By Staff
My grandmother called this annual "cat's whiskers."
Maybe you know it by one of its more common names – "daddy longlegs" or "spider flower."
This self-seeding annual is one of the tallest annuals (except when grown in containers; they rarely grow beyond two feet), great as a tall accent (if grown in good soil they can grow four to six feet tall) or in the background of a flower bed.
Use these old-fashioned beauties in your cottage, English or in a wildlife garden.
Good for fresh-cut flowers or used in dried flower arrangements, too.
Cleome will attract hummingbirds to your garden and are pest (except for a few aphids which might feast on their tender young growth) and disease resistant.
Some say the flowers and leaves are fragrant.
The flowers are white, a shy, tender pink rose or purple.
These annuals have tall, upright growing stems.
Be wary of those sharp spines which are located at the leaf nodes whenever you come close to the plant.
Leaves are a medium green, smooth-surfaced, deeply-lobed, palm-like in appearance, with five to seven leaflets.
Because of their long, thread-like flower stamens (2 and 1/2 inches long or better), grandma felt they resembled a cat's whiskers.
And here are a few garden hints to help you grow your cleome:
Grow in full sun.
If the soil isn't up to their standards, they will not grow as tall as they should or, let's say, could.
Don't transplant very well. Grow in peat pots or in a plastic, nine-ounce cup. I use the clear Solo plastic cups that come in a bag of 50 for $2.99. They make an extremely good planting pot. If you use the clear ones you can see the roots very easily through them. Best bet is to let them self-sow or go to seed.
Only one problem with letting them go to seed: They can become invasive, which means lots and lots of volunteer plants.
The tall stems also may need staking.