I thought I'd update you on how my green hairy balls are growing because that seems infinitely more interesting than updating you on how my celery is growing.
Balloon flower, which also goes by the much more colourful moniker of green hairy balls, is a milkweed but it's mainly grown for cut flowers. I started them indoors in the spring and planted 3 of them out in early summer.
This is just an update on how it has grown over the past few months this year for me but if you want to grow these balloon type flowers, this post has all the information on height, spacing, starting them etc.
The Plant
The plant itself is kind of a bore, looking like an everyday weed in the garden but the individual branches last forever in a vase as greenery while you sit and wait for the plant's grand finale in the fall - the balls.
So yeah, not the kind of foliage that would have tourists traipsing through my garden to get a picture of themselves with.
It's just kind of a scragfest.
But then it starts to sprout flowers and then you know it's only a matter of time before the autumn clock ding dongs in the arrival of the balls.
First flowers appear in clusters.
Those flowers turn to seed pods.
The seed pods start to get hairy.
Then they start to balloon up which is how they got nicknamed balloon flower.
The balls just keep getting bigger and hairier.
At the moment just the main stem has developed the green balls and the side shoots are still in the flowering stage, but once those develop there will be lots of branches covered in balls ready for neutering.
If anyone plans to go as a naked alien for Halloween, gimme a shout. I have the perfect finishing touch for your costume.
I probably won't grow these again next year. They're fun and I'll love what I can do with them as cut flowers but they take up space I'd rather use for growing something a bit more boring but useful.
Like celery.
The green hairy balls are hilarious! But I'm really keen to know what you do to grow celery. I tried for three years to grow celery and never got any worth growing. This year I grew celeriac. Much easier. For me. Where celery is concerned, I would appreciate any words of wisdom you care to share. I appreciate all your wisdom whether celery is involved or not.
Hi Karen,
I read that this plant is one of the milkweed family that Monarch butterfly caterpillars eat. And in traditional medicine it is a remedy for warts. So, besides the fun of growing them and getting to say "green hairy balls", maybe it's worth growing after all (providing you like butterflies and have a need to treat warts).
It is a milkweed! But regular, common milkweed is their preferred food. :) ~ karen!
I can see many euphemisms in your narrative of the Gomphocarpus physocarpus. I would like to know where you got viable seeds for said plant?
When your funny you are very funny.
Hi Ted! I got the seeds from William Dam Seed company (in Canada). ~ karen!
Growing proof that plant evolution has an active sense of humour too.
For sure!