Xela's Garden

Aubretia 'Dr. Mules Variegata' [V]

Species: Aubretia.

Planted: 04.11 Vistabile front path wall

Bought: 04.11 Lewes Garden Centre @ £10 for 6 perennials (or £1.99 each)

Preferred common name: aubrieta 'Argenteovariegata'
Family: Brassicaceae

Aubrieta are mat-forming evergreen perennials with small leaves and short racemes of 4-petalled flowers in shades of pink and purple in spring

'Argenteovariegata' is a mat-forming or trailing perennial whose small leaves have variable white margins, contrasting with the single mauve-pink flowers in spring

Award of Garden Merit

Characteristics:
Plant type: Alpine/Rockery
Habit: Trailing
Resilience: Hardiness H4 (hardy)
Colour:
Flower: Pink and Purple in Spring
Foliage: Green, Grey/Silver and White in Autumn, Spring, Summer and Winter
Size:
Ultimate height: Up to 10 cm
Ultimate spread: 0.1-0.5 metres
Time to ultimate height: 2-5 years

How to grow:
Sunlight: * Full sun

Aspect:
* South-facing or West-facing
* Exposed or Sheltered

Cultivation:
Best grown in well-drained soil in full sun, an ideal plant for dry areas such as chalky slopes and on walls, but it can tolerate partial shade. Being hardy, it is a useful container plant for spring colour.
Soil:
* Well-drained or Moist but well-drained
* Alkaline or Neutral
* Sand, Chalk or Loam

Propagation: by seed, softwood cuttings or semi-hardwood cuttings

Suggested planting locations and garden types:
Banks and Slopes, City/Courtyard Gardens, Coastal, Cottage/Informal Garden, Garden Edging, Ground Cover, Patio/Container Plants or Rock Garden

How to care:
Pruning: Cut back after flowering

Pests: Can get aphids and flea beetles
Diseases
May be infected by white blister

[Source: apps.rhs.org.uk/plantselector/plant?plantid=4500]

The technique to keep aubrietas going year after year is to shear them hard as they finish their display, so that they develop a new cushion of tight foliage. Cuttings can be taken, and ideally these need to have three inches of brown stem below the rosette of foliage. The technique is to tug them away with a heel rather than cut them. This can be done in September and October (when the cushion of foliage is dense), or in late summer. A cold frame is ideal as it keeps the root cool. Sow seeds in spring.

Good companions:
Because all aubrietas – naturally suited to cold, high-altitude climates – tend to look ragged in hot summer months, find a partner that follows on afterwards. Possibilities include Dianthus alpinus, Geranium cinereum 'Ballerina’, or 'Lawrence Flatman’. Rock roses (Helianthemum nummularium) also fit in well and these sprawling plants also like lime.

[Source: Daily Telegraph ]

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