Baby's Breath
Baby's Breath

Multi Buy

Size Guide
3.5
3.5" Perennial
3 or more $6.00 ea
Regularly: $6.99 ea

Baby's Breath

Scott's Nursery Ltd.

$3.50
Title
Elevate your garden to a realm of pure romance with a plant that mirrors the magic of a fresh, midsummer snowfall! This breathtaking perennial creates grand, architectural clouds of thousands of tiny, pristine white, fully double and semi-double blossoms. Hovering effortlessly on fine, skeletal, dark green stems, these voluminous floral mist-banks capture every passing breeze, bringing an ethereal, feather-light texture and an enchanting, glowing luminescence to any sun-drenched backdrop.
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Plant Details

Mature Size:

36" H x 24" W

Zone:

3-9

Watering:

Low

Type:

Herbaceous Perennial

Growth Rate:

Fast

Light:

Full Sun

Plant Profile

Common Names:

Tall Baby's Breath, Common Baby's Breath, Double White Perennial Baby's Breath, and Snowflake Chalk Plant

Scientific Name:

Gypsophila paniculata 'Snowflake'

Type:

Thriller / Airy Filler

Growth Details:

Mature Size: Stands majestically at 24–36 inches tall with an expansive, well-branched spread of 18–24 inches.

Growth Habit & Form: Strictly upright, bushy, and heavily panicle-branched, opening into a grand, rounded, airy sphere of flowers.

Growth Rate: Fast-growing, expanding from its deep taproot to reach its impressive full size by early summer.

Flowering & Flower Colour: Produces immense, frothy sprays packed with hundreds of petite, ruffled white double flowers.

Flowering Time: Show-stopping, heavy bloom cycle runs from mid-summer (July) through late summer (August).

Environmental Needs:

Exposure: Open, blazing, sun-baked exposures are highly preferred to optimize branch development.

Soil Preferences: Thrives flawlessly in light, lean, alkaline (sweet), or chalky soils embedded with sand or gravel.

Soil Tolerance: Highly tolerant of poor, infertile, shallow, rocky, and nutrient-depleted soils, but will suffer fatal crown rot in heavy, poorly-drained clay.

Watering: Minimal intervention; rely primarily on natural rainfall patterns, keeping the root zone dry during the humid months.

Container Role: Acts as an extraordinary, voluminous, mist-like "Thriller" centrepiece for massive structural stone urns or mixed estate planters.

Special Features:

Florist's Dream: Renowned worldwide as the premier, long-stemmed cut flower choice for high-end wedding bouquets, fresh centerpieces, and everlasting dried flower crafts.

Resistances: High built-in resistance to browsing deer and destructive garden rabbits due to its wire-thin stems.

Drought Champion: Possesses a robust, deep-delving taproot system that allows it to remain lush and fully turgid during fierce, dry heatwaves.
Care Guide

Ornamental & Landscape Value

Seasonal Interest:

Bloom Information: Massive, billowing clouds of highly showy white double blooms blanket the foliage for weeks in summer.

Fall Colour: Stems and narrow leaves transition to a light amber-tan colour as the autumn temperatures arrive.

Winter Interest: Deciduous; dies back completely to the ground in late autumn and strictly dislikes winter wetness sitting around its crown.

Garden Value:

This variety delivers unmatched ornamental interest by operating as a master-class visual blender that effortlessly unifies clashing garden colors and softens coarse textures. It provides enormous landscaping value for traditional cottage gardens, dry perennial borders, sunny cutting gardens, and large meadow-style designs. Planted en masse, it blankets the mid-border with a soft, cloud-like visual cushion.

Wildlife & Human Value:

Wildlife Value: The immense network of open blooms attracts clouds of beneficial native butterflies, hoverflies, and honeybees seeking mid-summer nectar.

Human Value: Serves as an indispensable commercial floral asset, saves homeowners immense amounts of money on summer irrigation bills, and delivers breathtaking elegance with practically zero daily intervention.

Planting & Care Guide

Planting Considerations:

Best Time To Plant: Early spring once the soil is workable, or early autumn, well before the ground freezes.

Spacing: Space individual plants 18 to 24 inches apart from the center to allow for their vast, spherical expansion.

Location Tips: Select a site with maximum wind ventilation, intense sun, and absolute premium drainage. Because it forms a deep, delicate taproot, choose its forever home carefully, as it hates being moved once established.

Companion Plants: Pairs exquisitely with dark or bold companion plants like Purple Coneflowers, Salvia, Lavender, Peonies, and large-leafed dark Sedums.

Care:

Light Requirements: Demands full, unfiltered sun, requiring at least 6 hours of unshaded direct sunlight daily to maintain its rigid, upright stem structure and produce a dense canopy of flowers.

Moisture Requirements: Extremely low water requirements once established; requires a bone-dry to slightly moist environment and handles intense droughts with ease.

Maintenance & Fertilization: Strictly minimal maintenance required; completely avoid rich fertilizers or heavy organic nitrogen, which cause the flowering framework to grow soft and collapse. Simply trim the entire plant back by half immediately following its primary mid-summer bloom cycle to force a clean, fresh second flush of white lace later in the season.

Tolerances:

Drought, Scorching Heat, Poor Infertile Soils, Highly Alkaline Limestone Soils, Deer, and Rabbits.

Tips For Success:

Soil Sweetening: This plant thrives on calcium-rich, alkaline conditions; if your native soil is acidic, aggressively scratch a handful of garden lime or crushed limestone into the planting site.

Support Staking: In areas with heavy rain or high winds, utilize a ring-style peony cage or brushwood supports early in spring to keep the massive clouds of white blooms perfectly upright.

Harvesting Technique: For the best indoor vase longevity, snip flower stems early in the morning when roughly 30-40% of the tiny double buds on the stalk have fully opened.
Fruit Profile