Sweet Alyssum

Lobularia maritima 'Carpet of Snow'

flower

Sweet alyssum is a low, mat-forming annual in the mustard family, native to the Mediterranean coast, that smothers itself in tiny four-petaled flowers with a soft honey fragrance. Carpet of Snow is the classic pure-white form, only three to nine inches tall but spreading wider into a dense flowering carpet. It blooms from early in the season until frost, tucking along bed edges, between pavers, and over the rims of containers and hanging baskets. Beyond its looks and scent, it is one of the most valuable beneficial-insect plants a gardener can grow.

✅ Plant alongside

Good neighbors that attract beneficial insects or deter pests

• Tomatoes — Draws hoverflies and parasitic wasps that control aphids and caterpillars
• Brassicas — The flowers attract braconid wasps that parasitize imported cabbageworm
• Squash — Brings in pollinators at flowering time
• Any vegetable bed — Universal beneficial insect banker plant that increases natural pest control throughout the garden

🛡️ Pest & disease prevention

Proactive ways to stop trouble before it starts — tap a name with an arrow for its full guide

• Aphids →

  The flowers attract hoverflies whose larvae eat hundreds of aphids; plant at the edges of every vegetable bed

• Cabbage loopers and caterpillars →

  Draws braconid wasps that lay eggs in pest caterpillars

• Whiteflies →

  Supports parasitic wasp populations that keep whitefly numbers low

🌸 Blooms & cutting

Sweet alyssum is grown for its flowers and the beneficial insects it feeds rather than for food, though the blooms are edible with a mild honey-cress flavor and make a pretty garnish. The most useful maintenance is shearing: cut whole plants back by about half every six to eight weeks to keep them dense, blooming, and from exhausting themselves into seed. Site it deliberately as a banker plant along the edges of vegetable beds, where its flowers draw hoverflies and parasitic wasps right to the crops that need protecting.

🥗 Nutrition & benefits

Sweet alyssum is primarily a pollinator and beneficial-insect plant rather than a food crop, and its real value is ecological: the nectar-rich flowers are highly attractive to bees, butterflies, hoverflies, and tiny stingless parasitic wasps, and it is interplanted in commercial organic lettuce and broccoli fields in California to attract the natural enemies of aphids and caterpillars. The flowers are edible, carry a mild honey fragrance, and contain coumarins with mild anti-inflammatory properties, but they serve as a delicate garnish, contributing scent and appearance rather than meaningful nutrition.