Wallflower - Erysimum cheiri Charity Mix

These biennial wallflowers or Erysimum cheiri 'Charity Mix' will flower from this autumn, and again in spring. The flowers, highly fragrant, come in various colours ranging from cream to yellow, orange, red, and old pink depending on the plants. Compact in habit, 'Charity' wallflowers are perfect for border planting, rockeries, or potting on the terrace.

Erysimum cheiri, also known as Cheiranthus cheiri, has gained different evocative vernacular names over the centuries and regions: it is sometimes called yellow wallflower, ravenelle, vélar, or yellow violier because it displays yellow flowers with a powerful clove scent, more intense in hot weather. It belongs to the family of crucifers or Brassicaceae, native to southern Europe, well adapted to rather dry limestone soils. Through hybridization, it has given rise to hardier and more perennial varieties, including the 'Charity' series. It is a short-lived perennial plant, more often cultivated as a biennial.

'Charity' wallflower is a compact variety, reaching approximately 30cm (11.8in) in height when flowering. It quickly forms upright tufts, bushy domes, with woody bases, covered in lanceolate leaves, sword-shaped, green, with a satin appearance. This foliage persists more or less in winter, depending on the intensity of the cold. The flowering begins in April and continues until early summer. The flower buds open into 4-petalled flowers whose color evolves depending on the temperature and age of the flower. Plants in the 'Charity' series bear flowers in a range of warm and varied tones. Measuring 3cm (1.2in) wide, they are highly fragrant in hot weather and gathered in racemes at the top of leafy stems. This flowering is highly visited by pollinating insects, who find one of the first spring nectars at the bottom of the corollas.

Appreciated in gardens for their easy cultivation and their propensity to self-seed in the most unlikely places, often abandoned by other plants, the wallflower and its cultivars are excellent rockery plants, which thrive even in somewhat infertile soils, and above walls. These plants also work wonders as border plants, alongside snapdragons, Damask Nigellas, Californian Poppies, evening primroses, or perennial flax. In a border of taller plants, for example, associate them with toadflaxes, mulleins, or other Gauras, as undemanding as they are. You can also grow 'Charity' wallflowers in pots on the terrace, balcony, near an entrance, to fully enjoy their generous flowering. Don't forget to water your pots regularly and provide them with flowering plant fertilizer.

Note: Please be aware that our young plants in plug trays are professional products intended for experienced gardeners: upon receipt, transplant them as soon as possible, in pots, containers, or directly in borders.