For several years, we tried unsuccessfully to grow baby’s breath, Gypsophila paniculata, and in particular, the improved Bristol Fairy from grafted plants we bought.
Usually, before the weather was warm enough to plant them outdoors, we lost many of them.
But the mysterious appeal of this airy, graceful plant with its deceptively delicate-looking, well-balanced stalks led us on.
We thought of those gentle, misty blossoms and how they lent themselves to fresh summer and dried winter bouquets and hitched up our pants for another go.
Using The Grafting Method
Then one day, we visited a nursery where the Fairy cuttings were being grafted onto other varieties of Gypsophila paniculata, which grow easily from seed.
Both the single-flowered paniculata (hardy and vigorous) and the double-flowered Snowflake grew in our garden.
Since both were grown from seed, it cost only a few pennies to raise our own stocks.
Roots Of Gypsophila Paniculata
We used the roots of Gypsophila paniculata, but Gypsophila elegans, repens, or acutifolia—all of which can be grown from seed—can also be used.
Following the grafting method used in the nursery, we took cuttings from the Bristol Fairy and bound them with raffia to 2 ½” inch pieces of seed-raised paniculata roots.
Unsuccessful Grafting
But complete success still eluded us. Disappointments in making the Bristol Fairy grafts mature in our garden-grown stocks led us to try the field-grown plants.
They came to us with dormant, dock-like roots packed in peat moss. We planted them immediately in the garden.
Unfortunately, excessive winter rainfall caused many grafts to rot out.
We tried again, hoping for a change of luck and somewhat encouraged by the success of the few surviving plants.
This time we potted the field-grown roots in black Vita-pots, using a medium composed of peat and coarse gravelly sand, and placed them in a cold frame—the top of their rims level with the ground.
Southern Exposure
We chose a spot with southern exposure and mulched the plants with 4” inches of straw.
To cover the bed, we used a 3×6 hotbed sash, but any small wooden box will serve nicely.
It should be covered with a pane of glass and shaded with burlap bagging until the grafts have become fully established.
First Green Sprouts
In April, when the first green sprouts began to break through their straw covering, we transplanted them into our border—and then drew a deep breath of relief.
There was little or no damage to the brittle roots, and with a few exceptions the grafts had remained intact.
Grafting Experiments
Our own grafting experiments, we realized, had been very amateurish, which probably explained our disappointments.
But what few results we did achieve, plus the wonderful success of the field-grown grafts, proved conclusively that cuttings from Bristol Fairy could be grafted on the seed-raised roots of other members of the Gypsophila group.
It also proved that some coiner of sayings certainly knew what he was talking about when he said to try, try again.
44659 by Fred C. Hubbard