Rosie O'Day Sweet Alyssum Seeds (Lobularia maritima)

Lobularia maritima “Rosie O'Day”

Sweet alyssum, seaside alyssum, maritime lobularia, sweet alyssum: this small ground-covering plant gives off such a pronounced honey fragrance that it is often detected by scent before it is seen. The “Rosie O'Day” selection offers a bright pink, slightly purplish version that is more luminous than the classic white.

Characteristics:

• Honey fragrance: its sweet, delicate scent fills borders and windowsills.
• Compact habit: a dense carpet 10 to 15 cm tall, ideal for borders, rock gardens, or pots.
• Very floriferous: it is literally covered with flowers for months.

Sowing advice:

• Exposure: sunny, essential for abundant flowering.
• Soil: light, poor to average, and above all well drained — this is a plant of shores and sandy soils. It tolerates dry conditions and limestone, but dislikes stagnant moisture. No fertilization is necessary.
• Method: sow directly in place in spring, or under cover from February onward. No stratification: germination is rapid, in 8 to 15 days at 15-20 °C. Barely cover the seeds. See how to sow your seeds.

Care advice:

• Water moderately. Trim back lightly after the first flush of flowers to encourage a second.

Beneficial combinations:

• It is an excellent companion plant for the vegetable garden: sown at the base of lettuce, radishes, or cabbages, it attracts hoverflies whose larvae devour aphids. It also pairs well with dwarf nasturtium. See our vegetable garden companion plant combinations.

Benefits for biodiversity:

• Its tiny clustered flowers are particularly accessible to small short-tongued pollinators: hoverflies, micro-wasps, and solitary bees, which are often overlooked by larger flowers.
• Its very long flowering period makes it a reliable resource throughout almost the entire season, a real asset for beneficial garden insects.

Uses:

• Borders, rock gardens, windowsills, balconies, pots, and decorative ground cover. Perfect for sensory gardens thanks to its fragrance.

Symbolism:
Sweet alyssum has historically been associated with gentleness and peace. Its soothing fragrance made it a favorite in old monastic gardens.

Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave a few flower stalks to form their small round siliques, then harvest them once they are brown and dry, before they open. Sweet alyssum sometimes self-seeds from one year to the next. See how to save your seeds.

Our Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Volcanoes of Auvergne, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our belief: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.

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