PlantFiles: Sweet Alyssum, Sweet Alison, Seaside Lobularia
Lobularia maritima

A lovely and useful plant. It works well at the front of a bed to replace bulbs or other spring plants that go dormant. It's very easy to start from seed - you can direct sow or sow in flats, then transplant in. In hot weather it gets rangy and messy looking and does not bloom well. But as soon as the weather cools off in late summer it looks wonderful. The plant becomes more compact and blooms profusely. Fragrance is intense and honey-like - almost too sweet. It holds up extremely well in cold weather - probably the last thing blooming in my garden. It blooms about 45-60 days from seed, and here bloomed from June/July (depending on seeding time) into November.

I've got this growing in a small but long border along with English daisies and it's so pretty. It loves to lay against the rock ledger pillars and spill out onto the sidewalk.

Alyssum made a great container plant and bed plant. The sweet scent is powerful from such a tiny little flower. I kept them moist but not soaked, and they did just fine in full sun. One of my favorite plants.

This humble little plant is a must-have in my garden because of its lovely honey scent and delightful look as as edging or container plant. The white version is much more vigorous (and stronger smelling) than the other colors I've tried. It usually reseeds, but an especially wet winter or spring sometimes prevents that. Here in my cool-summer area, it blooms from spring to late fall. Alyssum benefits from having its spent blossoms sheared back (it springs back quickly with fresh blooms), from receiving a moderate amount of water (not too much), and from having any straggly-looking bits trimmed off every once in a while. Just a tiny bit of care ensures fresh, billowing blossoms for months. The scent is wonderful and really enhances our time in the garden.

I added this in all my flowerbeds in 2005 it has made weeding quite a pleasurable thing, with its great fragrance it is sure to be added from now on. It is also in most of the pots to add a small airy touch of white.

When I first read kaperc's post, my initial reaction was that I agree totally with the comment about the smell. Then it dawned on me that kaperc and I were thinking about a completely different plant from what this thread is referring to. My neighbor planted some alyssum and it has spread over into my year. I don't care for the smell of it either. Lobularia maritima - with the commom name of Sweet Alyssum, it is easy to get confused. I have never seen or smelled Lobularia maritima but from the comments here, it must have a very different fragrance from the regular alyssum. I will also add my warning about fragrances - I have purchased plants from catalogs that touts the sweet fragance of a plant and then find out that the smell is actually quite awful.

I grow this plant for the scent more than for any other reason. It is sweet, like honey and heavenly. As I weed and do chores, I often have a sprig of it to sniff. The little blooms are very pretty too, but, ah, love that smell!

Scent is one of favorite elements in our gardens, sweet jasmine, lilac, clevelandii and allysum. We treasure the wave of this honey scent and have it in almost every section of the yard. It doesn't do well in one the driest areas, I am constantly replanting there with new plants or starys that pop up from other areas. It does transplant fairly well.

Go figure...to me, this plant has the most horrible smell in the world and gives me intense headaches. It's planted profusely here by developers as sidewalk landscaping (and they spray it on slopes for erosion control), so much so that I was forced into the street for walks when I lived in a dense area.

I've met not a few others who have the same reaction, so if you haven't smelled it first, I would be careful about planting it where you spend a lot of time!

Sweet alyssum is not the showiest plant in the world (pretty airy flowers though.....) and the flowers are small born sort of sparsely on the plant....... the plant is also low growing so you need to put it in a pot or onthe border or in a rock garden or on slope/hill to appreciate it...... but it IS worth growing for SMELL ALONE..... or FRAGRANCE that is....... the SMELL IS DIVINE...... like FRESH WARMED HONEY...... exactly orange blossom oro wildflower honey or something...... blooms best in cool weather...... plant it in a pot where you can enjoy its fragrance (by bending down) or put it near a door (or window......) :) ....... I have mine planted in strawberry containers spilling out of the side....... it is also useful for a spilling effect but is grown primarily for fragrance...... The white is most fragrant but all varieties are fragrant....... Easy and reseeds...... :)

I started this plant from seed this year and it has pretty much taken over my garden. I have had to cut it back because it is crowding out my pansies. I have also found that it has already self seeded itself and new plants are coming up, all in the same season! The plant does have a nice smell though and attracts all kinds of bees and butterflys.

I think that I am going to let it grow again next year, but keep ontop of cutting it back so it does not get to the state it is in this year. I also had success with the purple variety, but the white is definitely the more successful of the two.

I bought some of the rose pink variety as bedding plants and they did very poorly. They either died or just refused to grow and look the same way they did when I put them in the ground, except for one which has some new growth. I think that you are way better off starting this directly from seed, as the ones I started were the most successful in my garden.

this plant thrives in San Diego, I planted it from flats and it has spread to fill in around my stone walkway. It is invasive, I've found it popping up all over my yard in places I didn't plant it, but love it so much I don't mind. I hope it spreads to fill in between all my plants. I've noticed it grows in both sun and part shade, but only blooms and gets really fluffy if it gets a lot of sun.

I grew these at the edge of the rocks and loved the way they spilled over, but stayed very full-looking.

I read they're a cool-season annual, but mine are thriving in our Georgia summer. Beautiful fill-ins in front of larger plants.

A wonderful little annual that I help self-seed all over my garden! It just fills in all those little empty spots between plants. The white variety is what thrives for me--can't get the pink or purple ones to do much.

I agree wuth all the above, except that I have no need to plant it annually - it reseeds itself and grows luxuriantly here in my Los Angeles home.

But I sat watching a pocket gopher come out of his hole repeatedly, to pluck a few flowers and take them into his hole. Not certain if for lunch or as a "room deoderant". That may be a negative for some, but I found it fun. (The gopher did no harm to any part of my lawn or garden.)

I plant this every winter. The smell is heavenly! To me, it smells alot like honey. It attracts honey bees and butterflies. It makes an excellent groundcover!

I plant it one year and get twice as many plants the following year, just from volunteers. Love the smell.

An excellent plant for rock gardens....plant a lot and you can smell it 30ft away...my favorite.