The Clove Fragrance

Wallflowers produce one of the most powerfully fragrant displays available from a spring garden plant. The clove-like scent — the reason wallflowers and stocks are both called giroflées in French, meaning "clove-scented" — is most intense on warm, sunny spring days when the aromatic compounds are released most readily. A group of wallflowers planted near an entrance door, a bench, or a frequently-walked path creates a fragrant welcome that permeates the garden on calm spring evenings. In a vase indoors, a few stems provide a fragrance that fills a room.

The Tulip Partnership

Wallflowers reach their peak display in April and May — the same period as mid to late tulips. This synchronisation makes them the classic spring bedding partner: the mounded flower heads of wallflowers at knee height, with tulip stems rising through and above them, creates a layered spring display that has been a staple of British public parks and cottage gardens for over a century. Plant tulip bulbs at the same time as transplanting wallflowers in September–October, spacing bulbs between the wallflower plants at 15cm depth.

Colour: Vivid orange-red/scarlet — fiery, saturated; the boldest wallflower colour

Fire King's vivid orange-red works most effectively when given companions that either match its energy or provide deliberate contrast. With orange and gold tulips (Tulipa 'Orange Emperor', Tulipa 'General de Wet'), it creates a unified hot colour planting of maximum impact. With deep purple or near-black tulips, the contrast between the fiery orange-red and the dark purple creates one of the most dramatic spring colour pairings available. Against the blue of forget-me-nots, the warm and cool contrast is equally striking. In a mixed wallflower planting, Fire King provides the vivid anchor colour around which the softer tones of Cloth of Gold and Ivory White are seen at their best.

RHS Plants for Pollinators

Wallflowers are listed on the RHS Plants for Pollinators list. The accessible, open flower structure and abundant nectar production make them one of the most valuable early-spring pollinator plants available. Emerging bumblebee queens — searching for nectar after winter hibernation — are regular and conspicuous visitors, alongside early solitary bees and the first butterflies of the year. In April, a group of flowering wallflowers is rarely without at least one bumblebee feeding on it throughout the warmth of the day.

History — From Elizabethan Streets to Norfolk Gardens

Wallflowers have been cultivated in British gardens for at least 500 years. The Elizabethan herbalist John Gerard wrote in 1596 that the wallflower "groweth on bricke and stone walls, in the corners of churches, as also among rubbish and other such stony places everywhere" — capturing both the plant's common name (from its habit of colonising old walls) and its love of the sharp drainage that a pocket of gritty soil in old masonry provides. The name cheiranthus derives from the Greek cheir (hand) and anthos (flower), reflecting the Elizabethan habit of carrying wallflowers as a fragrant nosegay to mask the smells of the street.

Club Root — Avoid Brassica Rotation

As a member of the Brassicaceae (cabbage) family, wallflowers are susceptible to club root (Plasmodiophora brassicae), the soil-borne disease that also affects cabbages, cauliflowers, and other brassicas. Never plant wallflowers in soil that has recently grown brassicas with club root problems. Lime the soil before planting (wallflowers prefer alkaline conditions and lime also suppresses club root). In gardens with persistent club root, grow in containers with fresh compost.