed it! It came back better the following year!

James, making sure you trim back very long and/or weak branches is the best way to prevent flopping. Although a heavy rain will cause the branches to flop a bit, but that is only temporary. Although, I have been known to go out after a hard rain and shake off the water on the blooms (hahaha). I also prune before any snowfall because a heavy wet snow can break branches if the blooms are left on.

debra

Ha Debera. I've done the same/similar with the blower on other shrubs during summer just to mitigate on fungal pressure ! On others, when doing the turf, I actually do it on others, thinking late spring/summer, etc - giving them a good blow so any mites that may settle will get blown away. Labor of love eh.

a1an, I don’t understand YMMV???

debra

short handed type for your mileage may vary.

When spring pruning - Any stem as thick as a index finger generally produces vert new wood that don't flop. It's the thinner ones that still produce the 4' new wood+bloom - that when wet creates a flopper.