I usually solve this by binding a callback that sets the height of the placeholder to the height of the item being sorted to the start
event. It’s a simple solution that gives you fine-grained control over how you want your placeholder to be displayed.
$( ".column" ).sortable({
connectWith: ".column",
start: function(e, ui){
ui.placeholder.height(ui.item.height());
}
});
See updated test case