Gomphrena (also commonly referred to as globe amaranth) is the cutest little flowering plant you’ve ever seen. Little brightly colored gumdrop-like flowers at the end of long straight stems make for a very unusual but very enjoyable plant in the garden and in the vase.

Although gomphrena is not quite as spectacularly tall as its cousin amaranthus, and isn’t quite as boldly large or shaped as its cousin celosia, there is much to still love about gomphrena. It works well in the front of the border of a garden, with its beautiful coloration adding punch and colorful interest to any planting combination. It also works well as a cut flower, being almost indestructible in the vase and combining well with a variety of materials.

Gomphrena is also easy to grow from seed, extremely drought tolerant and hardy and loves the heat and humidity too, requiring very little assistance to grow.

1. Select Your Variety

Gomphrena can actually be split into two different species, which both have different forms

The first is Gomphrena globosa. It’s a delightful little plant that has a branching stem, with each end of the stem having multiple clover-like little flowers. It’s a bit more difficult to grow as a cut flower because it 1) tends to have short stems that make it difficult to get enough length to make into a bouquet or arrangement and 2) it is rather brittle and tends to break when harvesting and working with it. Varieties of the G. globosa species include ‘Audray’, ‘Bicolor Rose’, ‘Ping Pong Mix’ and ‘Fireworks’, a beautiful very productive and floriferous variety that has chive-like blossoms of the brightest fuchsia pink.

The second is Gomphrena haageana which sports long straight stems, and while more difficult to use in designs that require a more flowing, organic shape, I like the G. haageana varieties because they have longer stems, are generally strong and more sturdy (I find G. globosa extremely fragile to work with). Varieties of G. haageana include the ‘QIS’ series, ‘Strawberry Fields’ and ‘Las Vegas’ mix.

Which to grow?

Both are great as landscaping plants, with G. globosa and G. haageana doing very well, pumping out plenty of those pretty little button-shaped flowers over the season. In the garden, I recommend using them in the front of the border where they will be seen easily - with the exception being G. globosa ‘Fireworks’ which gets a bit taller and has a less bushy form compared to other varieties.

Gomphrena pair well with other hot summer annuals like zinnias, celosia, and amaranthus - my favorite combination is amaranthus ‘Hot Biscuits’ with zinnia ‘Queen Red Lime’ and Gomphrena ‘Strawberry Fields’ all planted in swaths together for a combination of bronze, mauve, red and deep weedy green for a color combination that is the epitomy of the height of summer in the garden.

As cut flowers, if you’re going for solid, straight, easy stems with bold and saturated colors then I’d recommend G. haageana with ‘Strawberry Fields’ being my top pick with its bright fire-engine red blooms that are great for market bouquets and little posies (and interestingly enough, when dried ‘Strawberry Fields’ turns a lovely blush-pink color that is so soft and muted).

If you’re going for less bold and a little more subtle with your designs, then I’d recommend G. globosa with the ‘Audray’ white colored gomphrena being my top pick. It’s a wonderful little white accent flower that can be used either as a very small secondary flower or a pseudo-filler if you pack a bunch of bushy stems into an arrangement or bouquet. Perfect when in white because of its versatility in wedding work, but also will work for mixed bouquets as well especially when combined with other white/pale colored flowers like Cosmos ‘Purity’ or Dahlia ‘Bride to Be’.

2. Starting Gomphrena from Seed

Gomphrena is pretty easy to start from seed so long as you give it heat and light - similar to other plants in the Amarantheaceae family such as amaranthus and celosia.

If you’re starting gomphrena in cell trays or soil blocks, place the seed on top of the soil (to help it receive light) and then water in well. You can use a heat mat to speed things along, keeping the soil at 70 F to help with speedy and uniform germination, or if it is warm enough outside you can even start them out in cells out in the sun.

If you’re direct sowing gomphrena, I would recommend making a shallow trench (about 1/2” deep) and spacing your seeds out about every 6” or so - that way they’ll be a nice and full planting and force each other to grow upwards for the best stems for cutting. Lightly press the seeds into the soil and water them into place. Your soil temperature should be warm - at least 50 F so that the seeds germinate quickly and don’t get eaten or start to rot.

Gomphrena will start to germinate very quickly, putting out fuzzy little leaves that are just as cute as the plant itself. If given heat they will grow quickly, filling out a cell or soil block very quickly.

3. Cultivating Gomphrena

Gomphrena, once planted out into full sun and once the weather starts getting warm will take off very quickly.

They don’t require too much care - some occasional watering is important, and ensuring that they get some occasional fertilizer, they will do their thing and grow. We don’t usually stake ours because our plants are pretty compact and they hold each other up pretty well.

They’ll get bigger and bigger and then one day you’ll start seeing the plant start to get a little bit leggy and stretch out - which is good news, because those are flower stalks! These stalks will then continue to length and stretch, branching until they start forming little flower buds at the end of the stalks - which means that they are ready to harvest for cut flowers

4. Harvesting Gomphrena

Gomphrena is a lot of fun for me to harvest because the flowers are pretty tough. They are actually a dry, papery bract-like flower - similar to strawflower or winged everlasting - and they can survive out of water easily, although the stems do wilt rather quickly if harvested in hot weather.

Harvesting gomphrena can be challenging because there can be a lot of stems - and if you’re just trying to cut single stems, it can be a real pain. Instead, just go to the base of the plant and cut the entire branch or stem off at the base - this saves you the trouble of having to navigate down from the flower all the way to the base of the plant, and also ensures that you get a nice long stem as well as also ensuring that you get nice long stems in the future (you always cut to the base of the plant when you’re cutting flowers to ensure the plant sends out nice long stems from the base in the future).

You can then trim and shorten the stem and strip the leaves as needed from there, but it helps to just get it out of the plant in order to get the cutting part out of the way.

If we’re harvesting gomphrena for sale to florists and at the farmer’s market in single bunches, we’ll rubber band them there and get them into water. If we’re going to be designing with them, we’ll harvest them into their own separate container or compartment - the thin and numerous stems can get caught in other stems very easily, causing a mess so that is why we contain them to their own area. You can start using gomphrena right away if you’re designing - they don’t need to have a hydration period like some other flowers.

This is very important - make sure that you harvest gomphrena regularly. If you don’t, the flowers will start to elongate and start looking a bit weird and burnt at the ends. We like the way these look for dried arrangements, but your customers may not, so make sure you cut the flowers when they are as round and fresh.

Gomphrena will continue to produce all the way through the season until the first frost - they are not hardy, so be prepared for them to be gone with frost.

5. Designing with Gomphrena

Gomphrena can be a bit tricky to design with because of its long and straight stems and bold colors and linear form. If you’re making market bouquets and including other brightly colored flowers then it is less of a problem - but if you’re using it in wedding work and more subtle design, it may prove problematic given its strong personality as a flower.

We skip the brightly colored varieties for wedding work - QIS Carmine, Purple, Orange and Strawberry Fields - and instead rely on Bicolor Rose and Audray for the majority of our designing due to their softer colors.

Generally, we use Strawberry Fields and QIS purple for our market bouquets and CSA subscriptions due to the bright pops of color they provide. We bury the stems all the way up to the neck to create more ‘mounded’ arrangements, poking them in and amongst other flowers - if we leave them poking out, they just look very awkward hanging out on their own.

Careful again of the linear nature of gomphrena - the straight stems can cause a problem by drawing too much attention and distracting from the form of the design. Unless you’re going for a very contemporary or modern looking design, it’s best to use it when it’s able to be tucked in and between other flowers.

We also dry a lot of gomphrena for use during the winter - they have excellent color and form and are the perfect thing for bringing a bit of color and structure to dried arrangements and wreaths. Fuchsia fades to a bright rose, red fades to a blush-pink, orange fades to a salmon, and white fades to an ivory coloration.

Gomphrena are happiness epitomized in a plant

Whether used in the garden or as a cut flower or enjoyed as a dried floral wreath, gomphrena are such giving plants for very little maintenance. Sturdy, drought tolerant, low maintenance and providing a wonderful pop of color, we grow these happy little plants every year and are glad that we do so.

If you’re interested in growing other cut flowers that love the hot weather of summer, check out these other growing guides:

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How to Grow Gomphrena (Globe Amaranth) for the Cutting Garden