Spring flowers

OUR FAVORITES:

Stock: This mainstay of the cut-flower industry is also an excellent spring bedding plant. Many strains of Matthiola incana are available, ranging from less than 1 ft. tall to as much as 3 ft. tall, and from 10 to 16 in. wide. Flowers are single or double, 1 in. wide, and come in a range of colors, including cream, mauve, pink, purple, red, salmon, violet, and white. All have a wonderful spicy-sweet scent. Evening scented stock (M. longipetala bicornis) has an even more powerful scent.

LANDSCAPE USES: Because one of the nicest things about stock is the intense fragrance of its flowers, plant it where you're most likely to smell it. Combine taller varieties of stock with plants that are looser in habit, such as nemesias, so they don't look so primly upright.

• Grow stock alone in small pots, as pictured, for portable scent.
• Fill a window box with it.
• Mass it in beds for a showy display and knockout scent.

OUR FAVORITES: Trysomic Seven Weeks and Ten Weeks strains are good for their early bloom; try the Vintage strain for its unique colors, like Burgundy (shown) and copper.