Baby's Breath

Gypsophila

Capricorn

Baby's Breath

Creation, Eternalness, Profusion of Life

Available as an annual or perennial, Baby's Breath is a dense plant with very small white flowers.  Some varieties produce small pink flowers. The plants prefer full sun but will grow with 4 to 6 hours of direct light per day. The plant grows to 3 feet in height and width.  Baby's Breath blooms for weeks during the summer, often from May until August, and attracts bees and butterflies.

The flowers are commonly used in bouquets and flower arrangements.  Single stalks can be used to augment a bouquet, bringing to mind the value of one single flower type and the compatibility it has when matched with others - the Baby's Breath is a compliment to them.  The flowers are also used to make bouquets - and when observed, the bouquet is composed of many slender stalks with a profusion of flowers. The whole is greater than each of the stalks.  This shows us how, when like-minded individuals grouped together, they can effect a paradigm shift.

The plants are salt, drought and deer tolerant.  he profusion of flowers both on plants in a garden and in those grouped into a bouquet is symbolic of the profusion of life.  It mirrors the profusion of plant life in all of its forms from the plants that propagate through root systems to the weeds that find a toe hold in the crack of a sidewalk.  It shows that life is perpetual and persistent.

The plants like soil with few nutrients, such as sandy soil areas, and enjoys being left alone once established. Like all of creation, the process knows what to do and does not need any encouragement or influence from human kind.  The role of humans is to expand the eternalness of the process of creation by taking thought into new areas.

Baby's Breath grows quickly from seed and it can also be propagated from cuttings.

The plant originated the area from Eastern Europe to Western Siberia. The scientific name, Gypsophila’ means "likes gypsum" in the earth. Gypsum contains calcium which helps plants absorb other essential nutrients.