SPECIAL USES. Rock and wall planting, wild-flower gardens, beds.
Arabis Cruciferae Rock Cress
Mat-forming perennials with blankets of hairy leaves under spreads of flowers rather like stocks or candytuft. They flower in spring or summer and are often fragrant.
albida—Unless the form is marked “compact” the species may top ten inches. Leaves green and woolly, flowers white (in April and May). Variety flora plena is about six inches tall with double white flowers; rosea, orchid pink and single; variegata, white-marked leaves. ‘Pink Charm’ is single with bright-pink flowers.
blepharophylla—Clusters of deep-green leaves with eyelashes on the edge; pink-purple flowers in April. Height, four inches.
procurrens—Matting plant with creeping stolons, white flowers in May. Dwarf variety, stari, spreads slowly and stays under four inches.
CARE. Medium, even poor, soil; warm and sandy. Not too moist. Sun or light shade. After flowering cut back straggly stems.
PROPAGATION. Division (in spring or fall), seeds, cuttings.
SPECIAL USES. Rock gardens, wall planting, ground cover, edging.
Aster alpinus Compositae Rock Aster