Helianthemum The Bride - Rock Rose

Helianthemum 'The Bride' is an excellent rockery plant forming a spreading subshrub, semi-evergreen, carpeting and compact, remarkable for its long and generous summer flowering, with single flowers in white with a gold centre. A resplendent floral avalanche, mixing gold with silver!

This hybrid The Bride is a low, spreading and dense subshrub, forming a cushion of thin, woody branches that spread on the ground. It measures 15 to 20 cm (6 to 8 in) tall with a spread of 30 cm. Its semi-evergreen foliage, composed of small linear, opposite leaves, of a beautiful silvery grey-green, highlights the abundant and luminous summer blooms of white and gold. From May to August, it is covered with a multitude of small flowers measuring 2.5 cm in diameter, cup-shaped, with five petals, white with a yellow centre, adorned with a bouquet of golden stamens. Belonging to the family of rockroses, Helianthemum resembles cistus in the shape of its flowers and its strong preference for sunlight. Helianthemum means "flower of the sun" in Greek, an appropriate name for these flowers that only open in the presence of strong sunlight. Its delicate little flowers only last a few days, but constantly renew themselves throughout the summer, and even into autumn.

Very easy to grow, The Bride or "La Mariée" Helianthemum appreciates well-drained soils, even rocky ones, and sunny and warm exposures. South-facing and scorching situations suit it very well, as it is not afraid of heat. This very floriferous and beautifully coloured dwarf shrub, used both as a rockery plant and ground cover, offers a wide range of uses. Helianthemum is the ideal plant to enhance a rocky garden, a sunny slope, cascading over a wall, or in paving. It will also be very effective at the forefront of perennial beds or raised flower beds. It is also well-suited for growing in pots or containers on terraces. It is perfect for the creation of green walls and vegetated roofs. It can be associated with many other rockery plants (Erigeron, Dianthus, Shrubby Wallflower), but also with perennials such as Lavender, German Iris, Cistus, Sneezeweed, Bindweed, Coreopsis, and Shrubby Sage.

This variety was awarded a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit in 1993, which corresponds to the gold medal of the plant world.