Cleome 2010

So, would you guys recommend winter sowing my seed? or broadcasting around my roses? If I should broadcast, I guess I should rough up the soil first. Any advice would be appreciated.

I just broadcast after danger of frost.. top sow direct. You could rough the soil up if its compacted.

If you plant them around the roses, they will grow to tall and you won't be able to see the roses.

Woodspirit: Hmmm, you may be right. I was thinking of the Cleome growing around the roses. I am thinking paticulalry Chrysler Imperial (it stays rather short), Fredrick Mistral, & The McCartney Rose. I may re-think this.

I'm on the fence about planting Cleome after hearing people's pros and cons comments. I've always thought they were so pretty and always wanted them. Will I get blooms the first year if I WS the seeds?

I winter sow cleomes every year. I have a garden that has mostly yellow and lavender/purple flowers in it. Last year I planted purple hyacinth bean vines and planted the cleomes in front of it. They were supposed to be purple/lavender seeds but they must have been crossed with the pink. I had yellow heliopsis and a few shorter sunflowers planted near them. I have some seeds of heliopsis, hyacinth bean vine, and the mixed cleome left if anybody can use any of them.

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4/dem_pa/hyabeanvine1.jpg

http://i204.photobucket.com/albums/bb4/dem_pa/fullhyshot1.jpg

Don

yes. They are an annual an dwill self sow if allowed so broadcast them after your frost date

Did I hear right? Will the dwarf cleomes do better in shade than the standard? I love cleome and have had good luck letting them self-sow in other locations. But now we live in the woods and have mostly shade and last year my cleome seeds didn't make it.

Pippi: If I were you, I would palnt the cleome seeds. I think you would enjoy the plant. Yes, it will re-seed but it's easy to pull out.

One of my 5 Cleome plants. They are growing well...can't wait for the first blooms.

Gonna direct sow mine today

I am a bit jealous, Mine are in the tiny greenhouse, about 1" tall. I have18 plants. The rest of the seeds I will direct sow soon.

Glad to hear they reseed...Got some in a seed swap last year & they grew tall & beautiful (white, pink, purple) Are they also called spider wort or spider plant??? Or similar in appearance? The pics. here posted look like what I had...Mine had long skinny seed pods on them...I saved a few pods & the rest let go to seed...Can't remb. if it was the leaves or stems but they were a bit sharp & cut my finger on them...Thank's for any info!!
Greg

Greg, the only common name I know of for this plant is Spider Plant. I have never heard of Spiderwort. Where did you see it?

Has anybody ever seen Mauve Cleos? I saw them in a catalog (without a pic) so could be doubtful...

~Daniel

Greg, there's stickers on the stems, or maybe you could call them thorns. Yes, they are very sharp. If you pull the cleome plants that over seeded early, they don't have the thorns. Mature plants do. You have to be really careful when they are mature.

Thank's Dan & Birder for the info...I'm glad to know the proper name for these beautiful flowers are Cleomne as everyone kept asking me what they were...I could have sworn the pkg. said spider flower or something to that effect..
Daniel I see you live in Ohio as well...Can you help me idend. what the leaves might look like on the ones that may have re seeded for me...Are they kinda long? Thank's!!
Greg

These are "Four Queens Mix" Cleomes blooming today. The seed pack was bought at Lowes and planted the end of January. Never grew Cleomes before and only started two plants from the seed pack. Was unsure how they would do in South Florida and thought I might be starting them too late in the season. Didn't realize these things grow very quickly.

Early blooms for you in South Florida. It appears my first two plants will both be white. I hope I get a pink in one of my other two...that's my favorite.

Nice. I guess I'm lucky in getting one white and one pink from the two plants I grew. I'm guessing Cleome's like to be kept on the dry side? Notice some yellowing of foliage if they're too damp.

Yes, I've noticed a few of mine doing that also. Have to cut back on the water....and it's raining now....but I put down fertilizer this morning, so I need it.

I stopped giving mine any additional water since we've been getting rain on a pretty regular basis. Been raining off and on all day here, but its been a nice light rain for the mostpart.

Rain??? whatz dat!? You wanna bottle it up and ship some?

Got sunny days and frosty nights yet.. but rain???? its amongst the missing.

Sure, we had plenty of rain to send you some yesterday. We probably had a good 2-3 inches. Everything's showing a quick spurt in growth from yesterdays rains.

I will be watching for the postman! LOL!

LOL Can you imagine the weight cost to ship rain water. I did catch some, off the roof, into some buckets.

Well, you could call a tanker. We is getting bone dry. Good for planting, bad for germs

You need to get outside and do your raindance Blossom. Ya know, the one where you spin around hopping on one foot with your arms raised to the sky. LOL (Just don't let the neighbors see ya)

Awww heck, they'd jes be blinded by the lightning after I got it started... No big deal!

Yano twitch the nose and things come roaring down. Well its gonna have to wait a day or two. I got other plans! Im not quite ready for a recharge on a lightning hit yet...gimme a few more days and I think the old battery will be done.

Hey did I tell ya we got a pair of sand hill cranes nesting on the bog? At first I thought they were rare red egrets, but nope, they are sandies for sure. Gorgeous birds! Just hope the neighbors dont mess with them.. I think they are protected. Got idiots with ATVs out here that think they can romp and stomp anywhere. Same old same old yano.

Was gonna water the cutting bed tonite, but could see my breath so decided to table that idea. Covered my two head lettuces and cut some lilaces to bring in to enjoy. Picked some asperagus. Its a poor year on asperagus... need rain for them. Goodness the lilacs are stunning this year. It truly is a magnificent show on most of the bushes.

Wow. Never seen a Sandhill Crane and didn't know there is a Red Egret. We have lots of the White Egrets down here. They seem to travel in bunches. It's common to see 10-20 of them poking through the grass looking for worms/insects.

We don't have people on ATV's down here. We have people that ride around the streets on golf carts in this neighborhood.

Had some more nice rain this evening for about 30 minutes, so everything is refreshed and no watering required. Picked all of the remaining lettuce, that hadn't gone to seed, and made a salad tonight. The cool weather vegetable growing in Florida is coming to an end right now. Can still grow tomatoes and peppers in the summer, but most everything else needs to wait until October. The only vegetables left in the garden are swiss chard, a little bit of sweet corn and come celery. The celery needs to be picked in the next week or two.

Beginning to see some heat stress on some of the winter flowers, especially the pansies. There will be lots of dead stuff to pull out in another 3-4 weeks. On the positive side are the Echinacea. They are growing rapidly and beginning to bloom. They put on their show from May-July.

Red egrets are rare. This is the second season for us having the sandies. They were here last year, but dint know what they were. We at first thought they were red egrets.

I live on a highway, the RTVs, ATVs, golf carts dont belong on the highway. People are nuts and the regular traffic fly 90 here. Everyone within a mile here has had an automobile accident in their front yard at least if not more. We have had more than our share.. I think its been 4 now that someone has hit our fence. People are just plain stupid and ignor the law, then they get what they ask for by tempting fate and wham. Hard to feel bad for them then since they did stopid.

No rain. Just watered my cutting bed. The weeds are coming faster than flowers.

Well, guess I best go back to work.. got too much to do and too little time.

The speed limit in my neighborhood is 25. Lots of golf carts, horseback riding and hog feeding in this neighborhood. And you thought I lived in a city!!!!

Weeds are picking up the pace here also, but so far been able to keep up with them.

Speed limit here is 55. Got nuts thinking that they can put an SMV opn a golf cart and call it farm equipment. Got news...DONT WERK THAT WAY! Guess they can feed the "pigs" here too!

In town the big thing is the drunks driving launmuars...they lose their license.. sooo they get to drive around on a maur...

Dont mind riding a maur especially if its chomping grass, but what a waste some folks make of their lives eh!? Lifes tough enough without doing stopid.

My first are almost open...and I have a pink!

I went to where the Cleome was last year and found not soil, but all cleome seedlings! About 5,000 at least. lol.

Glad you have a pink one about to bloom. I know you're happy about that. Don't tell me I'm gonna have 5000 volunteers growing next year. Oh no. I've been finding petunia and phlox volunteers in strange places around the yard this week. Nowhere near the original plants.

I have a second generation of Phlox blooming all over my garden, and more coming up in the grass...and have lots of Zinnias from last years plants.

I'm wondering why the mosquitoes are attracted to and breeding in the phlox? I have Phlox in two separate areas and both clusters of Phlox are loaded with mosquitoes. Wonder why that is. Pulled out some vegetables this evening and planted a few kinds of Zinnia seeds.

Wayward home for volunteershere! LOL! Box 'em and mail em!

I thought Phlox was a Shrub, or a small groundcover. It is in full bloom now in all the local gardens. Gorgeous! I did not know they could self-seed.

~Daniel

Here's the culprit. I guess you could call it a 8-12" tall groundcover. It's "21st Century Mix" annual phlox. This variety is grown from seed, so it probably self seeds itself. Someone it self seeded itself around the corner in the front of the house. Maybe the skeeters like it because it's thick and dense. I sprayed it with Raid. LOL