Erysimum Winter Passion

Description

Erysimum ‘Winter Passion’ – perennial wallflower

Botanical name: Erysimum ‘Winter Passion’
Common names: Perennial wallflower
Family: Brassicaceae (cabbage family)
Plant type: Evergreen perennial or sub-shrub
Habit: Bushy, mound-forming
Pot size: 2–3 litre pot
Eventual size: Approx. 40–50cm tall × 45cm spread
Foliage: Narrow, grey-green leaves forming a compact evergreen mound
Flowers: Spikes of flowers in blended pink and purple shades, freely produced from late winter and early spring through to autumn (February–October)
Scent: Flowers lightly to sweetly scented
Aspect / light: Full sun
Soil: Sharply drained; poor to average; tolerates lime; dislikes wet; any pH
Hardiness: RHS H5 (hardy, to about −15°C); naturally short-lived; USDA zones 6–9
Exposure: Open, sunny; drought-tolerant; good coastal
Native range: Garden form; wallflowers are native to Europe and the Mediterranean
Toxicity / pet & child safety: Generally considered non-toxic to people and pets

Erysimum ‘Winter Passion’ is a compact perennial wallflower flowering in blended pink and purple shades from late winter through to autumn. Exceptionally long-flowering and superb early nectar for bees.

GardenAdvice notes

One of the hardest-working plants in the garden, the perennial wallflower flowers for an extraordinarily long season — often from early spring right through to autumn, and in mild spells even in winter — carrying its lightly scented, four-petalled flowers above evergreen, grey-green foliage. Easy and drought-tolerant, thriving on poor, sunny, sharply drained soils, it is a superb, near-continuous source of nectar for bees and butterflies.

Growing & planting

Plant in spring in sharply drained, poor to average soil in full sun — it thrives on dry, even limy soils and dislikes rich, wet, heavy ground, which shortens its already modest life. Ideal for gravel, sunny borders, walls, coastal gardens and containers. Improve heavy soil with grit. Space about 45cm apart.

Care & maintenance

Low-maintenance. Deadhead through the season to keep it flowering. Trim it lightly after the main flush to keep it compact and bushy, but avoid cutting hard back into the old, bare wood, from which it will not reshoot. It is naturally short-lived, usually three or four years, so take cuttings every year or two to keep a supply of young plants.

Propagation

• Cuttings: Take semi-ripe cuttings in summer, which root easily — well worth doing every year, as plants are short-lived.

Pests & diseases

Generally trouble-free in a sunny, well-drained spot. Its main enemy is wet, heavy soil. It is naturally short-lived and goes woody with age; club root and downy mildew occasionally occur, as with other brassicas.

Uses in the garden

Superb in sunny, gravel and coastal borders, on walls and banks, in containers and as informal edging, where its extraordinarily long flowering season brings colour for most of the year and feeds pollinators.

Wildlife value

One of the very best plants for pollinators, precisely because of its exceptionally long season: its nectar-rich flowers feed bees and butterflies from early spring to late autumn, when little else is available.

Toxicity & safety

Perennial wallflower is generally regarded as non-toxic to people and pets.

GardenAdvice tip

‘Winter Passion’ is one of the earliest wallflowers to start, often opening in late winter and carrying on for most of the year — genuinely valuable, as those early flowers feed bees emerging on mild days when almost nothing else is in bloom. Give it full sun and sharp drainage, trim lightly after the main flush (never into bare old wood), and take cuttings, as wallflowers are short-lived.

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