Centranthus ruber Alba
White valerian flowers for longer than almost anything else in a dry garden. Centranthus ruber 'Albus' carries domed heads of small white flowers, lightly scented, above blue-green fleshy leaves on branching stems. The first heads open in November and the plant keeps producing into autumn wherever spent stems are removed. It is the white form of the red valerian seen growing out of old walls.
Poor ground is where this plant does its best work. Use it on a dry bank, in a gravel garden, along the top of a retaining wall, in a coastal section or in the gap between paving and a fence. It reads well in cottage and Mediterranean-style planting, and bees and butterflies use it constantly.
Give it full sun and free-draining soil, ideally poor and on the alkaline side. It tolerates wind, salt air and long dry spells, and needs no feeding at all. The one thing to plan for is seed: valerian self-seeds very freely in New Zealand conditions and is naturalised here, so cut the heads off before they ripen if you do not want seedlings across the garden.
Grows around 0.75 m tall and 0.6 m across, sometimes more on better soil.
Trimming: Cut flowered stems back hard as each flush finishes, which brings the next one on. Take the whole plant down to the basal foliage in late autumn. It responds well to being cut back at any point in the season.
Deadheading: Deadhead thoroughly and often. This is not optional with valerian: it is the difference between a well-behaved garden plant and seedlings in every crack and border for years.
Fertilising: Do not feed. On fertile soil the plant grows tall and lax, flops open in the middle and lives a shorter life than it would on a stony bank.
Watering: Water only to establish. Once away it is one of the most drought-tolerant perennials available and copes with reflected heat off paving and walls.
Pest Control: Very few problems. Aphids sometimes appear on the soft flowering shoots, and snails shelter in the crown over winter.
Disease Management: Root rot in heavy wet ground is the usual cause of losses. Plant high, add grit to clay, and avoid positions that stay damp through winter.
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