Proven Winners Cleome 'Senorita Blanca'

Today's post is a review on 'Senorita Blanca' cleome and even though it is not yet for sale I have verified it should be for sale next year no problem. Normally I do not review plants or products until after a certain amount of time so I can be sure the plant or product is fairly good but this cleome has attracted so much attention in my gardens that I have decided to share it with you all now. This cleome rocks!

It almost doesn't even look like a cleome does it? This cleome is bred to not smell, and to not self seed everywhere, or grow thorns. So far since planting one month ago all of these virtues have shown themselves to be true with the added bonus of constant blooms without any special treatment. By special treatment I mean water. Here in my region of Tennessee we have only received scant rains this spring; which is not good for any newly planted plants but 'Senorita Blanca' does not seem to be bothered by the drought. This cleome is also excelling in the part sun conditions of my gardens. As you can see these three cleomes are planted in some shade. They do get a few hours of sun in the afternoon. I consider any sun loving plant-such as cleomes-that has proven itself to be shade tolerant to be a big plus for my gardens and this cleome fits the bill! The blue, and lavender plants alongside the cleomes are larkspur. They also appear to like the shade. 

I am mainly posting about 'Senorita Blanca' because it has been a big draw for visitors to Tiger Gardens. I have a lot of plants here so when I hear several comments from different people about one particular plant I sit up and take notice. 'Senorita Blanca' is the one!

'Senorita Blanca' is in the new garden bed next to the pond patio. I also installed three 4 x 4's with birdhouses for interest in this area. I did not really expect birds to nest in the birdhouses but I have found birds to seize any opportunity they can to nest in a house. This male house sparrow has claimed one of the birdhouses for his own. It is something I will have to rectify as the sparrows will quickly take over all birdhouses here and will even kill other birds for the house. He is a pretty little bugger though isn't he? It's too bad they are such prolific and territorial birds otherwise they might be a fun bird to have around because they do not mind the company of humans at all. 

in the garden....

If you really like 'Senorita Blanca' and can't wait until next year you may be interested in its older sister 'Senorita Rosalita'. The only different between the two is the color. Blanca is white and Rosalita is a lavender/pink color. 

Don't forget to comment on my give a way post found here for a chance to win some garden owls.  

Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team, In the Garden

Cleome

By SKEETER
Yippee, we had 2 and 1/2 inches of rain fall in my Georgia Garden from Sunday to Monday! I am so happy about that and also the fact we were able to get all the trees cut to the ground before the rain damped our plans. Not one limb hit the house so it was a most successful weekend. Now the Clean up begins, Sigh...

Look what popped up in my Triangle Planter full of Perwinkle. Cleome and I actually grew them from seed! Seed passed along to me from Tina and Nina. I put the seed into the ground and up came the Cleome! I am so happy as I rarely have luck with seed planting but this year has been the year for me. I have had a little luck with seed.
I say a "little luck" as some of the seed planted produced beautiful flowers for me while others did nothing. I counted my empty seed packets and have a total of 34 paper containers.


Of those 34 packets of seeds planted, I see results from only about 12 packets of seeds! That does not seem like good odds to me. I have said before, I don't have much luck with seed planting. I don't really know what I do wrong but something for sure.

I did have luck with the Cleome this year though. This one above is planted in the Semi-Formal Flower Garden. She was so tall and heavy that she fell over. But falling over did not hamper her blooms.
She continues to grow today and provide me color in the garden when most color is missing this year. I have been an absentee gardener where this garden is concerned. I must do better by her next year. I have said this twice now on the Blog so I MUST keep to my word next planting season. Here this plant was when standing tall. I don't know why I never snapped a picture of her from a long view but she once stood tall as you can see with the yellow Susan in the background. I spotted those seed pods (bean type) as soon as they started to grow and have been keeping my eye on them.
As they started to pop open, I begin to collect the seeds.
Oh my, have I collected the seeds on this beauty! I will scatter these seeds all over my gardens next spring in hopes of having them surround me. I just love these beauties! Thank you so much Tina and Nina for bringing CLEOME, In the Garden...


Words and Photos Property of In the Garden Blog Team,In the Garden