Alyssum - Wow this stuff grows like CRAZY here! Should I be worried?

[Nifty]

About 4 years ago my daughter did a little project in girl scouts where they decorated 4" pots, sprinkled wildflower seeds and let them grow. Well, they grew like crazy and the pot was getting crowded so we moved them to a large pot outside. The diversity in the mix and the beauty of all the flowers was AMAZING! Stuff that looked like snapdragons, daises, and a ton of other flowers I have no clue of the names.

4 years later and things keep coming back over and over. One of them my wife swears is Alyssum... pretty small white flowers.

Well, the Alyssum is doing really REALLY well. In fact, I'm almost concerned that it is doing so well because it's sprouting up all over the place. Even in small cracks in the concrete we see it coming up. It's pretty, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking "Hmm... if this grows so well in these spots where we don't water it, or anything else, what happens if it gets loose into the rest of the yard!?!?"

I'll take some pics and post later, but wanted to get this thread started while I was thinking about it.

Bottom line: Super pretty, easy to grow, kinda worried it may take over our backyard!

 

[thistlebloom]

I would love to have alyssum volunteers all over! If they did turn into something you didn't want so much of they're very easily pulled out, no deep tenacious roots or anything. I think it's nice how you get volunteers from your daughters flower pot every year.

We may get a few volunteer seedlings from alyssum up here, but they're pretty scarce.

 

[897tgigvib]

If it's Alyssum, the Sweet Alyssum kind, each tiny flower will have 4 petals, and they will smell nice and sweet, especially if it's a warm morning.

Most flowers and vegetables are called by their Genus name. Sweet Alyssum is an exception, but only because it looks so much like its closely related Alyssum Genus. It's real Genus is Lobularia.

Nifty, if you live somewhere near the coast, where it barely frosts, your 8b zone, and especially if you have slightly alkaline soil, they'll grow like wild. Especially since yours is from a wildflower mix and may be a wild strain, yours will grow like crazy.

Should be that if yours are acting like weeds, that you can yank them up, but have to keep at it until you have them under control. The wild ones might be tougher, gloves might help.

Once under control, using scissors to cut the flowers before seeding out should work.

They might have the sentimental value as your daughter's project, so then take control of where the seeds go.

Or maybe not

If not, now ya know you can grow any of the well selected pretty and colorful modern varieties of them. Easily.

A closeup photo will tell the tale. Up close, the flower cluster looks similar to a cluster of white Radish flowers only much smaller and tighter. Same family.

The yellow perennial Alyssums are the true Alyssums, but they are close enough related not to worry about it. Probably someone a couple hundred years ago made a guess what Genus to put them in and was close but not quite on the mark.

Thompson and Morgan has a pretty good selection of Sweet Alyssum, but I haven't checked lately.

 

[ninnymary]

Nifty, I got rid of my alyssum and California poppies because they were too invasive. Also, once the alyssum grew past it's prime it got kind of leggy (not sure that's the right word) and I didn't like it as much.

Mary

 

[897tgigvib]

Mary, I'd more likely call it weedy looking, with the main stems showing that dry chaff color and many of its leaves drying up and falling off as it ages. (It is one of those plants that does create its own little compost under it.)

I am curious what the wildflower variety looks like. Maybe the ancestor variety of the modern well selected varieties. Ya know, the more colorful purple and pink colors seemed less vigorous, almost as if there are two or more ancestor wild varieties.

 

[Nifty]

Ok, here are the pics!

As I was taking pics I saw more and more of these sprouting up all over. Very pretty and they smell nice, but dang they grow really really easy in our yard:

A close up:

Volunteers from the first transplant location:

Volunteers from the second transplant location:

 

[897tgigvib]

That indeed is Sweet Alyssum. Looks like a vigorous and tall form of Carpet of Snow.

They are already going to seed as the tops of the clusters flower.

 

[bj taylor]

I beg alyssum to grow. I won't have to worry about it being invasive. it has the most delicious scent.

 

[897tgigvib]

BJ, probably if you had the same wild variety that Nifty has and could give it moister conditions you'd have it growing easier.

 

[catjac1975]

I think you can pull it out pretty easily if it starts in a place where you don't want it. I love Allysum. A tiny sprout will make a huge clump. It reseeds here in zone 6 fairly well. It make a great ground cover and keep down the weeds. What I love best is that it stays beautifully until a real hard frost. So when everything is gone I still get little poofs of like.