Last Summer, I bought two Erysimum (Wallflower) plants in litre pots from the local garden centre. They were sale plants and looking rather ragged but took to their new home and have become healthy specimens.
One is called “Sunburst” and has a pale green and cream variegated leaf with yellow flowers :
and the other is called “Winter Sorbet”; it has dark green leaves and a beautiful flower that varies from deep purple through to orange. Both are perennials. Winter Sorbet has flowered most of the year and is covered in blooms ready for Spring. The Sunburst is slighly slower and just producing buds now.
There are other ways of buying wallflowers, and I expect a lot of us over the years have bought them from our local farm shop or the little hardware store down the road. They were always bare-rooted, 10 in a bunch tied with an elastic band. I bought several bundles a few months ago and have planted them in drifts around the garden. You can raise wallflowers by seed, sowing inside in early June, then pot them on into deep one-litre pots to store outside until the end of August when some earlier annuals have finished and there is space for them.
Usually grown as an annual or biennial they like full sun or light shade and should be planted in a well drained soil. Wallflowers do not perform well in higher temperatures much preferring cool, moist climates but once established in the garden, they are very durable and can withstand a certain amount of drought. In cold climates, be sure to mulch well in the winter. They even seem to survive the frost too. In mid-April pick or dead-head the plants regularly as your plants will quickly run to seed without a regular haircut.
The Wallflowers I bought from the hardware store have taken well and bushing out, so I am hoping they will produce some beautiful colours that I can photograph and post on the blog in a few months time.
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- Don’t overlook the wallflower in spring (independent.ie)
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