A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2007 Baby's Breath?

This came up from a package of mixed seeds, & I'd really like to know what it is.

(I know what the Zinnia is.... I couldn't keep from having it in the shot! It's the white flower I'm wondering about.)


Baby's Breath was listed (along with about 20 other flowers) on the seed package, but I've tried several times to grow Baby's Breath, without success... (I thought the soil wasn't right, & even though I've increased the acidity where I keep planting it, it still never comes up!) I'm wondering if I just got lucky once, & this is (finally) Baby's Breath.

(If it is, I just might try planting it in this spot next year, & give up on the place I've been trying to make it grow!)

The reason I'm doubting that it's Baby's Breath is because the mixed seeds in the package were supposed to be annuals, & I was under the impression that Baby's Breath is a perennial, ...& I've read that it doesn't flower the first year!

Good picture, Patty, and yes, that is the annual Baby's Breath, Gypsophila elegans. I stumbled onto that in a freeby package of seeds from American Meadows a couple of years ago and just love it. Deadheading will promote more bloom and I usually just whack it back rather than try to cut off individual dead flowers.

They also do well in containers. I planted some seed this year around the trunks of potted Tropical Hibiscus and it trails over the side very nicely.

I would like to try the perennial, Gypsophila paniculata, but I've heard it can take over your world if you aren't careful with it.

Actually, Patty, Baby Breath comes both as an annual and as a perennial and both prefer alkaline soil. Do you see a problem here? but the plant is smaller too. It still hasn't gotten very tall and it grows more like a mat, similar to my Creeping Phlox, instead on a stem.