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The Oz Garden Gallery

Gomphrena

trancegemini_wa

20 years ago

thought I would share a couple of photos of my gomphrena flowers. we were having an unusually mild summer so I thought Id plant them out in right in the middle of summer, of course as soon as I planted them the weather got hot but they have coped really well with it. I'll definitely be growing these again

trancegemini

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Comments (4)

User
20 years ago
Hi TG...Love your pics both look great and are nice colours.
I have never grown them what are they like waterwise ???
I peeked at them all hope you dont mind they are all so pretty.
Cheers...MM.
trancegemini_wa
Original Author
20 years ago
thanks MM, and no I dont mind! Im just a bit embarrassed by my meagre photo collection and the garden is still quite young and still very bitsy.

waterwise the gomphrena have been very good and they look a lot more delicate than they really are. I have very sandy soil that dries out quickly and I just go around with a bucket maybe twice a week and empty it on the 5 of them. theyve wilted a bit on really hot days, but with a bit of water they perk up again without any problems, and they are in a spot that gets full sun all day long aswell. I think they would have done even better if I planted them much earlier too because they didnt get a chance to get settled in before they had to deal with the hot weather.

Im really hoping theyll set some seed so I can save some, and if I get any seeds youre welcome to have some if you like. I grew these ones from a seed packet I bought and they werent any trouble to grow.
Related Discussions
Gomphrena question from newbie
Q
Comments (7)
I LOVE Gomphrena, the strawberry field variety does super here and I live in West Texas and my Gomphrena thrives in full, no shade HOT HOT sun even when it's 105 for 10 days in a row. I do water it some though about every other day in that kind of heat. What I can't figure out is how to get it to grow from seed. I am having a terrible time trying to get it to seed outdoors. I have tried putting it 1/8 in and covering it with dirt and I have tried sewing on top of the ground and it has just refused to come up. What could I be doing wrong? I wait till April to put it in and there is no freezes here in April. What in the world am I doing wrong that I can't get it to come up?
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How About these Gomphrena?
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Comments (5)
You can air-dry them by hanging them upside down. It can take two-three weeks to get the stems really dry. It also depends on how long you cut the stems -- if you cut low, so that there are nodes -- "joints" -- as you go up, where individual stems branch off, that takes tho longest -- things will look almost done, but will still bend at those joints. We hang them until you can a) tilt the bunch and have everything stay straight or b) (the harder test) lift the bunch straight up when you put your fingertip under a flower head. If you strip the foliage, they'll dry a little quicker, but the foliage gets a fairly nice light gray-green color when it dries. You can use them in dry bouquets, obviously -- making a bouquet from the dried white gomphrena alone, adding other colors of gomphrena, or adding some spikey things as an accent. If you don't want to use the flowers with their stems, you can just add the flower heads to potpourri or glue-gun them to a wreath -- pretty effective with red or purple flowers -- but with white ones, for use in a wreath it might be best to dry them with at least some stems and stick them into a regular evergreen wreath at Christmas.
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Gomphrena - Strawberry Fields (from seeds)
Q
Comments (0)
I tried in the spring when I did my sunflowers but I got nothing. I had read it does well in the heat but I did not garden this summer so I want to try again for the fall. They look so super cute and fun, hopefully this time they will take!
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ashmeri
20 years ago
I have always called them Batchelor's Buttons, now I know their proper name.

I like the dark ones the best,
The Scilla Peruviana is a lovely colour.

Marion
Liatris
20 years ago
I have the dwarf purple ones, and they really are tough! I think they'd keep on performing even if I NEVER watered them.

If anyone would like some seeds let me know.

TG, once the flowerheads have turned a straw colour, you'll find that each of the little 'petals' has a seed at the end.

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