Lobularia maritima Carpet Of Snow - Sweet Alyssum seeds - Sweet Alyssum

Lobularia maritima procumbens or Alyssum 'Carpet Of Snow', also known as Sweet Alyssum, is a hardy, flowering annual plant that tirelessly produces white and fragrant flowers above small, very low and dense cushions. This 'Carpet Of Snow' has a very interesting spreading habit in rockeries or in the gaps of walls and retaining walls. Despite its delicate appearance, this plant is robust and resistant to bad weather, making it very useful in coastal areas and dry gardens.

Sweet Alyssum is an annual plant belonging to the Brassicaceae family, native to southern Europe and the Mediterranean region. This plant is widely cultivated in gardens and has given rise to many horticultural varieties. Alyssum 'Carpet Of Snow', forms woody-based herbaceous clumps in the year following its sowing, not exceeding 10 cm (4in) in height and 25 cm (10in) in width. Resembling a weed at first, it then transforms into a clump of branched stems, adorned with glaucous green, alternate, simple and entire leaves, narrow (from lanceolate to linear), and quite hairy. The flowering, early for this variety, extends from May to September, without interruption, completely covering the plant with tiny, fragrant white flowers that smell deliciously of honey.

Underused in gardens, Sweet Alyssums thrive in well-drained soils. They are perfect plants for covering the top of walls, the spaces between rocks in rockeries at the base of perennials and drought-tolerant shrubs such as rockroses, shrubby salvias, lavenders, or rosemary. They can also be planted along the edge of a pathway, in well-drained soil. Planted vertically, in pockets created between wall stones, sweet alyssums form white cascades that blend well with garden irises in their simplest forms, and wall bellflowers (Campanula portenschlagiana). They also perform very well in pots and containers.