Helianthemum Ben Alder - Rock Rose

Helianthemum 'Ben Alder' is a variety of rockrose with abundant flowering in flamboyant tones and a very dense habit. Its small cup-shaped flowers, undulate and orange and marked with a large halo that turns redder at the throat, bloom for almost 5 months on small bright green foliage. This evergreen subshrub, hardy in well-drained soil, forms a beautiful persistent ground cover for very sunny areas of the garden, such as rockeries or the top of a wall. It is a good plant for a dry or mineral garden.

Belonging to the family of Cistaceae, Helianthemum 'Ben Alder' is one of the horticultural hybrids of the 'Ben' series, resulting from the cross-breeding of Helianthemum apenninum, native to southern Europe, and H. mummularium, widespread in Europe and Turkey. It was created in Scotland. Like its ancestors, 'Ben Alder' loves limestone, rocky, sandy soils and the sun. It forms a low, spreading and dense undershrub in a cushion 15 cm (6 in) high and 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16 in) wide. Its evergreen foliage is composed of very small linear leaves, fairly light green and slightly shiny, which highlights its abundant and bright orange and red flowering. From May-June to August-September, it is covered with a multitude of small flowers, 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter, flat cups with five petals, slightly crumpled, adorned with a cluster of golden to orange stamens.

Helianthemum means "flower of the sun" in Greek, an appropriate name for these flowers that only open in bright sunlight. The delicate little blooms do not last long, but constantly renew themselves, sometimes until autumn if the weather permits.

The rockrose is the ideal plant to enhance a rocky garden or sunny slope, to cascade over a wall, or brighten up paving. It thrives in pots or containers for terraces. It can also be considered for the creation of green walls and green roofs. Combine it with other rock plants (Erigeron, Gypsophila, Mount Olympus St. John's Wort), but also with perennial plants such as lavender, drought-tolerant iris, sedums, or perennial geranium macrorrhizum. Its flowers blend delicately with the grey foliage of stachys, dwarf artemisias, or ballota.