Cait's Garden

No, I’m not talking about the actual weather event known as snow (although it’s late October and a few flurries have already been sighted). I am talking about a kind of alyssum called “Carpet of Snow.” Normally, I would have nothing of note to say about an annual, especially one as common as alyssum. However, I’ve stumbled upon a strange phenomenon in my yard. A few years ago, I decided to grow alyssum from seed. I chose both white (Carpet of Snow) and a purple mix. The white did very well, the purple not so much, so the following year, I bought another packet of white alyssum, which again did just great all season long. The third year, I got lazy and decided not to bother planting any alyssum seeds. To my surprise, by the time summer got underway, I found I did indeed still have white alyssum. In fact, I had plenty of it, creeping through the bed, blooming in a very airy and delightful fashion. Somehow, this annual has learned to survive winter (through seeds, I imagine). Once again this year, I did not purchase alyssum and once again, I had plenty of it. So much that I moved some plants to other beds and pulled many out. (They are very shallow-rooted little plants, no trouble at all to get rid of where unwanted.)

Some would find these plants intrusive, but I look at them as natural fillers. There are always times when one perennial or another is going through an unfortunate phase, usually just after blooming. When that happens, the unattractive plant is hidden by a cloud of alyssum. Or should I say, a “Carpet of Snow.” Even as the first frosts of the year begin to touch my yard, my alyssum are still going strong and smelling sweet. Best packet of seeds I ever bought!