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Matthiola incana
Also called Hoary Stock, Brompton Stock, Gilliflower, Common Stock, Gilly Flower, Gillyflower, Ten Week Stock
Matthiola incana, known as stock or ten-week stock, is a fragrant cabbage-family flower grown as a short-lived annual or biennial in gardens. It needs full sun, free-draining, alkaline soil and cool weather to flower well.
Matthiola incana is a species of flowering plant in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. Common names include Brompton stock, common stock, hoary stock, ten-week stock, and gilly-flower. The common name stock usually refers to this species, though it may also be applied to the whole genus Matthiola. The common name "night-scented stock" or "evening-scented stock" is applied to Matthiola longipetala.
Matthiola incana is a common garden flower, available in a variety of colours, many of which are heavily scented and also used in floristry.
It is native to southern Europe from Spain to Greece, and is naturalized in the western part of the Mediterranean region, roughly in the same area as the olive tree. The plant prefers calcareous soils, and often grows on cliffs overlooking the sea, or on old walls. It is a plant of the coast, but it can be found, naturalized, even in the hinterland up to 600 m (1,970 ft) elevation.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Matthiola incana 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.
