Helianthemum Cerise Queen - Rock Rose

Helianthemum Cerise Queen is a lovely shrub variety of rockrose with double red flowers and green foliage. This subshrub forms a small, very flowery cascade from spring to summer, even in poor, rocky soil. Frost-resistant and water-efficient, it thrives in sunny areas of the garden, such as rockeries or the top of a wall.

Belonging to the Cistaceae family, Helianthemum 'Cerise Queen' is one of the many hybrids between the Helianthemum apenninum, native to southern Europe, and the Helianthemum nummularium, widespread in Europe and Turkey. Like its ancestors, 'Cerise Queen' loves limestone, rocky, sandy soils and the sun. It forms a low, spreading and dense subshrub in a cushion shape about 25 cm (10 in) high and 40 cm (16 in) wide. Its evergreen foliage is composed of very small linear leaves, a fairly dark green, slightly glossy, which showcases its abundant flowering. From May-June to August, it is covered with a multitude of small flowers, 3-4 cm (1.6 in) in diameter, in well-double cups, with a crumpled appearance, adorned with a cluster of golden to orange stamens. The petal colour is a fairly pure red, fading slightly over time.

Helianthemum means "flower of the sun" in Greek, an appropriate name for these flowers that only open in strong sunlight. Its delicate little flowers only live for one day, but constantly renew themselves, sometimes until autumn if the weather allows it.

Rockrose is the ideal plant for enhancing a rocky garden, a sunny slope, the top of a wall, or gaps in 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 rockery plants (Erigeron, Gypsophila, Mount Olympus St John's Wort, Teucrium, silver baskets), but also with perennial plants like lavenders, rosemary, dryland irises, sedums or of course cistuses. Its flowers blend delicately with the grey foliage of stachys, artemisias or ballotes.