Primrose Bedder Wallflower Plants

Primrose Bedder wallflower plants

What a spring revelation is the lovely Erysimum 'Primrose Bedder'. She starts her glorious bud-opening in March, just as the garden is waking for the season, the bright green foliage and flower buds opening slowly from the top of loose flower spikes, around 45cm tall, to reveal rich butter-yellow blooms. Fully open, these fade gradually, and without spoiling in spring showers, to pale primrose, then white. With a little judicious deadheading, the flowers will go on until May, sometimes June, with a lovely spicy fragrance to boot. This is essentially a white erysimum, and wonderfully fresh and spring-like. Browse for more colours in our wallflower range.

Growing Primrose Bedder

Wallflowers are biennials, so should be planted in autumn to flower the following spring. They like free-draining soil, although they cope well with heavier soils. A good 5-6 hours a day in full sunlight is essential, so a spot in a south or west-facing border is ideal. A pot on a sunny terrace will work well, maybe somewhere near the back door, where you can pop out and inhale this wallflower's spicy scent on a sunny spring day. If you keep snipping off the faded flowers, it will go on and on giving you wonderful colour, right into early summer.

When the last flowers fade, dispose of the plant.

Planting partners

All wallflowers match brilliantly with tulips: they flower simultaneously and the strong structural shapes of the tulips contrast fabulously with the looser, more informal, cottage-garden feel of wallflowers. These yellow and white ones are a dream planted alongside rich purples, or tulips of the same colour scheme. So try lemon and cream Angels Wish or bluish purple egg-shaped 'Purple Flag' and you won't go wrong. Or create a border awash with spring creamy yellow and purple using alliums, foxgloves, Iris sibirica and 'Bowles's Mauve' wallflowers.

At a glance

• Type: hardy biennial
• Colour: white and primrose yellow
• Scent: rich and spicy
• Height: 45cm
• Flowering: March-May
• Spacing: 30cm apart
• Ideal for pots or borders

Fun fact

Wallflowers are, in fact, brassicas, being members of the brassicaceae family. As such they can suffer from problems such as club root, but they're also tough and resilient.