Kat:

Are you growing the annual or perennial baby breath. My perennial babys breath plants give me several dozens of stems but does not bloom a second time. I don't have very good luck with the annual., This year I am trying White elephant. It never even germinated Yet.

Heidi

Heidi, thanks for the response, I was beginning to think I was the last person out here! I grow the annual Covent Garden babys breath, I have not tried the perennial. What variety do you grow? My annual plants do not bloom a second time either apparently!. Thanks again. Kat

My perennial babys breath have been planted for many years and I honestly don't remember what they were except Double (something or another). However, I have found that I actually like using Feverfew instead of baby breath. The flowers are slightly larger. I get some of mine from Johnny Seed I believe they were the Tetra. This year I am also trying Virgo (feverfew) from Geoseeds. The Virgo got great reviews from this forum last year.

In order to get season-long annual Baby's Breath (Gypsophila) you need to succession-plant them. That means you make several different plantings, weeks or months apart. I don't know what timing is best for you, in fact I've forgotton what timing worked for me. I'd try once a month throughout spring here, but I have a short season, so anything not planted by the end of spring isn't going to bloom. Your timing will be different.

As Heidi noted above, perennial gypsophila doesn't solve the problem, since it blooms all at once also. If you want a lot for drying, perennial is great, since it produces huge amounts of stems once the plant is mature. Succession-planting it doesn't help, since it doesn't bloom until its second summer anyway. By then the plants will have adjusted themselves to the climate and will bloom all at once.

Jeanne

Jeanne, thanks for the input, I always enjoy reading your posts. I do succession plant and I get a relatively decent crop time, it just seems to me that these plants dont produce really enough stock to make it worth while, I end up dedicating too much space to allow the succession plantings. I had thought initially that perhaps I was not giving these plants enough to feed on and that was why they were producing so few stems. I am considering Heidi's suggestion of using feverfew instead. Thanks again. Kat