Garden Flower: Cleome Spinosa (Spider Flower)

It may be that you are looking for something a little more ‘rock n roll’ to grow this year…look no further than Cleome Spinosa. Slightly wayward and different from the average half hardy annual but a very welcome rocker in the Higgledy Garden disco.

Definitely exotic…if you look carefully in the back gound of Elvis’s films in Hawai you will see them swaying along to his pelvic gyrations. {I made that up}

How to propagate cleome spinosa

She can be a temperamental little madam and sometimes takes an ion to germinate. We start the first ones off in mid January under glass. It seems like big sways up and down in temperature help start her off. When the seedlings are big enough to handle AND all the frosts have run away back up north…plant them out. Plant them about a foot apart in full sun…make sure they are hardened off first.

Growing Cleome Spinosa

Avoid letting the soil stay too dry for too long, although generally the plants will withstand some drought. Once in a while give  a general all purpose feed or add some slow release feed to the bed when preparing it. They should start to bloom in July.

Varieties of Cleome Spinosa

Popular varieties include Cherry Queen, Helen Cambell and Violet Queen. All these are available through Thompson and Morgan and Sarah Raven seeds.

What varieties will you grow this year?

Regards Ben

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