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Cleome

Cleome hassleriana
Also known as: Spider Flower, Spider Plant

Cleome is a flower in the Cleomaceae family. It grows best in full sun with dry to medium moisture, and is listed for USDA zones 2-13. Plants reach maturity about 70–77 days after planting and sit about 12 inches apart.

Varieties

1 from True Leaf Market · sorted by days to maturity
  • Queen Mixture70–77 days

    Non-GMO; Container; Annual

    70-77 Days to maturity. Cleome hassleriana. Cleome Queen Mixture Seeds. Non-GMO, annual. Ornamental. Queen Mixture cleome seeds grow one of summer's most unique, exciting, and eye-catching blooms found in any garden this summer. Queen Mixture seeds promise enormous 4-6 inch "spidery" cleome blooms that are sure to look heavenly in your garden. It lives just one year, but it can easily reseed itself if the seeds fall on bare soil. About 3,300 seeds/oz.

    View on True Leaf Market
Family
Cleomaceae
Category
Flower
Form
Bush
Lifecycle
annual
Zone
2-13
Height
3–4 ft
Spread
1.5–2 ft
Sun
Full sun

Plant spacing

1 plant per square footSquare-foot planting diagram: one cleome fills a 1-foot square, spaced 12 inches from its neighbors.
1 plant per square foot

In a square-foot bed, space cleome about 12 in apart — that fits 1 plant in each 1-foot square (1×1). Wider rows or containers space the same.

Water
Dry to medium

Plan your cleome planting

Add cleome to a free GardenDraft plan and get sow, transplant, and harvest dates computed for your ZIP code — with a drag-and-drop bed layout and reminders when it’s time to plant.

Start your free plan →

At a glance

Days to harvest
70–77 days
From transplant or sow to first harvest
Harvest style
Harvest once
One main harvest
After harvest
Use within days
Quality eases off after peak
Frost tolerance
Tender · to ~32°F
Lowest temperature the foliage usually survives
Germination
~60%
Typical minimum germination rate

Growing timeline

When to plant and harvest cleomePlanting timeline for cleome, relative to last frost: start indoors from 7 weeks before last frost to 1 week after last frost; grow from 1 week after last frost to 11 weeks after last frost; harvest from 11 weeks after last frost to 12 weeks after last frost.Start indoorsGrowLast frostTransplant
Start cleome indoors ~8 weeks before transplanting 1 week after last frost; first harvest 11 weeks after last frost.
Seed to transplant
42-56 days
Outdoor planting
7 to 14 days vs frost
Propagation
Seed
Schedule anchor
Last Frost

Care & troubleshooting

No curated care & troubleshooting advice for cleome yet. Our extension-sourced library currently focuses on common edible crops; we're expanding it over time.