Tall varieties need no-nonsense support. This useful plant serves as excellent filler material. Tiny white or pink flowers and wispy stems are rarely the stars of summer nosegays, but they make all the other flowers sparkle. Annual baby's breath grows easily from seed in well-drained soil. Standard cosmos can reach five feet by summer's end, but their long stems are much better for cutting than the dwarf varieties.
Delicate petals shimmer in shades of pink, pure white, magenta and jewel-tone maroon.
Plant solid colors or mix them up. Nothing consorts with a vaseful of summer colors like 'Victoria' salvia. Gentle blue spikes are not bold in an arrangement, but in its presence gold makes peace with pink, and red behaves better with everything else. Stems are sturdy and prolific. From tiny bulbs come nodding spikes of crimson, though only one or two per season.