Projo Garden Blog

Cleome is a tender annual that could get big and tall -- up to six feet. It's not the kind of flowering plant that one would easily find in most nurseries or at the flower department of supermarkets.

2008

I planted some over the years whenever I happened to find them but not until last year did I really get to enjoy the delicate flowers which come in white and many shades of pink and purple.

I was impressed by its toughness and resilience: It's heat- and drought-tolerant, requiring no staking or special care. The young plants I had came from the annual sale of The Southside Land Trust. They gave me a very long blooming period, into the fall. I did not deadhead most of the spent flowers, instead allowing seedpods to dry up. They produced countless young plants this past spring.

So many of them are still quite small; but many others started to produce clusters of flowers when they were barely 12 inches in height. A few weeks ago I even transplanted several young plants to my neighbors' yards and they are all in bloom.

7.11.09

Spider flower got its common name from the appearance of the plant -- blooming progresses upward -- together with the projecting stamens of the flowers.

Cleomes can be used as cut flowers, although some people find the scent objectionable (I do not). The stems have thorns and one needs to be careful when holding them or removing the plants in the fall.

7/15/09

 Tags  cleome

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