Aubrieta Cascade Purple

Aubrieta 'Royal Blue' forms carpets of small flowers of a pretty mauve blue shade in spring . This beautiful perennial flowering plant is easy to grow in the sun, in well-drained soil. The rest of the year, its evergreen silver-green leaves will continue to enhance the garden. It is ideal in rock gardens, above walls or as groundcover, and forms a very attractive association with the Red Cascade variety, for example.

Hybrid aubrietas belong to the Brassicaceae family and are mostly derived from Aubrieta deltoidea, native to southeastern Europe and Turkey. They are plants with a compact and carpeting habit, forming cushions not exceeding 15 cm (6in) in height, which spread quite rapidly over a diameter of 60 cm (24in). Their semi-evergreen to evergreen leaves, depending on the climate, are slightly silver-green and oval-shaped. In summer, the foliage sometimes turns yellow, but will green up again with the first rain. The small leaves end in a point and have roughly serrated margins. In spring, between the end of March and the end of May, 'Royal Blue' is covered with numerous small four-petaled flowers, in beautiful shades of blue-mauve. These are very hardy plants, resistant to -20°C (1°F).

With its carpeting growth, aubrieta is ideally suited for border planting. Undemanding in terms of soil, as long as it is not too shallow, it also thrives in rock gardens or on flowering walls: it forms pretty clumps and beautiful streams of colour. It colonises the ground quite rapidly, which allows it to be planted on a sunny slope. Aubrietas are also fabulous between paving stones and in the gaps of walls.  They also work well in planters and hanging baskets, as their stems will cascade over the container to hide its edges. The 'Blue Cascade' variety pairs well with other aubrietas, as well as with other rock garden plants such as basket-of-gold, St. John's wort, or even Erigeron karvinskianus.