Cleome, Spider Flower, Spider Legs, Grandfather's Whiskers 'Cherry Queen'

Zone 7B, South Central Virginia. I bought a six pack of cleomé at a flea market years ago, and they didn't thrive. They did reseed a l...Read Moreittle, but I didn't recognize the leaves and weeded them out. After that, I admired them at rest stop plantings on our travels, so I bought a packet of seeds. This time I planted them in a flat and later transplanted them into one bed with cosmos, verbena bonariensis and zinnias, and into another bed with Queen Anne's lace, beebalm, echinacea, rudbeckia, phlox paniculsta, coreopsis and black and blue salvia. They have reseeded themselves for the past two years. They have more than held their own in the first bed, where I am having to dig them up and space them better, but this year I believe that the perennials have crowded them out of the second bed. I get a lot of enquiries and compliments about the spider flowers. I will have some to give away. They are quite prolific.

I purchased 2 of these plants at a Master Gardener sale. They had Proven Winners plant tags in them. I brought them home and planted th...Read Moreem in the above bed and they totally dried up. I don't know why, because I was watering them very well. It may have been because I planted them in the heat of the day. Again, I am not sure. I kept hoping for regrowth, but it just looked dead. As you can see in the picture marked drapelady, I cut all of the branches off. The only thing left was the stem. Within in days it began to sprout new life. I am so glad this is such a tough plant. There is alot of new growth on it and some blooms as well.

I have not put it in the ground yet, but it says it is an annual. What I have is a woody stem, which doesn't seem like an annual. Mine h...Read Moreas leaves that are darker in color than images I've seen; the bloom is lavender or purple.