Lobularia maritima • Heirloom • AAS Winner

Royal Carpet grows into tiny clouds of flowers in hues ranging from white to deep purple.

Low-growing blanket of sweet-smelling, edible, purple flowers. A darling cover crop that attracts beneficial insects and endures through our hot Texas summers.

JOY MAX SCALE ✦✦✦✦✧

✦ Attracts tiny wasps and other beneficial insects.

✦ Basically a sweet smelling edible cloud of tiny lilac flowers that can be grown as a cover crop over any part of the garden

✦ Tender Perennial like rosemary. It will persist and re-seed unless killed by a hard freeze.

✦ Open-Pollinated

✧ It can take a while to germinate and the seeds are tiny so sometimes sowing outdoors, you feel like you’re spreading dust in the wind. Mixing with sand can help. Make sure if you are direct sowing outside you are close to the ground when you do it so the seed doesn’t blow off it in the wind.

Royal Carpet Alyssum

Tiny edible flowers attract pollinators and can fill up unloved corners of your garden

Basic Growing Information

Alyssum is not super cold hardy though it will come back after it’s been established. I include it in the cool season collection so you can get it going before the weather warms in spring. I’ve had a lot of luck direct sowing in late February. For best results though start indoors in early spring in seed flats indoors and transplant after the danger of frost has passed. Surface sow the tiny seed and keep lightly moist until germination, which is usually 15 to 20 days. When the seedlings have several pairs of true leaves and soil temperatures are at least 60° transplant them into a prepared garden bed. Or direct seed in the garden and keep moist until germination.

Lobularia maritima PLANT HEIGHT: 4-16” though when it's "tall" it lays on the ground PLANT WIDTH: 6-9” SEED SPACING: Scatter SEED DEPTH: Surface IDEAL TEMP: 65-80º Germination: 10-20 days DAYS TO MATURITY: 50-60 SOIL: Rich to average, well-drained LIGHT: Full Sun / Part shade. Open-pollinated.

Tips for Growing Alyssum

Sweet alyssum blooms best with at least six hours of full sun, but can tolerate partial shade. Royal Carpet does better in the shade than other varieties. In warmer climates, plants perform best with protection from hot afternoon sun.
Flowering may slow in August. Cut the plants back by 1/2 to encourage flowering again once night temperatures cool off.
Few flowers can match the heat and drought hardiness of sweet alyssum. The flowering plant has naturalized in the United States and thrives in a wide range of regions. It will reseed once established and come back year after year.
While alyssum is relatively maintenance free, it will do poorly on boggy sites and where inadequate moisture is provided.
Alyssum is a low-growing flower but it can get long and gangly if it’s never trimmed. Cut back after every flowering to keep it blooming and at its most cloud-like self.
You can use it as a cover crop: as the plants spread, they will create a living mulch under taller plants. use along edges, in the garden, or to fill nooks and crannies on walkways and walls. They are also great in hanging baskets and containers.

Seed Saving

My favorite way to spread alyssum seed is to wait until the plants flower and the lengths of mature plants wither and dry out. I cut all off the dry flowers and then use them as mulch in areas of the garden I want the alyssum to spread. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t but the mulch is gorgeous. If you do want to it to sprout anew, water the mulch every few days. Great for bare patches of the yard as it’s a lovely cover crop, even when not flowering.

Companion Planting

Peas, Lettuce, Spinach. In white or pastel shades, alyssum in the perfect little flower to tuck into the corners of beds, or you can grow it beneath tall vegetables or among herbs.

Royal Carpet Alyssum