Baby's breath (Gyposophila
paniculata) is in airy form and it has hundreds of tiny flowers in white or
pink. This particular plant will provide your garden border with an interesting
contrast to larger flowers and dense shrubs. Baby's breath (Gyposophila
paniculata) grows about three feet tall and wide in the standard size and about
one to 1 ½ feet tall in dwarf varieties. This particular plant is also
excellent for cut flowers and for dried flower arrangements. Baby's breath
(Gyposophila paniculata) grows best in USDA plant hardiness zones 3 through 9.
The caring and feeding
of Baby's breath
1. You need to place the baby's breath plant
in a spot in your garden that gets at least 6 hours of sunlight daily. A study
has shown that dwarf plants work well in containers placed in sunny locations.
2. Make sure you water the baby's breath
plant with a deep soaking every 2 or 3 weeks. The Baby's breath (Gyposophila
paniculata) will tolerate somewhat dry soil and it does well in drought
conditions.
3. Make sure you test your soil with a
pH kit from your local nursery to see if it really provides the slightly
alkaline soil that the plant prefers. You can add lime to lower the acidic
level or sulfur to really make the soil more acidic.
4. You can fertilize the plant once a
month during the growing season. All-purpose fertilizers normally provide an equal
amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are indicated on the label
with the ratio of each element, like 10-10-10.
Major things to
consider
1. Make sure you cut off spent flower
clusters and stems after they bloom down to a set of 2 leaves in other to
encourage more blooms throughout the summer. Cut off flowers is known as deadheading,
this can be done at any point during the year but before the flowers go to
seed.
2. You can push a staking grid into the
ground in early spring when your Baby's breath plant is just starting to grow. Most
time the grid supports the airy stems of baby's breath plant as it grows, and
the new foliage will then hide the grid itself.
3. You can line the bottom and sides of
the ground around baby's breath plant with ½ inch wire mesh to protect the
roots of your baby's breath plant from gophers. By peradventure if the gophers
do a severe damage to your baby's breath plant, you can place it in a raised
bed lined with wire mesh.
4. Make sure you lay down a barrier of
copper or diatomaceous earth to protect the baby's breath plant from slugs and
snails in early spring as the baby's breath plant is coming up. Or you can
handpick the pests daily.
Some of the things you
will need
1. You need hose.
2. You need a soil testing kit, this one
is optional.
3. You need all-purpose fertilizer.
4. You need lime or sulfur. This one is optional.
5. You need clippers.
6. You need staking grid.
7. You need ½ inch wire mesh.
8. Lastly, you need slug-and-snail
barrier and bait.
Post a Comment