Malcolmia maritima Spring Sparkle - Virginia Stock seeds

The Annual Stock 'Spring Sparkle', in Latin Malcolmia maritima, is a plant that charms with its old-fashioned appearance and its great ability to bloom. It thrives in the sun in any type of well-drained soil. This low and bushy plant quickly creates carpets and abundantly flowering borders, offering a seductive range of mauve, pale pink, darker pink, and lilac blue, around small white-green centres. Perfect for rockeries, walls, or gaps between paving stones, it can be sown directly outdoors in spring and starts flowering between two and three months after sowing.

Malcolmia maritima, also known as Cheiranthus maritimus, 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 annual herbaceous plant naturally found by the sea and in fallow lands, often on rather poor soils. 'Spring Sparkle' forms a small spreading, branching tuft, composed of leafy stems, and does not exceed 30 cm in all directions. The vegetation is ash-green. The stems bear oblong, 3 to 5 cm long leaves with serrated edges. Flowering occurs from May to September, depending on the sowing date. The branched and upright floral stems bear small clusters of 4-petaled florets, 1 cm in diameter, slightly fragrant. After pollination by insects, seeds form and self-sow in the garden, in light soil.

The Virginia stock 'Spring Sparkle' adapts easily, just like Love-in-a-Mist and Poppies. It finds its place in a rockery, border, or within a bed, and harmonises well with a variety of plants. It complements ground cover roses, lilies, and rockroses particularly well. To enhance the rustic atmosphere of a rockery or bed, it can also be combined with poppies, baby's breath, 'Fire Rain' heuchera, statice, and perennial peas, creating a rich and diverse floral composition.