They are now at least 3 feet tall and today they showed their beautiful purple colour. I will be very aware of the self seeding thing though. Thanks for the tip. I will be certain to deadhead and remove before the seeds drop. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they re-seeded in the pots, but they are a bit close to the garden where they may cause a bit of a problem. I have disability and weeding is virtually impossible for me. I need to sit on a stool and, well, it is very painful.........

They are now at least 3 feet tall and today they showed their beautiful purple colour. I will be very aware of the self seeding thing though. Thanks for the tip. I will be certain to deadhead and remove before the seeds drop. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they re-seeded in the pots, but they are a bit close to the garden where they may cause a bit of a problem. I have disability and weeding is virtually impossible for me. I need to sit on a stool and, well, it is very painful.........

They are now at least 3 feet tall and today they showed their beautiful purple colour. I will be very aware of the self seeding thing though. Thanks for the tip. I will be certain to deadhead and remove before the seeds drop. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they re-seeded in the pots, but they are a bit close to the garden where they may cause a bit of a problem. I have disability and weeding is virtually impossible for me. I need to sit on a stool and, well, it is very painful.........

They are now at least 3 feet tall and today they showed their beautiful purple colour. I will be very aware of the self seeding thing though. Thanks for the tip. I will be certain to deadhead and remove before the seeds drop. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if they re-seeded in the pots, but they are a bit close to the garden where they may cause a bit of a problem. I have disability and weeding is virtually impossible for me. I need to sit on a stool and, well, it is very painful.........

All I can say is watch out! Cleome is a notorius self seeder. I've been pulling it out of a bed for 3 years now. This is one plant that although pretty at a distance is not worth the trouble.

I love cleome! It just keeps blooming and blooming and blooming.
It's of the genus cleome...related to...cleome!
It does seed all over....especially if you don't remove the dead plants at frost. But seedlings are easy to pull and very distinctive looking....and you will have lots to share next year if you wish.
Do you have the tall, about 4 to 5 feet? Or the shorter dwarf ones...about 2 1/2 to 3 feet?
Linda C

Cleome is in the caper family, Capparidaceae. Not many well-known plants in that family, except for the caper itself (which is the pickled flower bud of the caper plant, Capparis spinosa). Some botanists now put Cleome in its own family, Cleomaceae.

Both Cleome and capers is very closely related to the mustard family, Brassicaceae (a.k.a. Cruciferae) and the two families share many chemical compounds.

BTW I've been growing cleome for several years and like it, although it does have its faults. The flowers tend to wilt during the day, and the plants poop out by mid-summer. And it does self-seed prolifically, but the seedlings can be thinned out in the spring and I find that the ones that sprout in place from seed are generally more vigorous than the started ones I transplant in, and usually catch up with the transplants in no time at all.

I tried a new cultivar this year, 'Apple Blossom', a pale pink cleome marketed under the "Proven Winner" name. The plants were more vigorous, compact, and floriferous than any I have ever grown; it must be a hybrid because it has set no seed at all. Unfortunately, like regular cleome it has prove irresistible to harlequin bugs, which showed up in full force a couple of days ago and have already devastated the plants. Cleome usually make it to at least August for me but they will be yanked out to let other plants fill in, just a little earlier than usual.

I have been growing cleome for several years and love them even more every year. I have heard people say that their odor is unplesant but have never experienced this myself. They do reseed but this is something I like about them. I cut off their seed pods as they grow (to keep them flowering) and pull the plants when they are done or when the frost kills them. This probably limits their reseeding to an extent but their seedlings are very obvious and easy to pull. I dont mean to dismiss the advice from DC but here they are plants that get going after the real heat of the summer. I had them blooming best in early fall and last year and even into December.

Jackied164, I don't doubt you at all; I grew up in upstate New York and remember huge beds of gorgeous cleome in the summertime. But "hot" up there was mid 80's whereas "hot" down here is mid to high 90's and I find that they just peter out by late summer--and maybe it's not the heat at all, maybe it's just that we have a longer growing season and they can't make it all the way to the end.