I love the wonderful heady perfume of Erysimum cheirii but they seem a bit difficult for a low-maintenance mediterranean garden. So I decided to try Erysimum linifolium Bowles Mauve in a very pretty lilac color. It’s a perennial (if supposedly short-lived – remains to be seen) evergreen shrub, flowering from March ito July and forming a nice round colorful bush in the spring garden. In the summer heat it dries down but grows back from the bottom. It may flower again in September-October – so far it hasn’t done so in my garden.
Strangely “Bowles Mauve” is supposed to be strongly scented – I have yet to notice any perfume at all.
Erysimum are native to North Africa, among other regions, and grow best in dry, well-draining, gravelly soil. They often grow naturally in loose-mortared walls, hence their English name of “wallflower”. They are host and food plants for a plethora of different insects, bees, flies, butterflies, moths, bug, beetles, grasshoppers… Erysimum Bowles Mauve is hardy to -12℃
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