A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Cleome

A friend sent me cleome seeds. I have never heard of cleome. Now what? Help, please !

I saved seeds from last year. I am about to plant them outside. Just water well until they come up. They are very tall and I use them in the back against a wall as it is very windy here.
cleome

They like full sun too so don't put them in a shady spot. I always mess up locating my plants lol.

When they mature they will drop seeds like crazy. So put them somewhere you wont mind them coming back or harvest all the seed pods as soon as they show up. They look like little green beans coming off the stem.
They are also called spiderflower. Very pretty, but not the prettiest smelling bloom.
Do you know what color they'll be?

Spider flowers! I love em!

In my experience, they looove lotsa of water! The more you water them, the taller they grow. I had some 6 feet tall - very fun plants to grow! Enjoy!!

Thanks, everyone ! Nice advice !
Wrennie, the friend who sent me the pods says that they're pink flowers.
Ty for the link, Connie. I'll have a look.
I planted them near my tomatoes, in a big pot, as I can only garden in containers.
It was fun getting the seeds out of the pods. So many seeds per pod !

Cleome is my new favorite plant to grow. I had my first experience with cleome last spring when I needed one more plant for an area I had only white flowers in. I found this unusual plant at Lowe's and bought it. I had no idea that this plant grew such large globes of flowers all over the plant! Hopefully you caught that it was "white" and not "pink". There are other colors. This year I found a cleome that has a lavender or soft purple color mixed with white flowers. Pastelish. It gives a soft look and I planted it next to my larkspur plants which are a mix of purple, white and pink flower spikes. Below these tall plants I have white geraniums and white petunias. Next to them I have white salvia shrubs and red bottle brush shrubs. This looks so good together because of the contrast of colors and textures and somehow the bottle brush is attracted bees!
You will find that cleome will self-sow seeds prolifically so don't worry about them coming back next year, they will. You will enjoy cleome immensely and they also did well for me in containers last year. I had the pink variety in a large container with Ivy around the edge of the container. The cleome does grow sharp thorns near the base of the plant so watch out! Don't just start grabbing without looking. The plant blooms prolifically, you can't stop it once it starts! It likes quick draining soil but rich soil so I built a raised bed for them. They grew well in every soil I've put them in so far. Anyway, have fun and don't be afraid to branch out and try new plants every once in a while.

Terry