Gomphrena

Overview:

The Gomphrena flower, commonly known as the globe amaranth, is a vibrant and heat tolerant plant that is perfect for your summer cottage flower garden. Known for its striking, globe-shaped blossoms, this flower comes in a variety of colors, including shades of purple, pink, red, and white. It is native to south and central America, making it a perfect candidate for a hot climate garden. These blooms make an excellent dried floral which can be used in a variety of crafts.

Starting seeds:

Starting seeds for gomphrena is relatively easy. I usually sow 1-2 seeds per cell and thin to one per cell after germination. We surface-sow the seeds ( sprinkle seeds on top of soil) followed by a light sprinkle seed starting mix then a sprinkle of vermiculite after sowing.

Lightly water in plants after sprinkling with soil, not after sprinkling vermiculite on top of the soil Place humidity dome on top of seedlings and place under a grow light.

Germination occurs typically after 7-14 days Check out my seed starting guide for more tips and tricks for indoor seed starting. Start seeds indoors in Late January - March here in zone 9b. Start 6-8 weeks before your last frost.

When to plant outdoors: 

When nightly temps reach 50 degrees is a great time to plant gomphrena outside. These plants like it HOT, so planting them early will not help them. We typically start planting them outside in Arizona zone 9b in April. Our last frost is March 1st, but soil temperatures are usually still too cold for the gomphrena to thrive until April.

Spacing: 

Space 9-12” apart for most varieties. Dwarf varieties such as ‘Gnome’ can be spaced 6” apart.

Sun: 

Full sun 

Flower Support:

Not needed

Fertilizing: 

Gomphrena are not heavy feeders. We usually get them established with a good well balanced fertilizer.

Favorite varieties:

Audry:

The Audry series is an excellent long stem variety that is prefect for your cut flower garden. We love growing the purple, and pink. but our favorite color in this series is 'bi color rose'. This variety features a soft rose pink bloom with a white frosted tip. Absolutely stunning!

QIS:

Similar to the Audry series, these flowers com in purple, pink and shades of white. 

We love to grow the QIS purple. Classic bright purple blooms perfect for bouquets. The bright purple is our favorite to dry, and they hold their color very well. Simply strip the leaves off, and hang upside down to dry.

Fireworks:

If you know me, you would know I LOVE anything pink. Gomphrena is no different! We love this bright pink flower, but what makes it magical are the gold tips. They remind me of fairy dusting. These gomphrenas get the largest - topping out at 3' tall and can get upwards of 3' wide. 

This is a great landscape plant if you just need something that is low maintenance, fills a large space, and gives off all the cottage core vibes. 

Truffula pink:

Very similar to the gnome purple gomphrena in color, but more compact in habit. Truffula pink offers more dense blooms that are more suitable for large containers. We would NOT recommend planting a fireworks in a pot as the plant is simple massive.

We paired the 'truffula pink' gomphrena with cascading vinca for a stunning heat loving combination.

Truffula pink tops out at 22-24" as the fireworks tops out at 36".

Gnome:

The gnome series is the most compact one we plant. Typically these flowers get 8-12" in height. With similar colors too the taller varieties, this compact version is a great add into the boarder or any container garden.

Their blooms poke out amongst the other flowers making it a great companion plant for the boarder garden.

Gomphrena is a beautiful versatile filler flower in the garden and in bouquets. Try growing some in your next warm season garden!