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Virginia stock

Malcolmia maritima

Virginia stock
Photo: KENPEI, CC BY-SA 3.0

Virginia stock (Malcolmia maritima) is a fast, fragrant annual from the cabbage family, grown for its mass of small pink, purple or white flowers. It is very easy to grow from seed sown directly where it is to bloom, in sun and well drained soil.

Family
Brassicaceae (Cabbage family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly while establishing, then let the top of the soil dry slightly between waterings.
Soil
Well drained, ordinary or sandy soil; tolerates poor soil.
Temperature
10–25 °C; hardy to light frost, tolerates cool weather well.
How easy
Easy
Native range
W. Albania to W. Greece
Climate
temperate

About

Malcolmia maritima, also known by its common name Virginia stock, is a popular annual garden plant from the family Brassicaceae. A beautiful and profusely flowering annual, it is probably one of the easiest of all plants to grow. Growing to about 6–12 inches (15–30 centimetres) tall, it makes a mass of pink, purple and white fragrant four petalled (cruciform) flowers. It is native in Greece and Albania and may be naturalized elsewhere in Mediterranean Europe where it occurs in maritime sandy habitats and in waste places.

How to grow it

For best results in growing Virginia stock, sow on the surface in patches or rows and thin the young plants to 6 inches apart. It prefers full to partial sun and well drained soils.

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Malcolmia maritima by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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