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Shirley Bovshow's Tips for Planting Filler Flowers

Shirley Bovshow shows us how to add beauty to our gardens while saving tons of money with tips for growing and using filler flowers.

"Baby's Breath" (Gypsophila) is probably one of the best-known filler flowers. It's a flower people like or hate! One thing to know about baby's breath is that one bunch from the store goes a long way! Let me show you how to cut it for use in arrangements or in wedding flower projects. Grab a stem!

  • Do you notice how one stem of baby's breath is actually made up of multiple connected stems? Let's cut individual stems so we can maximize and stretch each stem!
  • Baby's breath is an excellent dried flower. Rubber band stems and hang upside down.
  • Baby's breath is best grown from seed and will grow from 2-3 feet tall and wide. It is invasive so plant it in a large container in full sun

Wax Flower (Chamelaucium) stems are filled with tiny waxy petaled flowers in white, light or dark pink. Each woody stem also has multiple stems filled with short, needle-like leaves. This is quickly becoming a go-to filler flower!

  • Strip off the bottom leaves and make multiple cuts to the bottom of stem for best water uptake
  • Wax flower plants can be bought at the garden center and planted in the garden or very large container.

Wax flower is a drought-tolerant plant native to Australia and will grow 4 feet tall and wide

Statice (Limonium) have bunches of paper-like flowers and are available in many colors including white, pink, yellow, and the most popular- purple! Besides providing texture to flower arrangements, many of the jewel-tone colors provide beautiful contrast for your main flowers. Excellent dried flowers too!

Statice is easy to grow from seed! And we are going to sow them directly in the ground.

  • Select a spot in garden that gets full sun and sow seeds when temperatures are consistently in the 70's
  • Sow in well-drained soil. Add sand to soil if too heavy
  • Scatter a few seeds every 12 inches and thin to one plant every 12 inches when plants grow a few inches tall
  • Cover seeds with a thin layer of soil (1/4 inch) statice seeds sprout is approx. 7 days
  • Water lightly and then again as soil begins to dry out.
  • Statice will grow as perennial in mild areas and as an annual in cold climates.
  • Low maintenance and low care.
How to Start a Garden
How to Start a Garden
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