How to Plant and Grow Baby's Breath
If you want to grow this favorite cut flower in your garden, there are many annual and perennial varieties to choose from.
Baby’s breath is more than a popular filler for floral arrangements. With its loose, billowy panicles of tiny flowers, it also provides a lightness and airiness to flower gardens. Of the more than 100 species in the genus Gypsophila, which includes annuals and perennials, only a few are cultivated as garden ornamentals. The flowers can be single or double pink or white, and there are varieties with an arching, mounding, or creeping growth habit.
Baby’s breath is toxic to humans.
Where to Plant Baby's Breath
Plant baby’s breath in a sunny location. The soil should have excellent drainage and be in the slightly alkaline neutral pH range.
Whether you grow an annual or perennial variety, baby’s breath is a good addition to any cutting or cottage garden. It looks best when planted in small groups and it works well to disguise the dying stems and foliage of spent spring bulbs or early summer bloomers such as poppies.
The low-growing, creeping forms of baby’s breath are great additions to rock gardens as they drape beautifully over walls. They are also attractive in containers.
Invasive Plant
The baby’s breath species most commonly used in the cut-flower industry, Gypsophila paniculata, has escaped cultivation in the western and northern United States and Canada. It forms monocultures and outcompetes native species. Baby’s breath is classified as a noxious weed in California and Washington and is on the watchlist of other states such as Minnesota. Before planting baby’s breath, make sure it is not invasive in your area.
How and When to Plant Baby's Breath
To plant a potted baby’s breath from a nursery, wait until there is no more danger of a spring frost. Dig a hole about twice the diameter of the pot and about the same depth. Place the plant in the hole and fill in original soil to the top of the root ball. Gently tamp down the soil. Water deeply after planting and continue to water in the absence of rain for at least a couple of weeks.
Space plants 12 inches to 3 feet apart depending on the variety. Creeping baby’s breath needs more space.
Baby's Breath Care Tips
Both the annual and perennial varieties of baby’s breath are low-maintenance plants.
Light
Baby’s breath does best in full sun, with the exception of southern locations where it benefits from some shade in the hot afternoon hours.
Soil and Water
The most important soil requirement for baby’s breath is excellent drainage. Sandy soil is ideal. Baby’s breath needs a soil pH between 6.0 to 8.0. if your soil is acidic, lower the pH by adding garden lime.
After it is established, baby’s breath has only moderate watering needs and can survive dry spells; in fact, it thrives in dry soil.
Temperature and Humidity
The perennial varieties of baby’s breath can be grown in a large temperature spectrum including areas with subzero winters. Dry climates are best; baby’s breath does not do well in high humidity.
Fertilizer
Baby’s breath usually does not need any fertilization. It is sufficient to add some compost around the base of the plant in the spring. Overfertilization can lead to floppy growth.
Pruning
When the plant has reached 8 to 12 inches in height, pinch it back to encourage branching.
Once it has started flowering, deadhead the spent blooms. You can also do a light pruning after the spring bloom, which keeps the plant tidy and may encourage a second bloom. When the plant is done blooming at the end of the summer, cut all the stems back to about 1 inch above the ground.
However, apply extra caution when pruning a double-flowered cultivar because it has been grafted onto a single-flowered rootstock and should not be cut back below the graft union (usually easy to recognize as a lumpy spot on the stem).
Potting and Repotting Baby's Breath
Baby’s breath make good container plants. Use a pot with large drainage holes and fill it with well-draining potting mix. Keep in mind that container plants require more frequent watering and fertilization than plants in the landscape.
Annual baby’s breath is so short-lived that it won’t need repotting.
Perennial potted baby’s breath, although it is winter-hardy, needs winterization in colder climates as the pots do not provide sufficient insulation from the freezing cold. You can either sink the container in the ground or place it in a second, larger pot to create a planting silo.
Repot the plant to a larger pot with fresh potting when the root system has reached the sides of the container, or the roots grow out of the drainage holes. The best time to do this is in the spring at the beginning of the growing season.
Pests and Problems
Baby’s breath can attract aphids, Japanese beetles, and leaf hoppers. Rabbits feed on it but baby’s breath is deer-resistant. The plants are not prone to any serious diseases.
How to Propagate Baby's Breath
Baby's breath can be propagated from stem cuttings or seeds. Before you propagate the plant, make sure that you don’t have a grafted cultivar or a cultivar that is protected by a plant patent. If that’s the case, you can always resort to purchasing seeds, which are available for many different annual and perennial types of baby’s breath.
To propagate baby’s breath from a cutting, take a 4- to 5-inch cutting from a healthy stem in the spring. Remove all the leaves from the lower third of the cutting and dip the cut end in rooting hormone powder. Insert the cut end in a 4-inch pot filled with sterile potting mix and keep it well-watered in a location with bright light but out of direct sunlight. Water it well and keep it evenly moist. It takes about 4 weeks for the cutting to root. Wait until it has grown into a strong healthy little plant before transplanting it in the landscape.
To start baby's breath from seeds, do this indoors six to eight weeks before the last average frost date. Sow the seeds in small pots or cell packs and press the seeds into the soil; do not cover them because the seeds need light to germinate. Keep them evenly moist at 70 to 75 degrees F. Germination takes 2 to 4 weeks. Plant the seedlings outdoors after all danger of frost has passed.
You can also direct seed baby’s breath in the garden, but it is more difficult to keep track of the germination and competing weed growth.
Types of Baby's Breath
Common Gypsophila
Gypsophila paniculata, also called panicled baby’s breath, produces clouds of small single or double white or pink flowers on branching stems. Its blue-green leaves are 2-3 inches long. Double-flowered cultivars are often grafted onto hardier single-flowered rootstocks. Popular cultivars include ‘Summer Sparkles’ and ‘Festival Star’.
Creeping Baby's Breath
Gypsophila repens seldom grows more than a few inches high and is ideal as a groundcover or for tumbling over rocks and walls. The pink or white flowers are abundant for many weeks in summer. Zone 4-7
Showy Baby’s Breath
Gypsophila elegans, also known as maiden’s breath, is an annual form of baby’s breath. It has larger flowers and a more open growth habit than perennial baby’s breath. It grows 6 inches to 2 feet tall. The plant has a very short life span of only six weeks so for a continuous bloom, it is recommended to plant it consecutively during the growing season.
Baby's Breath Companion Plants
Oriental Poppy
Oriental poppies are perennial poppies that bloom in the cooler months of April to June. Sometimes they'll bloom longer where evenings remain cool during the summer months. Their short flowering time of two weeks makes them a brief but colorful addition to a garden. They are deer-resistant and drought-tolerant. After these plants give their all at bloom time, the foliage dies back and looks ragged, so plan to fill the newly available space with annuals, dahlias, baby's breath, or other later-blooming plants. Zone 2-8
Daylily
Daylilies are so easy to grow you'll often find them growing in ditches and fields, escapees from gardens. And yet they look so delicate, producing glorious trumpet-shaped blooms in myriad colors. In fact, there are some 50,000 named hybrid cultivars in a range of flower sizes (the minis are very popular), forms, and plant heights. Some are fragrant. The flowers are borne on leafless stems. Although each bloom lasts but a single day, superior cultivars carry numerous buds on each scape so bloom time is long, especially if you deadhead daily. The strappy foliage may be evergreen or deciduous. Zone 3-10
Dianthus
The quintessential cottage flower, dianthus, also called pinks, are treasured for their grass-like blue-green foliage and abundant starry flowers, which are often spicily fragrant. Depending on the type of pink, flowers appear in spring or summer and tend to be pink, red, white, rose, or lavender, but come in nearly all shades except true blue. Plants range from tiny creeping groundcovers to 30-inch-tall cut flowers. 'Firewitch' is a cultivar with fringed, clove-scented magenta blossoms that blooms in midspring to early summer, but blooming may happen sporadically in late summer and fall. Zone 3-10
Garden Plans for Baby's Breath
Ornamental Grass Garden
This plan for a lush ornamental grass garden includes a few flowering perennials that require very little care, just like the suggested grasses, and will thrive in a full sun corner. The lush fountains of foliage are lovely in spring and summer, but ornamental grasses are nothing short of spectacular in the fall when their feathery flower heads sway in the breeze. The buff-colored plumes endure into winter, too, keeping the garden attractive when all else has gone dormant.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does baby’s breath grow naturally?
Gypsophila is native to central and eastern Europe but it can also be found growing in the wild in many other countries, including North America, to the point of being invasive.
What time of the year does baby’s breath grow?
Gypsophila paniculata, the most commonly grown baby's breath, is a perennial plant. It grows from spring to fall and goes dormant for the winter. It blooms in late spring and throughout the summer.
For more Better Homes & Gardens news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on Better Homes & Gardens.
