Aubrieta

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

High

As a honey crop

Not a honey source

Which bees, and why

Worked heavily by emerging bumblebee queens, early mining bees and mason bees, and by orange-tip and small tortoiseshell butterflies. A wall of aubrieta in April is one of the busier things in a garden.

Small four-petalled flowers with a short tube, accessible to short and medium-tongued bees.

Worth knowing

Generous on both counts for its size, and the flower density makes a modest plant into a substantial resource.

Flowering

In flower

March to May (northern hemisphere)

A spring flow of several weeks, and a light second flush after cutting back.

Growing it

Conditions

Full sun with sharp drainage, and it is at home in a wall crevice or on gravel. It rots in heavy wet soil.

Size

10-15 cm tall, spreading to 60 cm and cascading over walls.

Native range

Southeastern Europe and Turkey, on rocks and cliffs. Grown across temperate gardens.

Suits

Small gardens, Containers and window boxes, Walls and fences, Large gardens

• Cut back hard immediately after flowering to keep it dense and encourage a second flush.
• Perfect for planting into wall crevices and dry stone, where its roots find the cool and the crown stays dry.
• Short-lived on heavy soil; take cuttings after the summer trim to replace it.

What it looks like

A dense evergreen mat of small grey-green leaves smothered in four-petalled flowers in purple, violet, mauve or pink, so densely that the foliage disappears.