GYPSOPHILA PANICULATA - Baby's Breath - 'Snowflake' (600 seeds) - Perennial flower
Gypsophila paniculata is a pretty double-flowered baby’s breath that offers big airy clouds of white blooms in early summer. The flower panicles are strong-stemmed, compact and bloom a bit earlier than standard forms. Each stem has hundreds of tiny white flowers on wire-thin branches, giving an airy, soft impression. The flowers themselves are tiny; the plants are covered with myriads of white blossoms all during the summer.
The flowers can be cut and dried and used during the winter months. The plants themselves are useful in the hardy border, or as pot plants. Easily grown from seed it blooms 6 weeks from the day it was sown.
If you are short of space, broadcast seed in the bulb bed and it will do a great job of hiding their faded foliage in summer. Covent Garden also works very well in large containers. Given an early sowing, it will bloom from spring through to autumn. Sow it in succession every two weeks for lots of wonderful white flowers all summer.
Sowing:
An early sowing indoors, 6 to 8 weeks before the last expected frosts will provide earlier flowers; otherwise, sow directly as soon as the ground can be worked in spring. Barely cover the seeds as they need light to germinate.
When sowing directly where they are to flower, choose a sunny open site with good drainage. Prepare the ground well and rake to a fine tilth before sowing. Mark the sowing areas with a ring of light coloured sand and label if sowing more than one annual in the same bed. Surface sow in rows and barely cover.
Seeds germinate in 7 to 18 days. The seedlings will appear in rows and can be told from nearby weed seedlings quite easily. Thin the seedlings out so they are finally 30cm (12in) apart by early summer.
Cultivation:
Pinch out the growing tip to encourage bushiness. Soil should not be too rich or you will get large plants with few flowers. Plain 'Top Soil' works best. Compost should be kept slightly moist, but not wet at all times. Do not fertilize, it will kill them.
Once they are established they need little care. When the flowers are removed for use in arrangements, the plant, will blossom with renewed vigour. The plants don’t even need to be deadheaded. They will die back to the ground after the frost hits them, but will have seeded themselves for ready for the next year.
