Helianthemum Orange Double - Rock Rose

Helianthemum 'Orange Double' enriches the range of Helianthemums with its beautiful and long double flowering in a soft and warm color. Its small flowers bloom from May to September, on delicate foliage of a beautiful ash green that is evergreen if the winter is not too cold. This subshrub, hardy in well-drained soil, forms lovely ground cover for sunny areas of the garden such as a rockery or the top of a wall. It is a good plant for a dry or mineral garden, and will also look wonderful in a container on the terrace.

Belonging to the family of Cistaceae, the 'Orange Double' Helianthemum is a recent horticultural hybrid resulting from the cross-breeding of H. apenninum, native to southern Europe, and H. mummularium, widespread in Europe and Turkey. Like other varieties of the genus, 'Orange Double' loves limestone, rocky, sandy soils and the sun. It forms a very low-growing, spreading and dense subshrub, reaching a cushion height of 15 cm (6 in) and a width of 30 to 40 cm (12 to 16 in). Its more or less evergreen foliage is composed of tiny linear leaves, of a fairly light grey-green, slightly shiny, which highlights its abundant and bright blooms in light orange with a small yellow centre. From May-June to August-September, it is covered with a multitude of small flowers with a diameter of 2.5 cm (1 in), in double cups, slightly crumpled, adorned with a bouquet of golden to orange stamens. Helianthemum means "flower of the sun" in Greek, an appropriate name for these flowers that only open in the sun. Its delicate little blooms do not last long, but are constantly renewed.

Helianthemum is the ideal plant to enhance a rocky garden, a sunny slope, cascading on a wall, or in paving. It also thrives well in pots or containers for terraces. It can also be considered for the creation of green walls and green roofs. Combine it with other rock plants (Erigeron, Creeping Gypsophila, Mont Olympe St. John's Wort), but also with perennials such as lavender, dryland iris, sedums, or perennial geranium macrorrhizum. Its flowers blend delicately with the grey foliage of stachys, dwarf artemisia or silver basket.