Hesperis Matronalis seed
LATIN NAME: Hesperis matronalis
COMMON NAME: Dame’s Rocket
Toward the evening, the dame’s rocket gives up its secret: the whole patch of it fills the cooling air with a sweet, violet-like scent. The dame’s rocket grows as an upright, branching, biennial or short-lived perennial herb, reaching up to a metre or so, with the narrow, toothed, dark-green leaves and, through the late spring and the early summer, the loose, upright clusters of the four-petalled flowers in the soft shades of the lilac, the purple, the white and the pale pink. It is a plant of the old gardens and the waysides of Europe, where it has escaped to the lanes and the verges, and it is known as the dame’s rocket.
The dame’s rocket belongs to the mustard family, Brassicaceae, and it is an upright, branching, biennial or short-lived perennial herb of the old gardens and the waysides of Europe. Its loose clusters of the four-petalled, lilac and purple flowers and its evening scent are its great show. It is known as the dame’s rocket, and it is treasured for its fragrant, generous flowering.
Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology
The dame’s rocket has been studied in the botany for its place in the old gardens and its free-seeding, wandering ways, and researchers have looked at how it escapes from the garden to the lanes and the verges. Botanists have examined the four-petalled flowers and their place among the relatives of the mustard family, and the sweet, violet-like scent of the evening has been noted as a quiet curiosity. The plant’s long, generous flowering and its easy, upright growth have been of interest in the garden. For a flower of the old garden with such a fine evening scent, the dame’s rocket has a quiet and steady record of study.
Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications
For the cottage garden and the wild border, the dame’s rocket is a generous, fragrant plant. Its loose clusters of the four-petalled, lilac and purple flowers open through the late spring and the early summer, and toward the evening the whole patch fills the air with the sweet, violet-like scent. The flowers pull in the butterflies and the moths of the season, and the plant is an easy, free-seeding grower that will fill a patch of the border with its soft colour. For a gardener who wants a fragrant, generous flower of the late spring, the dame’s rocket is a fine choice.
The dame’s rocket is a plant of the old gardens of Europe, and it has escaped from the garden to the lanes and the verges, where it grows freely along the waysides. It is a biennial or a short-lived perennial that grows a leafy rosette in its first year and flowers in the second, and it seeds itself freely around the garden. The loose clusters of the four-petalled, lilac and purple flowers open through the late spring and the early summer, and toward the evening the whole patch fills the air with the sweet, violet-like scent that pulls in the moths of the season. It is an easy, generous flower of the cottage garden.
Sow the fine seeds on the surface of pots of moist, ordinary, free-draining soil and press them in without covering them, since they like a little light, keep the pots in a bright, open spot and water them gently, and the first green seedlings will soon show.
Hesperis Matronalis
Dame’s Rocket
Dame’s Rocket Hesperis Matronalis is a herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial plant that is a member of mustard family. Dame’s Rocket seeds are easy to grow and they can be started directly outdoors. Some of the other common names of this beautiful perennial are Sweet Rocket, Summer Lilac, and Winter Gilliflower. Dame’s Rocket blooms with large, loose clusters of fragrant, deep-purple through all the paler lilac shades to white flowers. The Dame’s Rocket blooms from spring to summer, and its scented flowers release sweet fragrance that is most pronounced in the evening. The blooming Hesperis Matronalis attracts masses of bees, butterflies, and birds.
Dame’s Rocket has been grown in gardens since the Roman Empire, and this ornamental perennial is the excellent plant for meadows, naturalized areas or cottage gardens. Sweet Rocket habitats include woodland edges and openings, thickets, semi-shaded fence rows, banks of drainage ditches, vacant lots, and edges of yards. Hesperis Matronalis seeds produce the dependable perennial or biennial plant that likes to grow in moist conditions, but Summer Lilac adapts easily to the less than perfect growing environment. If Dame’s Rocket plant is left to seed itself, it will gradually naturalize over a large area.
PLANT PROFILE
Season: Perennial/Biennial
Height: 24-36 Inches
Bloom Season: Spring/Summer
Environment: Sun/Partial Shade
Soil Type: Rich/Average/Moist well-drained, pH 6.1-7.5
PLANTING INSTRUCTIONS
Sow Indoors: Spring (6-8 weeks before last frost)
Sow Outdoors: Spring/Fall
Seed Depth: 1/16 Inch
Germination Time: 10-30 Days