{"id":13020,"date":"2022-04-01T12:00:48","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=13020"},"modified":"2026-01-27T16:45:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:45:41","slug":"globe-amaranth-gomphrena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2022\/04\/01\/globe-amaranth-gomphrena\/","title":{"rendered":"Globe Amaranth (Gomphrena)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Gomphrena globosa<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Three important objectives of area gardeners\nare: 1. Inviting more pollinators, 2. Growing more natives, and 3. Reducing\ngarden maintenance. Gomphrenas, aka Globe amaranths, are becoming more recognized\nas outstanding annual flowering plants for Tennessee\/Virginia\/North Carolina\ngardens. Gomphrenas are North American natives (Texas, New Mexico, and\nnortheastern Mexico) and are blooming machines in the heat, the humidity, and\ndroughty soils of summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gardeners often reach for showy big flowering\nannuals. However, small ball-shaped clove-like gomphrena blooms are\ncovered with throngs of bees, butterflies, and other nectar feeders in garden\nbeds and containers. Gomphrenas root down deeply and bloom\nspring, summer, and way into autumn, wanting very little care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gomphrenas grow 10 to 24 inches high and 12\nto 16 inches spread. The color floral palette comprises purple, pink,\norange-salmon, and red. They prosper in full sun and will\ngrow in poor to average ground as long as soil drainage is good. Space\nplants a foot or so apart. Spread a slow-release fertilizer such as\nOsmocote\u2122 at planting time.  If leaves appear chlorotic in summer, apply a\nwater-soluble fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro\u2122 or Peters\u2122 to green-up plants. Gomphrenas\nplanted in the spring are usually well established in 4-6 weeks. Afterwards,\nsummer watering needs are minimal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Globe amaranth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Gomphrenas\u00a0attract very few pests and disease problems. Its fragrance keeps rabbits and deer away. Spider mites\u00a0are sometimes troublesome if summer weather is exceptionally dry.\u00a0A coarse spray of water\u00a0directed to the underside of leaves will reduce mite populations without use of\u00a0pesticides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So many great choices!! Long-stemmed\u00a0Gomphrena haageana<\/em>\u00a0grow taller and not as wide as\u00a0G. globosa. <\/em>Distinctive G. globosa<\/em> cultivars include: bright fuchsia \u2018Fireworks\u2019, stoplight red \u2018Strawberry Fields\u2019, and \u2018Lavender Lady\u2019. \u2018Fireworks\u2019 are described as\u00a0\u201cexplosions of pink with yellow stamen flowers\u201d. In 2020 a huge hit among visitors to the UT Gardens in Jackson was G. pulchella<\/em> Truffula\u2122 Pink with \u201ctufted, hot pink orbs with the bracts tipped in tangerine\u201d. It grows slightly smaller than \u2018Fireworks\u2019, another gardener favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audray\u2122 series are available in Bicolor Rose, Pink, Purple Red, and White. LasVegas series (white, pink, purple) are also standouts. Gomphrena flowers are especially nice in mixed fresh floral bouquets for the table and in dried florist arrangements. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three important objectives of area gardeners are: 1. Inviting more pollinators, 2. Growing more natives, and 3. Reducing garden maintenance. Gomphrenas, aka Globe amaranths, are becoming more recognized as outstanding annual flowering plants for Tennessee\/Virginia\/North Carolina gardens. Gomphrenas are North American natives (Texas, New Mexico, and northeastern Mexico) and are blooming machines in the heat, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1439,1218,747,1319,1351,1037,778,645,674,806,1357,665,1324,1138,602,1042,774,1440,853,742,551,627,1476,843,1060,1059,729,777,630,646,113],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13020"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13020"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15784,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13020\/revisions\/15784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}