Did you know baby's breath has all these other names too?

Other names for baby's breath

Baby's breath, originally named double-petaled Gypsophila, also known as "broken copper coin," native to the Mediterranean coast. It belongs to the Caryophyllaceae family, Gypsophila genus, a perennial herbaceous flowering plant.

Growth habits of baby's breath

Baby's breath likes warm, humid and sunny environments, is fairly shade-tolerant and cold-tolerant, and grows best in well-drained, fertile and loose loam soil. The best soil for cultivation is slightly alkaline calcareous loam, with good drainage and sunlight. Once the plant height is over 20 cm, reduce the amount of watering; slight drought can promote flowering, and especially after flowering, poor drainage or prolonged rain can easily cause root rot. It likes warmth and dislikes high temperature and excessive humidity; the suitable growing temperature is 10-25°C.

Morphological characteristics of baby's breath

Baby's breath is an evergreen dwarf small shrub, with a plant height of about 65-70 cm, slender smooth stems, and many branches; the leaves are narrow and long, sessile, opposite, and powdery green in color. Baby's breath looks like Gypsophila muralis, with white to pale pink flowers. Common ones include: Carmine, with deep rose-red flowers; Large White Flower, with large white flowers; Rose Red, with pale rose-colored flowers. Flowers can be double-petaled or single-petaled.

Varieties of baby's breath

Fairy: Can also be cultivated in summer, blooms year-round, with pure white flowers.

Perfect: Not tolerant of low temperatures, with larger flowers, crystal white, can be used for corsages and dried flowers.

Diamond: A shorter plant, vigorous and easy to grow, blooms in autumn, with pure white flowers.

Flamingo: Slender stems and branches, blooms in spring, with pale red flowers.

Red Ocean: Thick stems, can bloom from spring to autumn, with peach-red flowers.

The flower language of baby's breath

The flower language of baby's breath is: purity, care, longing, supporting role, true love, and a pure heart.

Using baby's breath as a filler material for flower arrangements can better handle the relationships of weight, density, concealment and exposure, bending and lifting, distance, and height in the arrangement, making the work more layered and deep, and fully showing a sense of three-dimensionality, haziness, and fluffiness. For example, arranging just a few rose branches can also show their beauty, but if you add a bunch of baby's breath, it can create an even stronger supporting effect, making the theme and the accessory express very harmoniously and blend together, achieving a profound meaning in which there is emptiness within substance and even more substance within emptiness. A poet described this scene as "red and green trees in every home, white and blue smoke everywhere." This is just like the folk saying: "A good peony still needs green leaves to support it."

The role of baby's breath

In early summer, baby's breath produces continuous small white flowers; the flowers are abundant and delicate, evenly distributed. Like stars, hazy and charming, and also like snow covering a whole tree, clear and lovely, suitable for planting in flower beds, roadsides and flower hedges, and also very suitable for potted ornamental display and bonsai making. Baby's breath is likewise an indispensable filler flower material in flower arrangements; inserting a few sprigs of baby's breath into a bouquet adds a touch of charm.

Baby's breath can be used as medicine; harvest when the flowers and leaves are lush in summer and autumn, wash clean, and dry in the shade or use fresh. It can clear heat and promote urination, and resolve phlegm and relieve cough. It is used for acute icteric hepatitis, acute nephritis, pertussis, urinary tract stones, athlete's foot, herpes zoster, conjunctivitis, and erysipelas.