On Gardening: Gardeners need snow for the summer season

Norman Winter, Tribune News Service on May 8, 2025

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It is May and The Garden Guy is here to tell you that your garden really needs more snow for the long growing season ahead. I’m talking about one of the best flowers you can add to the design of your mixed containers. That would be Snow Princess sweet alyssum, a Lobularia hybrid.

Snow Princess and I go way back to April 2009. That was the year it had its coming out party at the Proven Winners location in Bonsall, California. The event was the California Pack Trials. We saw Snow Princess throughout the display, but our eyes kept going back to the one on a pedestal out in the middle of a large water feature.

That was also the year that most universities had it in their trial sites. I remember somebody with Proven Winners telling me it was coming to our Mississippi State University’s trial location in Crystal Springs. They gave me instructions on how to grow it, which included planting in the full sun. I snickered a little thinking about a sweet alyssum in the full sun in a raised bed box in the middle of an old pasture.

That year the awards started coming, including Knock Your Socks Off at the University of Georgia trials. They don’t have that award any more, but it won the Classic City Award at UGA the next year. In Crystal Springs, it was in full bloom in mid-July and remained that way until the Fall Flower and Garden Fest in October.

Everyone loves snow and especially Snow Princess, as the trophy case now totals 113 awards. It wins awards, or perhaps I should say accolades, at my house every year. Mine started really early this year; I’ve got them in hanging baskets with Supertunias Vista Jazzberry, Mini Vista Yellow and Hoopla Vivid Orchid petunias. I assure you the plant with a thousand tiny white flowers can hold its own with those beauties.

In the backyard I have a special planter getting more beautiful with each passing day. It is a combination of Snow Princess Sweet alyssum, Superbena Pink Cashmere verbena, Stardiva Pink scaevola, Superbells Magic Pink Lemonade and Blackcurrant Punch calibrachoas. It has an heirloom or nostalgia look despite featuring relatively new plants.

That day back in 2009 in California taught us one thing about Snow Princess and that is a remarkable spreading ability, outward to 4 feet. This little flower can tumble like few others; you can create a blanket-like look.

Maintenance is easy on this Princess. No deadheading is required, just make sure she stays hydrated. By this we mean she likes evenly moist soil. But don’t overthink this. In the South where she is growing in a mixed container, basket or window box, we water daily and feed with a water-soluble fertilizer every 2 to 3 weeks.

We look like garden pros but in fact everyone can do it. Put a Snow Princess in all your containers, and you will love having "fragrant flakes" in the summer.

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(Norman Winter, horticulturist, garden speaker and author of “Tough-as-Nails Flowers for the South” and “Captivating Combinations: Color and Style in the Garden.” Follow him on Facebook @NormanWinterTheGardenGuy.)

(NOTE TO EDITORS: Norman Winter receives complimentary plants to review from the companies he covers.)