Cerastium biebersteinii
Mouse-ear chickweed, snow-in-summer, silver basket: these last two names perfectly describe the effect it creates in the garden. In spring, its carpet of silvery foliage literally disappears beneath a blanket of white flowers, like a flow of snow covering the rock garden. Its soft, downy leaves are what give it the name mouse-ear.
Characteristics:
-
Evergreen silvery foliage: downy and luminous, it remains decorative all year round, even outside the flowering period.
-
Spectacular flowering: a blanket of small star-shaped white flowers in spring and early summer.
-
Fast ground cover: this spreading perennial quickly extends and suppresses weeds.
Sowing advice:
-
Exposure: full sun preferably, or light partial shade — its foliage develops its most beautiful silvery glow in the sun.
-
Soil: poor, dry, sandy or stony, and must be well drained. Crucial point: its silvery felt-like foliage rots in wet soil, especially in winter. Never amend the soil and avoid overhead watering on the foliage.
-
Method: sow in spring, on the surface without covering: the very fine seeds need light to germinate. Simply firm them down and keep them slightly moist until emergence. Neither waterlogged conditions nor stratification is needed. See how to sow your seeds.
Care advice:
- Water very sparingly, only during the first year: it is then highly drought-resistant.
- Cut back after flowering to keep the carpet dense and compact, and divide the clump every 3 years to rejuvenate it.
Beneficial combinations:
Biodiversity benefits:
- Its abundant, early flowering provides a plentiful resource for small pollinators in spring.
- Its evergreen carpet offers shelter close to the ground for beneficial insects and protects the soil from erosion on banks.
Uses:
- Rock gardens, borders, banks, low walls and gravel gardens. Excellent for quickly covering a dry slope that is difficult to maintain — see our drought-resistant plants.
Harvesting your own seeds:
Leave a few faded flowers to form their small capsules, then harvest them once they are brown and dry, before they open. The seeds are tiny: work over a sheet of paper, sheltered from the wind. See how to store your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for all living things as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatment. Our belief: to restore gardeners' ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
Sales reserved for amateur gardeners seeking quality and authenticity.
