11 Ornate Gypsophila Varieties Including Florist’s Gyp – ‘This Genus Has Much To Offer’
Reviewed By COLIN SKELLY
Colin is a Horticulturist and Horticultural Consultant with experience in a range of practical and managerial roles across heritage, commercial and public horticulture. He holds the Royal Horticultural Society’s Master of Horticulture award and has a particular interest in horticultural ecology and naturalistic planting for habitat and climate resilience.
IN THIS GUIDE
Gypsophila is a member of the Caryophyllaceae Family.1Gypsophila. (n.d.-b). Global Plants: JSTOR. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://plants.jstor.org/stable/10.5555/al.ap.flora.fna005000312
Although the genus is native to nearly the length and breadth of the Eurasian Continent, the majority of species are found in the Caucasus and Irano-Turanian region.2Gypsophila. (n.d.-c). Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:6285-1
Northern Iran and Kurdistan are considered to be the loci of Gypsophila speciation and diversification.
Baby’s Breath varieties have bushy habits and are usually mound-forming or clump-forming but there are also creeping and mat-forming varieties.
Heights and spreads depend upon the particular variety, but they range from 20cm to a full metre in both height and width.
Flower size is also somewhat variable.
All species and varieties’ plants have a taproot, which gradually becomes thick and fleshy and can extend to over 3m after the plant is established.
Underneath we run through some of my favourite Genus Gypsophila’s Baby’s Breath varieties:
1) G. paniculata
AKA: Common Baby’s Breath
Has a bushy habit and forms mounds of 60-90cm in height and spread.
It produces masses of pure white flowers throughout summer and into autumn.
The flowers are tiny, measuring only 2-5mm across.
This species reproduces by seed and it flowers in its third year.
A tough species that needs no care, it repels deer and attracts butterflies, which are characteristics inherited by its cultivars.
The majority of commercial Baby’s Breath varieties descend from G. paniculata.
2) G. elegans
AKA: Showy Baby’s Breath
An annual and is known as ‘Showy Baby’s Breath’ because its white flowers, often with radial purple streaks or in pink hues, are over twice as big as those of G. paniculata with a diameter of up to 1.5cm.
Plants grow from 25-50cm in both height and spread.
‘Covent Garden’ is an attractive and popular cultivar.
Though its flowering season is relatively short, lasting for only part of the summer, this variety produces figurative clouds of gorgeous white blooms that are comparatively big.
3) G. repens
AKA: Creeping Baby’s Breath
A mat-forming creeper that is ideal for groundcover and is wonderfully effective in rock gardens.
“Everyone knows the florist’s ‘Gyp’, but this genus has much more to offer,” shares Master Horticulturist Colin Skelly.
“I love G. repens for its ability to form mats of foliage and flower.
“I have tended to use it in gravel gaps between paving stones but it would be equally good in the front of a border or in a rock garden.”
It reaches a height of only 12-15cm but spreads to about 60cm.
The tiny flowers bring a couple of bonuses; first, at up to one centimetre they are bigger than ‘standard’ and, second, sometimes they have a pink to lilac tone.
G. repens ’Rosa Schoenheit’ is a noteworthy German cultivar with large, open, pink blooms.
4) G. cerastioides
AKA: ‘Mouse-Eared Gypsophila’; ‘Chickweed Baby’s Breath’
A semi-evergreen dwarf that is native to the Himalayan regions in and around Nepal.
It grows to only 5cm and spreads to 15cm, and has a ‘creeping habit’, to coin a phrase, and forms tight clumps.
Of particular interest are the lovely flowers that are relatively large and have distinct pink-purple radial streaks.
It blooms throughout summer.
5) G. ‘Rosenschleier’
AKA: G. ‘Rosy Veil’
A semi-evergreen that grows up to 30cm tall and 45cm wide, and has a mounding habit.
Both panicles and flowers are bigger than those of G. paniculata with the double-form flowers being 1cm wide.
Another point of difference is that it is one of the Baby’s Breath varieties whose flowers have a pinkish tone, fading to white.
It is the only Gypsophila variety to have received the RHS’s Award of Garden Merit.3AGM Plants. (2021, July). Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved March 16, 2023, from https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/pdfs/agm-lists/agm-ornamentals.pdf
6) G. paniculata ‘Viette’s Dwarf’
Very similar to ‘Rosy Veil’ it too is about 35cm tall and equally wide with a mounding shape, and it also bears panicles of double flowers that have a pinkish hue and fade to white as they mature.
7) G. paniculata ‘Bristol Fairy’
A Gypsophila giant; this tall and broad deciduous variety reaches 1-1.2m and can attain a spread of nearly 1m.
It has a tidy, bushy habit with sparse foliage.
Its flowers are also big for Baby’s Breath at 1.2cm in width.
The plant puts out these double-form, pure-white blooms for most of the summer.
8) G. paniculata ‘Perfekta’
Very similar to ‘Bristol Fairy’ in size and habit.
The differences are that it is more robust and blooms later than ‘Bristol Fairy’; also, its flowers are somewhat larger.
It is a florist’s favourite variety that is being supplanted by G. paniculata ‘Mirabella’ which is more resistant to pests and bears snowy white flowers.
9) G. paniculata ‘Compacta Plena’
Has a bushy, mounding habit and grows to about 40cm.
Its foliage is also on the sparse side.
Flowers are in double form, pure white, and 6-7mm wide.
It is quite a profuse bloomer and puts out flowers for much of the summer.
10) G. paniculata ‘Flamingo’
An unusual and special variety because of its flowers.
They are big at 1cm, are double form, and are a proper pink.
It is a semi-evergreen with a clump-forming bushy habit that reaches 70-80cm in height and spread.
11) G. muralis ‘Gypsy’
A lesser-known but standout variety for reasons similar to Flamingo’s characteristics.
It is an annual and has a low, mounding form as the plant reaches only 20-25cm in height but attains a spread of up to twice as much.
It blooms profusely and the flowers stand out, being in both semi-double and double form, and a natural and solid tone of pink.
Baby’s Breath is a commercial staple and because it is used as a filler rather than as a floral centrepiece, the floral industry constantly cultivates this plant, not for form, shape, and such, but to maximise bloom density and blooming duration and to minimise cost, besides introducing other desirable characteristics, such as pest resistance and colouration.
‘Millionstar’ (pictured above) and ‘Xlence‘ are very good examples of such trade cultivars.
