At last we have some colour in our cleomes! I first sowed the seed from a seed company pack back in Summer, and all the surviving plants were white flowered. They were an elegant foil for the colourful zinnias planted alongside, but they were supposed to be a colour mix.
Growing cleomes
It turned out to be a timing thing. The February blooms provided ample seed for an Autumn planting, which grew much better than the Summer sowing, but of course they were all white too so I risked my last few original seeds on an April (Autumn) sowing, and finally have one precious pink flowering plant. Maybe the white ones are the toughest.
Of course I will save all the seed I can from this one, and hope that some of the few other slower plants have coloured flowers.
So it turns out the advice to sow cleomes for the Summer is based on colder climates. For us here in the subtropics, Autumn after the warmest days is the natural time for the seeds to germinate, going from the self-sown ones, and the plants take care of themselves and bloom through Winter. Direct sowing gives the best results, although they transplant well. They are fairly short lived, so it’s worthwhile to sow new beds every month or so if you want to keep them flowering around the garden. I have mine in succession planting with other annuals.