Wallflower Cloth of Gold Mini Plugs - Erysimum cheiri

Erysimum cheiri 'Cloth of Gold' is an ancient and excellent variety of wallflower that is making a comeback on our terraces and in our gardens. Its fragrant flowering, in long spikes loaded with large flowers of a bright yellow, covers it with a cloak of gold for three months, from the beginning of spring. This biennial or ephemeral perennial, with rapid and undemanding growth, will work wonders in sunny borders, rockeries or on a slope, in pots on the balcony or terrace, or even above or in the gaps of a dry stone wall. Not very hardy, it is very easy to grow in the sun, in well-drained soil, even poor and chalky.

Erysimum cheiri, also called Cheiranthus cheiri, has acquired over the centuries and in different regions various evocative vernacular names: it is sometimes called yellow wallflower, wallflower, vélar or yellow stock, because it displays yellow flowers with a strong clove scent, more intense in hot weather. It is a plant from the family Brassicaceae, native to southern Europe, well adapted to dry and chalky soils. This ephemeral half-hardy perennial, is most often grown as a biennial or annual in cool climates.

The variety 'Cloth of Gold', a great classic of English cottage gardens, is a variety of beautiful stature that will reach about 60cm (23.6in) in height when in bloom. It quickly forms upright clumps, in bushy domes, with woody bases, covered with small lanceolate leaves, sword-shaped, green, with a satin-like appearance. This foliage persists in winter. The flowering begins in March-April and lasts until the gates of summer. In mild climates, and provided it is pruned short at the end of the season, this plant will show itself to be perennial (short-lived) and will even bloom in winter. The 4-petalled flowers, shaded golden yellow with apricot, 3 to 4cm (1.6in) wide, are slightly fragrant, gathered in racemes at the top of leafy stems. They are very visited by pollinating insects who find in the depths of their corollas one of the first nectars of spring.

Appreciated in gardens for their ease of cultivation and propensity to self-seed in the most unlikely places, abandoned by all other plants, wallflowers and their cultivars are excellent rockery plants, which thrive even in somewhat poor soils, and above walls. These plants also work wonders in border beds, in the company of Damask Nigellas, California Poppies, evening primroses, perennial flax, or in a bed with taller plants like toadflax, mulleins, or Gauras, as undemanding as they are. The 'Cloth of Gold' wallflower can also be placed in a pot on the terrace, balcony, near an entrance, in order to fully enjoy its generous flowering. Don't forget to water your pots regularly and provide them with a fertilizer for flowering plants.

Note: Attention, our young plants in mini plugs are professional products reserved for experienced gardeners: upon receipt, transplant them as soon as possible, in pots, planters, or directly in beds.