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Wonderland alyssum can even handle environmental salt

July 8, 2020

While rowing with three young girls, Lewis Carroll entertained his companions with a nonsense tale of one of the girls falling into a rabbit hole. Like children who always want to hear the very same fairy tale over and over again, the children asked for this tale so often that he wrote it down, and his book, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” has never gone out of print.

There is a wonderland beneath you in the garden, the low-growing Wonderland alyssum (Lobularia maritima). White alyssum is what we see most often, but Wonderland comes in 10 colors including purples, pastel pink and citron.

This very compact form of sweet alyssum only grows four inches high with a spread of about 10 inches. The minute, sweetly scented, four-petaled flowers sprout in profusion. Fittingly, sweet alyssums are also called sweet Alice. These are actually very hardy annuals that will self-sow heavily.

Pick a spot in your garden for Wonderland alyssum where it will get full sun or light shade. Poor soil actually is better than too-rich soil, because rich soil can lead to lots of leaves and fewer flowers. The darkest colors will hold up best in light shade. Wonderland sweet alyssums do well in almost any soil pH, although blue shades show the best color in soil with a lower pH.

These sweet blossoms attract pollinators by the swarm to your garden, including bees and butterflies. They make excellent ground covers for taller plants or help fill containers. Best of all, Wonderland alyssum is fast-growing, often blooming just six weeks after planting.

Sow Wonderland alyssum seeds directly in the garden as soon as daytime temperatures stay above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Scatter the small seeds on top of the soil surface and press them in, but don’t cover them with soil, because they need light to sprout. Your Wonderland alyssum seeds will germinate in five to 14 days.

Once they are a few weeks old, thin the plants so they are at least six inches apart. Keep the soil evenly damp, but not soggy. After your Wonderland alyssum has bloomed for the first time, cut the plants back by one-half. This encourages them to grow side shoots and produce even more flowers. Sometimes during the hottest months, sweet alyssum will stop blooming. Not to worry; they will quickly recover and begin blooming as the weather cools.

Wonderland alyssum is great for low borders, or mixed in with coreopsis, black-eyed susans and other wildflowers. This dense herbaceous annual has a trailing growth habit, so it makes an ideal plant for hanging baskets and pots. With its very fine, delicate texture you can tuck Wonderland alyssum into any flower bed.

Thankfully, this is one flower that deer and rabbits tend to leave alone. Wonderland alyssum can even handle environmental salt, urban pollution and general neglect. If you grow this outdoors in pots, you will need to water more frequently than you would if planted into the garden.

Because hat makers were exposed to poisonous chemicals, they sometimes went insane, hence the Mad Hatter in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Sweet alyssum was used to treat bites from rabid animals, and the name alyssum comes from the Greek “without madness.” As the White Rabbit warns, you do not want to be late for a very important date, so plant Wonderland alyssum even late in the season.

  • Paul Barbano writes about gardening from his home in Rehoboth Beach. Contact him by writing to P. O. Box 213, Lewes, DE 19958.

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