Flower |
Foliage |
Form in Ground |
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Plant Name |
Aubrieta |
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Common Name |
Aubretia |
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Soil |
Chalk |
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Sun Aspect |
Full Sun |
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Soil Moisture |
Dry |
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Plant Type |
Evergreen Alpine Perennial |
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Height x Spread in inches (cms) |
2 x 24 (5 x 60) |
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Foliage |
Mid Green |
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Flower Colour in Month(s). Fruit |
Purple in April-May |
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Comment |
Mat-forming form. Pruning Group 16. Native UK plant. "I can guarantee that somewhere within the past few weeks your eye has been drawn to a curtain of purple, blue or pink tumbling down a wall or clinging to a sunny slope. It is aubrieta, a plant that used to be very popular on rockeries but, like them, has fallen from favour. It is a shame. Few flowers perform with such generosity, or are so good at attracting bees. Instead of aubrieta, we tend to rely on the winter pansy for our splash of early spring colour. But aubrieta will grow just as well in a container, and the best will flower for far longer than the pansy, up until the end of May. Botanists previously recorded 20 species but present thinking has reduced these to 12. Their four-petalled flowers tell us that they are crucifers or members of the brassica family. There are six European species and take their name from Claude Aubriet (1688-1743), a French botanical artist. All are found on limestone, but some appear on open scree, others in crevices while some crop up in coniferous woodland. The crevice formers are trickiest to grow at home. Pottertons Nursery (01472 851714; www.pottertons.co.uk) sells some of these alpine species, and some rare garden varieties too. 'Valerie’, newly collected from 'Denmark’, is a variegated cream and green with lilac flowers. Most named garden forms are seedlings probably raised from A. deltoidea, a species found in the Balkan Peninsula, the Aegean and south-west Europe. It varies naturally and includes lilac and red-flowered forms, with doubles also recorded in the wild. Alpine nurseries tended to grow and select their own seedlings. These varied naturally, and also hybridised where several species grew together. The name A. x cultorum covered these hybrids, though many aubrietas are not attributed to a species at all. Alan Bloom, who began his career raising alpine plants at Oakington near Cambridge, listed 39 varieties in his wholesale 1939 catalogue. At that time most of the major British nurseries were selecting and naming their own seedlings. Mr EJ Barker of Kelmscott near Ipswich is credited with raising the first doubles in the Thirties and his 'Barker’s Double’ was reputedly the first red-crimson. Although many of these varieties seem to have gone now, two listed by Blooms in 1939 are still available: 'Dr Mules’ AGM is a violet-blue and 'Gurgedyke’ an intense crimson-purple; there is now also a variegated form of 'Dr Mules’. Alan Bloom went on to produce his own Bressingham series between 1969 and 1984 with the help of Lawrence Flatman, his alpine specialist. 'Bressingham Pink’ (1969) and 'Bressingham Red’ (1984) are still available. Because taking cuttings tends to weaken stock plants, many aubrietas today are seed-raised. The Mead Nursery (01373 859990; www.themeadnursery.co.uk) in Wiltshire has a fine collection, although it does not do mail order. Nurserymen Stephen and Emma Lewis-Dale rate the double violet-blue 'Blue Beauty’, and the dark magenta-red 'Gloria’, for their vibrance. The subtler 'Bicolor’ has lavender and purple flowers that eventually fade to white so it shows all three colours at once; 'Greencourt Purple’ AGM is a trailing purple with frilly flowers. With so many varieties disappearing over the past 70 years, it’s a good thing that there is a collection at Leicester Botanic Garden. Ring 0116 271 2933 for more information.
Alan Bloom, who always had a succinct way of summing up a plant, records that aubrietas “have no liking for richness”, an attribute he also shared. Thin soil, preferably alkaline, in full sun, is their preferred diet. That said, aubrietas seem to flower happily on many garden soils. The technique to keep aubrietas going year after year is to shear them hard as they finish their display, so that they develop a new cushion of tight foliage. Cuttings can be taken, and ideally these need to have three inches of brown stem below the rosette of foliage. The technique is to tug them away with a heel rather than cut them. This can be done in September and October (when the cushion of foliage is dense), or in late summer. A cold frame is ideal as it keeps the root cool. Sow seeds in spring." from The Telegraph of 21 April 2011. Further details from how to grow it and 6 cultivars are available from the Alpine and Grass Nursery. Aubretia mixed colours Red or Purple is available from Nikau Hill Nursery and Water Gardens in New Zealand. |
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Companion Plants |
"Because all aubrietas – naturally suited to cold, high-altitude climates – tend to look ragged in hot summer months, find a partner that follows on afterwards. Possibilities include Dianthus alpinus, Geranium cinereum 'Ballerina’, or 'Lawrence Flatman’. Rock roses (Helianthemum nummularium) also fit in well and these sprawling plants also like lime." from The Telegraph of 21 April 2011. |
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Flower |
Foliage |
Form Trailing over Wall |
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ODDS AND SODS GALLERY PAGES Introduction FOLIAGE COLOUR SHAPE SEED COLOUR BED PICTURES OTHER FLOWER PICTURES |
Odds and Sods Height from Text Border for Odds and Sods Gallery |
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Blue = |
Green= |
Red = |
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Odds and Sods Soil Moisture from Text Background |
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Wet Soil |
Moist Soil |
Dry Soil |
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Click on plant name in the text box below that photo to change the comparison page to that Plant Description Page. |
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"Simona and Feruccio" by Madeleine F. Williamson Pires. Can Simona and Feruccio (the flowers) with |
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Plant Type in the following table is:-
followed by:-
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ODDS AND SODS INDEX |
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Odds and Sods Name. |
Flower Colour |
Flowering Months |
Height x Spread in inches (cms) |
Foliage Colour |
Plant Type |
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A |
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Violet with Yellow (may be pink, violet/lavender, dark purple/black, or white/near white) florets |
June, July |
10 x 18 |
Mid-Green |
P H |
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Purple |
April, May |
2 x 24 |
Mid Green |
P E |
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B |
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Bright White, yellow, pink or red |
June, July, August, September, October |
48 x 12 |
Grey-Green |
An H |
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C |
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Chrysan-themum 'Pennine Digger' and others |
Golden Yellow |
October |
48 x 30 |
Dark Green |
P H |
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White |
May, June |
5 x 12 |
Mid-Green |
P H |
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D |
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Pale to Deep Rose-Pink |
June |
6 x 72 |
Dark Green above, Grey-Green below |
Sh E |
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E |
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Greenish-Yellow |
April, May, June |
4 x 12 |
Blue-Grey |
P E |
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F |
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White |
June |
6 x 6 |
Bright Green |
P H |
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G |
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White-throated Sky-Blue |
April, May, June, July |
1 x 4 |
Dark Green |
P E |
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H |
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Yellow ray-florets with Brown disc florets |
August, September |
180 x 24 |
Mid to Dark Green |
An |
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I |
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White, lavender, purple, pink, or crimson |
May, June |
8 x 10 |
Mid Green |
An |
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Scented Purple, Rose-Pink or White |
July, August, September |
54 x 36 |
Light Green |
An |
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J |
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K |
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L |
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White to light Purple |
May, June, July |
36 x 12 |
Light to Mid Green |
An |
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Bright Golden Yellow |
July, August |
24 x 12 |
Mid Green |
An |
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M |
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Morus nigra |
Pale Green |
May, June |
480 x 600 |
Mid Green |
To D |
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N |
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Greenish-Yellow |
July, August, September |
60 x 12 |
Dark Green |
An |
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Red, White, Rose-Pink or Purple |
July, August, September |
18 x 12 |
Dark Green |
An |
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Domino Series cultivars have upward-facing flowers in Red, White, Crimson-Pink, Lime-green, Pink with White-eyes, Purple, Purple with White eyes, Salmon-Pink, or White with Rose-Pink margins |
July, August, September |
18 x 12 |
Dark Green |
An |
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Starship Series cultivars have good all-weather tolerance with flowers in Red, White, Rose-Pink, Lime-green or Pink |
July, August, September |
18 x 12 |
Dark Green |
An |
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O |
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P |
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Q |
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R |
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S |
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White |
July |
6 x 12 |
Inch long, dark Green, club-shaped leaves with silvery undersides |
Su E |
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TUVWXYZ |
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Site design and content copyright ©January 2007. Page structure amended January 2013. Feet changed to inches (cms) July 2015. Chris Garnons-Williams. |
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