Gomphrena

Meet gomphrena, the flower that looks like a paper pom-pom. Round, papery heads about 3 to 4 cm long sit on slim stems above neat green leaves, in magenta, purple, pink, orange, lilac and white. What looks like a petal is really a stack of dry bracts, and that is why the colour holds for weeks and the heads dry well for a vase.

It is a tropical American annual, and it behaves like one. Wikipedia describes it as very heat-tolerant and fairly drought-resistant, and NC State calls it a mainly summer annual that tolerates heat and dry soil once established. That makes it the odd one out in a winter-flower batch: while petunias and stock are cleared in April, gomphrena is only just getting going.

The mood is cheerful and slightly old-fashioned, like a village garden in a hot summer. Put it in a row of pots, a bed edge or a cutting patch, and it earns its keep by being cut and dried rather than fussed over.

Gomphrena globosa is an annual of the amaranth family, Amaranthaceae. Wikipedia places its native range in Central America, including Panama and Guatemala, and NC State gives Central and South America, from Mexico to Brazil. It grows 15 to 60 cm tall, with round flower heads about 4 cm long. The showy part is the papery bracts: the true flowers are tiny. Wikipedia lists cultivars in magenta, purple, red, orange, white, pink and lilac, and notes that the dried flowers keep their shape and colour.

Both reference sources describe a plant for warm weather. Wikipedia calls it a tropical annual that flowers from summer into early autumn, very heat-tolerant, fairly drought-resistant, and best in full sun with regular moisture. NC State says it is drought-tolerant once established, heat-tolerant and dry-soil-tolerant, and mainly a summer annual, perennial only in warm regions. We found no Dubai source on exact planting dates and no report of it in Dubai Municipality's beds, so the windows below are our reading of a tropical annual in Dubai's calendar, from late winter to the first cool nights of autumn.

NC State lists a soil of moist, well-drained, fertile, acidic ground, tolerating clay, loam and sand, with no significant insect or disease problems; some cultivars can suffer grey mould, root and stem rot, powdery mildew and leaf spots, which matters in Dubai's humid late summer. Dubai's soil is sandy and alkaline, so add compost and watch for pale new leaves. Plantshop.me lists 'Globe Amaranths - Flowering - Outdoor Plants', and seed is on Amazon.ae, usually shipped from overseas.