| Description | Lavender Stream Alyssum (Lobularia) produces an abundance of colorful, honey-scented blossoms that attract butterflies and bees. This easy-to-grow plant is self-cleaning and thrives in the heat. Works as a spiller plant in window boxes, hanging baskets, and containers. |
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| Pronunciation | (lob-U-la-ri-ah)(ma-RIT-i-ma) |
| Plant Type | Annuals, Perennial Tender |
| Hardiness Zone | 9 |
| Sunlight | full, mostly sunny |
| Moisture | average, additional water during dry spells, avoid soggy situations |
| Soil & Site | average |
| Growing Media | average |
| Temperature | a cool season plant flowers best in the early spring and fall, can have mid-summer slumps, in Zone #5 hardened plants can be put into the garden end of April to early May |
| Flowers | small (1/5th of an inch), in clusters, honey scented, continually being produced |
| Fruit | flat round seedpods called a silicle (a dry pod-like fruit, a shortened (less elongated) version of a silique) also sometimes spelled as silicula or silicule), two yellowish to brown oval seeds |
| Leaves | small lanceolate to linear, green |
| Stems | very branched, matting, will cascade in pots |
| Roots | fiborus |
| Dimensions | spreading 12-14 inches, space 6-10 inches on center, low creeping growth form |
| Maintenance | giving the plants a hair cut, especially when they go into a summer slump, helps to maintain the plant |
| Propagation | Instead of sowing in a seed flat and transplanting up to a growing container, it is better to sow directly into the finale growing container. Seedlings and seeds are very small. Direct into biodegradable containers for best results. |
| Native Site | Mediterranean, Canary Islands and Azores |
| Author's Notes | Almost all Alyssum I have grown or have seen growing will go into a mid-summer slump. The foliage of plants growing in full hot sun may lighten. Flower production will slow to shut down. A light cut or shearing will encourage new growth, and the plants will regain their vigor when the weather cools. During the mid-summer slump, I will put my potted Alyssum in a shaded spot. |
| Notes & Reference | #271-Wisconsin Horticulture Extention (www.hort.extension.wisc.edu |
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