Purple Wall Plant - Growing on 'uncracked' walls

[borderglider]

 This lovely 'alpine' grows in a hamlet in the Cheviots; it grows vertically out of solid stone walls - and appears able to attach itself to 'uncracked' surfaces. It is not Aubretia - which cascades DOWN. This spreads UP in a fan shape.

 The flowers are very small - about 4mm wide and have 5 petals. It shrivels to a brown mass as soon as flowering is finished.  It is reminiscent of Thyme but is not aromatic.

Would love to identify it and learn how to propagate from seed; the seed is very fine - like pepper grains.
I think I will just smear it to the walls of my garden with a smear of mud? Any advice welcome
 

[Peter Maguire]

It looks like Erinus alpinus to me. If so, it willl grow anywhere you can get the seeds to stick (mud is good!), but the roots will find small cracks in the stones, so it won't grow completely on a bare stone surface.

[Maggi Young]

Welcome borderglider 

Yes, Erinus alpinus - a much under-rated wee plant , perfect on a wall or in a trough.
Comes in different colours too, so you can get pinks, purples, lilacs and white.  One of my favourites.

[borderglider]

THANKS!  I think you are correct - found this on the RHS website

Preferred common name  "fairy foxglove"
Family Plantaginaceae

Erinus are semi-evergreen perennials forming neat rosettes of narrow leaves, with racemes of small pink or white flowers in late spring and early summer
E. alpinus is a semi-evergreen perennial forming a cluster of small rosettes of narrowly oblong leaves and ascending leafy stems to 10cm, bearing terminal clusters of small, pale purplish-pink flowers 8mm in width
Other common names
alpine balsam
jewel flower
liver balsam


The only departure is that the ones I have seen at West Kirknewton near College Valley, is that these appear to die immediately after seeding. |it must be an annual?  It was in full flower three weeks ago and now there are just crumbling dry, grey/ brown tufts of leaves.  I collected about a teaspoon of fine seeds just be shaking a couple of plants into my hand.  Would it be best to wait until after the frosts to plant them?

[Maggi Young]

They are perennial, though sometimes, if in adverse conditions, they can be short-lived. On a wall, such as the ones in your photo, they are liable to be fried alive in hot weather.
In a trough, for instance, where they can access more moisture at their roots, they are less stressed and so both stay green longer.  Many plants here in our Aberdeen garden stay evergreen.

I'd scatter the seeds now in a trough if you have one, or in a raised bed ( it's nice to be able to have these diminutive plants raised up where you can see them more closely) though they'll even be happy in the front of a border. If you want to try them on a wall I'd store them in a paper bag somewhere coolish until the weather cools down a bit before you try "mud-cementing" them on a wall.
I'd establish some plants in an easier spot before I tried to get them on a wall, though. It's very tricky to do that artificially, even though plants like this Erinus and the delightful Cymbalaria muralis "do it themselves" with such apparent abandon!

[borderglider]

Thanks again,
I will try sowing seeds in several habitats and several timings.  The display at West Kirknewton was eye-stopping when it was at its peak in June - it spread for about 50 metres along the village walls. There is a 'big house' there, which I think is the source of the plants, which have colonised the entire area.

[Lesley Cox]

I have to admit to passing over it for years past, as not worth the trouble - not that it is any -  but on a wall like that it is a real beauty and I'll have to think again. Next batch of seedlists perhaps.