Plug crop time: 4 weeks
Transplant to finish: 4 to 6 weeks
Such an improvement over all other sweet alyssum varieties when it arrived on the scene in 1988, the Crystal series continues to delight with Clear Crystal® White Sweet Alyssum. Until the Crystals, sweet alyssum was a rather delicate annual, nicely fragrant and everything but short-blooming and subject to fall apart a bit when faced with rough wind or high heat. You grew it in a container with the full expectation that it would bloom for a few weeks and then you'd replace it, around about July, with something tougher for the high heat and humidity of the dog days.
Then the Crystals changed everything. They were the first tetraploid Sweet Alyssum, which means that they have twice the chromosomes of older (diploid) varieties. Twice the chromosomes means lots more vigor, as well as specific improvements such as much greater heat and wind tolerance, larger flower size, and longer staying power. Suddenly you could create edging or even groundcover with sweet alyssum, because the Crystals all reach the same size, bloom at the same time, and stay put in all their glory for months, not weeks.
These one-quarter-inch white blooms are so profuse that they form a neat canopy of color over the fresh green foliage. Clear Crystal® White Sweet Alyssums scent is ultra-sweet and pleasing, and lasts all season. They open in early spring and continue all season, becoming lighter in color as the weather warms up. In warm climates, they also bloom in fall, and in cooler areas, they will be summer-long bloomers. And they form neat plants, just a few inches high when not in bloom but reaching up to 10 inches in flower, with a width of 12 to 14 inches too. Clear Crystal® White Sweet Alyssum is great in containers, beds, along the driveway, in street plantings, edging the foundation, and just about everywhere they can get full sunshine, they're trouble free and so dependable.
Sweet alyssum (also called sweet alison) is a great coastal planting, too. It loves the salt spray and doesn't mind sandier soils. It grow's readily from seed, and can be transplanted as soon as the soil has warmed and the nights are free of frost in spring. Every garden and patio container deserves this sweet scented, pretty, pert little plant. Make Clear Crystal® White Sweet Alyssum a central feature of your sunny spaces this season.
