Gypsophilia (babys breath) shriveling up and dying on me

I have a houseplant of baby's breath, bought from a trusted farmer's market. It gets the partial to full sun that it needs and is not over or under watered (I don't think). At first it was doing so amazingly well and now it appears to be on its last days. Help! I don't know what could be the problem

Can you tell us a little more about where you have the plant, how often you're watering, etc? A picture of the plant would really help too. IMy guess is something in its conditions isn't right, either it's got the wrong amount of light or the wrong amount of water, or something else like air conditioning blowing right on it, etc that makes it unhappy. I'm also not sure if they really do well as houseplants or not, I think it might be happier outside.

Hi Sajwani, I agree with Ecrane above, this is a perennial small shrub like plant and outdoors in the garden, they can grow into huge spread out plants, they are wonderful to add to a vese as a filler with other plants as it helps to hide any bare stems, they also have a long tap root system and not sure if you are doing it any favours by growing iit in a pot in the house, as I would imagine inside, it will be too dry an atmophere and wont get the amount of soil around it's roots to sustain the root system, but if you dont have access to a garden, then you need to get the largest pot you can and fill it with a good rich compost and add some plant feed to this so it can get all the neutrients it requires to flower its head off as that is what they do in the garden. If you do change the conditions that you have it in, then I dont think it will do a lot of growing now/this year, mine is already huge and even wider than tall, but nexy year, you should see better results. good luck, hope this helps you out a bit. WeeNel.

Some baby's breath are annuals too, if you can post a pic someone might be able to tell you if you have the annual kind or the perennial kind.

I will post a pic tmr. I know they arent usually houseplants but that is what the guy told me I could keep it as one.

picture one

picture two

picture three and btw this is the pot it came in, I just bought the drip pan for it. last week the plant was doing wonderfully and now it is droopy and shriveling up...

Did it start doing poorly shortly after you got the drip pan for it? The way the plant looks tells me it's a watering issue, maybe something else on top of that too but definitely looks to me like either too much or too little water (the symptoms are similar). If you have the drip pan under it and you're watering the plant until water goes into the drip pan and then you leave it sitting there in the water, then you're definitely overwatering it. If there's water in the drip pan you need to dump it out so the plant's not sitting in it. It's still very possible to overwater even without the drip pan, so even if it was doing poorly before that it could still be overwatering--can you give us some info on how often you've been watering it?

I was watering it at first only when the soil got dry but as I looked more into the plant I now water it to keep it continually moist. No water ever seems to appear in the drip pan. Perhaps I am underwatering it? Is there any salvaging?

info from website that produced seed http://www.provenwinners.com/plants/detail.cfm?photoID=5885&doSearch=1&searchGenus=&searchSeries=&searchKeywords=baby%27s+breath&searchDuration=Perennial&searchZone=&searchLightCodeType=&searchWaterCategory=&searchMaintenanceLevel=&searchUseCategory=&searchHeightCategory=&searchMinHeight=&searchMaxHeight=&searchHabit=&searchPlantingType=&searchFlower=&searchFoliage=&btnSearch=Searching...&

If you're watering it to keep it continually moist that is probably too much, generally you should feel down in the soil an inch or two, if it still feels wet down there then you should wait to water, but if it's starting to dry out then you should water. The top of the soil will often look dry but if you feel down a little way it's still plenty wet, and if you add more water at that point then the plant will be unhappy. If it is being underwatered (which you'll know when you stick your finger down in there), then the best thing to do is give it a good drink, then check it every day with your finger until you start to get a feel for how often it needs water. If it's being overwatered, then the best thing to do is repot it in some fresh potting mix, this will help minimize any fungus that's growing in the roots and give it the best chance to recover. After you repot, you can also water with some dilute hydrogen peroxide or chamomile tea, those will supposedly help kill fungus too.

The label is telling you it is a perennial, so cant see it enjoying being sat at a sunny window where the strong sun and heat will be dehydrating the foliage so fast that you think it needs more water, when a plant dehydrates from the leaves, it shuts the water searching roots down as it cant take the water up because the leaves are wilting, move it away from the window, give it plenty light but not direct sun, hope you can put it outdoors for the rest of the summer to geve it air, cooler evenings and more natural conditions than it is geting at the moment, Good luck, WeeNel.

I live in an apartment without a garden or any kind of courtyard access so unfortunately i cannot take it outside. i will just be a lot more careful about the kind of plants I buy for the apartment though. any recommendations of pretty plants/flowers and perhaps fragrant that enjoy a sunny windowsill and can tolerate a beginner gardener?

Hi sajwani, there are lots of plants that can be grown indoors, but few can tolerate being kept on a sunny windowsill unless you go for Cacti, these mostly like a hot sunny spot as they are mostly desert growing plants, they do flower depending on the choice you make, but few will give you the perfume. If you want to try indoor gardening, could you pos buy/build a shelf unit to place in your room away from the window and such powerful heat from the direct sun, then you could grow a wider range of plants from lily's, Hibiscus, Hyacinths/bulbs,
Jasmines,and lots more, but you would need to make a table, shelf unit etc to keep them in sunlight but NOT on the sunny hot window. good luck, hope this gives you some ideas, WeeNel.