Aethionema 'Warley Rose'

Aethionema 'Warley Rose' is one of those compact plants that earns its place with quiet confidence, then rather steals the show in late spring. This charming stone cress forms a rounded evergreen sub-shrub, reaching around 20cm in height and spread, with slender grey-green leaves that keep the display tidy all year. When the weather warms, Aethionema 'Warley Rose' is crowned with bright rose-pink flowers in neat terminal clusters, bringing a fresh, alpine prettiness to the front of borders, gravel gardens and sunny raised beds. The RHS Award of Garden Merit confirms what gardeners soon discover: Aethionema 'Warley Rose' is both beautiful and reassuringly reliable.

Give Aethionema 'Warley Rose' a sunny position and sharply drained soil, and it will settle in with very little fuss, making it ideal for rockeries, troughs, walls and those awkward dry corners where richer border plants tend to sulk. Its cool foliage is a lovely foil for the warm pink flowers, especially alongside silver-leaved alpines, low-growing grasses or soft mauve companions. Despite its delicate appearance, this stone cress has a pleasingly resilient nature, provided it is not asked to sit in winter wet. Refined, compact and gently cheerful, Aethionema armenum 'Warley Rose' brings polished colour to small spaces without ever looking overdone.