Malcolmia maritima - Virginia Stock seeds

Malcolmia maritima, is a charming, floriferous annual plant which is easy to grow in the sun, in well-drained soils. It is low and bushy and quickly forms carpets and borders full of flowers, in a lovely range of mauve, pink, and violet-blue with small white touches. You can also use it in rockeries, on walls, or between paving stones. It can be sown directly in place in spring and flowers two to three months after sowing.

Malcolmia maritima belongs to the Brassicaceae family, and is a close relative of wallflowers. Native to Greece and Albania, it is naturalised in Mediterranean Europe. It is an herbaceous annual plant naturally found by the sea and in fallow lands, often on fairly poor soils. The plant forms a small, sprawling, branched tuft of leafy stems, not exceeding 30 cm (12in) in all directions. The vegetation is ash-green. The stems bear oblong, 3 to 5 cm (1 to 2in) long leaves with toothed edges. Flowering occurs from May to September, depending on the sowing date. The branched and upright floral stems bear small clusters of 4-petaled, 1 cm (0in) in diameter, slightly fragrant flowers, ranging in colour from violet-pink to mauve and white. After pollination, seeds are formed that will self-seed in the garden, in light soil.

Malcolmia maritima can be planted anywhere, like love-in-a-mist and poppies. In rockeries, borders, or flower beds, it combines well with many other garden flowers, especially ground cover roses, lilies, and rockroses, for example. It can also be combined with poppies, baby's breath, Heuchera 'Fire Rain', statice, and perennial peas to enhance the rustic spirit of a rockery or flower bed.