Trifolium rubens Peachy Pink

Trifolium rubens 'Peachy Pink', also known as Red Clover or Red Trefoil, is a beautiful variety with abundant peach-pink flowers, blooming regularly during the summer season! It is a small bushy perennial with a lovely clump of typical trifoliate leaves, bluish-green in colour. Its flowers are quite unique, forming dense, elongated, fluffy and nectar-rich globular spikes. Hardy, it thrives in a sunny location with any fresh, rich and well-drained soil.

The Ruddy Clover belongs to the large family of Fabaceae and the genus Trifolium, which includes nearly 200 species found on all continents, except Australia. It is a hardy perennial native and widespread in southern and central Europe and Armenia, growing on hillsides and in woods, mostly on limestone or clay soil. This perennial forms an upright and dense clump, reaching a height of 20 to 60 cm (8 to 24in) and spreading over time through its rooting stems at the nodes. The cultivar 'Peachy Pink' or 'Peach Pink' reaches 40 cm (16in) in all directions. Its spectacular flowering occurs from May to August depending on the climate. The upright reddish-purple flowers are grouped in large oblong-cylindrical heads, measuring about 5 cm (2in) in height. Solitary or paired, these heads are at the end of leafy flower stalks that extend well above the foliage. The flowers open from the bottom to the top of the spike, creating a beautiful gradient of red to pink shades. The leaves are divided into 3 entire, narrow, strongly veined leaflets with dentate margins, bluish-green in colour. The fruit, a pod, contains seeds that easily self-sow in light soil.

Trifolium rubens is a very easy-to-grow perennial plant in our climates, versatile and low-maintenance. Its natural charm works wonders in borders and rustic flower beds, and proves very useful for embellishing a rock garden or the top of a wall, accentuating a pathway, or covering a slightly neglected slope, for example in the company of  Pennisetum villosum and the adorable Allium sphaerocephalon or within a very natural flower bed, associated with Grasses, Sages, Foxgloves. However, care should be taken not to associate it with small fragile or weak perennials, such as certain alpine plants that it would choke. It is valuable for bees and contributes to enriching the soil in which it is planted.