Colourful & FRAGRANT

Buy bare-rooted wallflowers now to be rewarded with a beautiful display in spring

- CHRIS MORLEY

Bundles of joy

Look for bare-rooted bedding wallflowers (Erysimum cheiri) at garden centres or online nurseries. Sold in bundles, they are much cheaper than pot-grown plants and will come into flower more quickly too.

Plant them as soon as you get them, but if that’s not possible, tuck them in a compost-filled pot or shallow trench and keep watered.

For impact, plant wallflowers in blocks or drifts of 15-20 plants, about 20-25cm apart. They like well-drained, moist soil, in full sun.

Once planted, they will establish good roots, ready to flower in March next year.

Scent of honey

Wallflowers have a delicious spicy, honey scent that attracts bumblebees and other pollinators emerging from hibernation in early spring. For the strongest perfume, choose biennial wallflowers (which grow from seed one year and flower the next), rather than perennials, such as the popular ‘Bowles’s Mauve’.