Nemophilas, commonly known as baby blue eyes flowers, are small annual plants adapted to cultivation in cool, shady places. It reseeds quite easily. Nemophila is 15 cm high, and the lobed leaves form a spreading tuft. The very bright, flared cup-shaped flowers range from bright blue to white. We advise you to plant nemophilas in a cool rockery in pots or at the edge of a bed in mid-shade.
In addition to the beauty of their flowers, nemophilas are fast-growing, easy to reseed, and attract no pests. The short-lived flowers are about 2cm in diameter and bloom from late spring to September.
Also, nemophila produces an incredible number of flowers, simple flowers with five rounded petals, blue, purple, or white, of which there are a few cultivars that are very successful. It develops by the production of low bushes, 30 cm max in height, with beautiful, decorative, and tight foliage, forming a real vegetal carpet when it is well planted.
Nemophilas are ideal ground covers for making borders, flowerbeds in rocky areas, in front of flower beds, or to form carpets under trees or shrubs in cool soil, or simply to decorate basins and flower pots that you can admire closely. They can be associated with corydalis, which also likes to be in semi-shade, or the sun.
As you read this, you can learn the following:
* Description
* Main Features
* Planting
* Care and Maintenance
Description
Nemophilas are cover plants not exceeding 25 cm high and 30 cm wide. You can plant them in a window box or in a tub to enjoy their superb flowering as closely as possible. However, they can make a perfect ground cover under shrubs or in a border in combination with other low plants such as alyssum, iberian, snapdragon, tagetes, but also can do well with some flowering meadows.
Nemophila means in Greek “plant that loves meadows” and in Latin “plant that likes woods.” Indeed, it appreciates sunny exposures but also prefers half-shade, which is not common with annuals.
However, it does not tolerate drought. A well-drained, light, and above all, fresh soil is necessary. Nemophilas are small plants native to the western United States and belongs to the hydrophylceae family, which includes 11 species of annual plants.
Several wild species thrive in forests or cold natural environments. For ornamentals gardens, some have been hybridized to take advantage of more abundant flowering and a more compact habit.
Additionally, there are two kinds of nemophilas. On the one hand, nemophila maculata is composed of small lobed leaves, forming a very spread out tuft. At the top of it, the stems are white flowers veined with purple running from the heart to the tips, with a bright purple spot on each of the five petals. Unlike the first kind, the flowers of nemophila menziesii are sky blue with a heart turning white. They are fascinating and intriguing, sumptuous, and original.
Main Features
Nemophila is a small annual growing cushions of 30 to 40 cm in diameter. It is covered with flowers from spring until the end of summer. These attractive flowers by their color open in flat corollas with five petals. They are white finely streaked with blue and covered with purple, or plain purplish blue with a white heart, or dark purple with a white border.
The nemophila flower grows both on the seashore and in semi-mountainous areas. Its vegetative cycle is annual. In the spring, it grows from seeds that were naturally sown in the fall and overwintered in the ground. In the garden, it can be left to resow in areas with mild winters. Otherwise, it must be resown every year.
Its growth is rapid, but it remains constant in its development and does not colonize space. The nemophila can, therefore, form borders of clumps in cold soil, or settle quickly in new rocky lands.
Pot cultivation is easy when you can water often or when you have placed an automatic watering system so that the water supply is regular in summer. The baby blue eyes flowers do not like to suffer from lack of water.
Planting
In the open ground, the nemophila grows in fresh, cold, well-drained rocky areas, the edge of the massifs in semi-shade, where the soil is acidic and remains cool in summer. It is planted in place or prepared under heated shelter early in the season. In pots and planters, it must have a container at least 30 cm in diameter or length to develop well.
In the ground, wait until the soil is warmed before planting in April-May. In pots, sowing can be done earlier, mid-March to mid-April, in warm, sunny conditions. Undercover, planting is done in March.
Prepare the soil by weeding finely. Sow sparsely so as not to have too much thinning to do afterward. The seeds are sown in 0.5 cm deep furrows. After locating the grooves, sprinkle with water and sow.
Cover the seeds with soil. Keep the dirt fresh by watering regularly during germination. The seeds can grow in 15 to 20 days. Then thin out to keep a vigorous plant every 20 to 25 cm.
Care and Maintenance
Water regularly when the weather is dry. Nemophilas prefer fresh soil, especially in summer. Pinch the young stems at the terminal part of the plant so that they branch out and give a more compact plant. At the end of the season, fold the plant down to the ground.
Cut off wilted flowers as you go, mainly in a pot to make a flowering and compact plantation. Do not forget to water the potted plant as the soil dries out faster than in the open ground. Under good growing conditions, the plant is not attacked by pests and does not suffer from diseases. The seeds are harvested in September. The plant can be resown on its own in the same place. Otherwise, keep the seeds dry for sowing the following spring.
If you plant this beautiful annual in a rockery, make sure that the ground remains fresh enough in summer, as most rockeries are dry environments that are not suitable for nemophila. On the balcony, also make sure to place the pot in semi-shade and water it very often in summer.
The baby blue eyes flower is a beautiful plant that grows from 15 cm to 25 cm high and 30 cm to 40 cm wide. Originally from California, it can do well in exposed balconies with automatic watering, as it hates drought. These fast-growing annuals thrive best in sunny or semi-shade, in moist, fresh soil, throughout the year, especially in summer, to support flowering. Their tender and fragile foliage mean that you should plant them in protected places, not too close to doors. Cats seem to particularly like to lie down on these plants.