Gypsophila Rosea

The creeping perennial gypsophila, and nothing like the tall annual cutting sorts. A prostrate mat 15 to 20cm high spreading to 40 or 60cm across, covered in small star-shaped rose-pink flowers over silvery-grey foliage from June to August.

Its use is vertical. Plant it on top of a retaining wall, at the rim of a large pot or on the face of a rockery and it tips over the edge and cascades, and there is very little else that does a pink waterfall as well. It will also seed itself politely into paving cracks and crevices, which is how it looks best.

It is a hardy perennial, drought-tolerant and genuinely low-maintenance once established, and it asks for sun and sharp drainage above everything else. Wet ground in winter is what kills it. Being a mat-former it is not a cutting plant at all, since the stems are far too short, so if you want gypsophila for the vase you want one of the annuals instead. It also takes a season or two from seed to make a mat worth looking at.