Lobularia maritima Sweet White - Sweet Alyssum

Lobularia maritima procumbens or Alyssum Sweet White, also known as Sweet Alyssum, is a beautifully scented variety with a spreading habit, forming dense cushions in a year. This hardy annual offers a delightful honey scent that hovers over blankets of delicate white flowers, completely masking the foliage. It is perfect for rockeries and flower pots. It is also a robust and sturdy plant, resistant to harsh weather conditions and sea spray, making it very useful in coastal areas and dry gardens. It thrives in sunny, well-drained soil, even poor and chalky soil.

Sweet Alyssum is an annual plant belonging to the family Brassicaceae, native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean region. This plant is widely cultivated in gardens and has given rise to numerous horticultural varieties. Alyssum Sweet White forms woody-based herbaceous clumps in the year following sowing, reaching a height of 15 cm (6in) and a width of 25 cm (10in). Initially resembling a weed, it then transforms into an imposing clump of branched stems, adorned with glaucous green, alternate, simple, and entire leaves, which are narrow (from lanceolate to linear) and somewhat villous. The flowering period extends from June to September, completely covering the plant with small white flowers that emit a delightful honey fragrance.

Underutilised in gardens, Sweet Alyssum thrives in well-drained soils. It is perfect for covering the tops of walls, the spaces between rocks in rockeries, and at the base of perennials and drought-tolerant shrubs such as rock roses, shrubby salvias, lavenders, or rosemary. They can also be planted along pathways in well-drained soil. Sweet Alyssum also performs well in containers and flower beds.