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This web casts a spell

Cleomes or spider flowers add a dash of colour to your garden

COLOURFUL AND AROMATIC The flowers, white, pink or purple, are strongly scented

Cleomes are bushy annuals and evergreen shrubs. Originally from tropical America, they are found in sandy, free draining soils in plains and in valleys in tropics worldwide. Belonging to the family Capparidaceae, they are valued for their terminal racemes of spider-like, four-petalled flowers with prominent stamens which are borne above three to four palmate leaves.

Cleome spinosa is a strongly scented annual with hairy stems growing up to 60 cm to 1 m. Palmate leaves are five- to seven-lobed, leaflets ablong-lanceolate, minutely toothed, hairy and 12 cm long. There are spines at the base of each leaf stalk.

Strongly scented white, pink or purple flowers three cm across with oblong to rounded petals are produced in dense terminal racemes in summer.

They are usually grown in summer as flower borders or as seasonal fillers for a mixed or herbaceous border. These plants grow in light and rich garden soil under direct sunlight, but where the temperature is high also in half-shade. Propagation is by seeds. During the growing season, water freely and apply a balanced liquid fertiliser every three weeks. De-head to prolong flowering and water freely in dry weather. The water must never stagnate at the root of the plant and the ground must never be soaked.

CHITRA RADHAKRISHNAN

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