🤍 Alyssum
Lobularia maritima
A honey-scented carpet that pollinators treat like a 24-hour diner.
Sun
Full sun to part shade
Days to harvest
45–60 days from seed
Spacing
6 inches apart
Soil pH
6.0–7.5
How to grow
Sow directly or set out transplants in fall through early spring in Florida — it sulks in summer heat. It self-seeds cheerfully, so plant once and let it naturalize along bed edges. Shear it back by a third when it gets leggy and it'll flush right back.
Water & feeding
Keep evenly moist; it wilts fast in dry spells but bounces back. Mulch lightly to keep roots cool.
Common problems
- Melts out in Florida summer heat — treat as a cool-season annual
- Aphids love the tender growth
- Leggy, floppy growth if sheared never
Harvest
Deadhead or shear spent flower mats to trigger rebloom. Let a few go to seed in spring for free plants next fall.
Nerdy fact: Alyssum flowers smell like honey because they basically are advertising honey — the scent is a pollinator beacon, and hoverflies (aphid-eating machines) are regulars.