Candytuft
Iberis sempervirens · Brassicaceae
A low, dark, evergreen subshrub buried under pure white flowers for several weeks in spring. The cleanest white of the season.
- Size
- 10 in tall, 24 in wide
- Zones
- 3 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Mid April to late May
- Pets
- No toxicity recorded
- Job in a bed
- Edging
A bed built around candytuft
The planner designed this bed around candytuft when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) English border in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 715 that suit those conditions and its dry soil, and says below why candytuft stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Candytuft × 3, white
- 2 Sedum 'Lidakense' × 26, pink
- 3 Wild quinine × 3, white
- 4 Stiff goldenrod × 3, yellow
- 5 Dwarf English boxwood × 1, dark green leaves
- 6 Wild lupine × 8, blue
- 7 Star of Persia × 3, purple
- 8 Greigii tulip × 3, red
Why this plant
- A classic partner for greigii tulip. Both are on this plan. A pairing gardeners have proved outranks a general rule.
Why here
- On the front edge. At 10 in it frames the bed without hiding it, and it is in leaf all season. It finishes 38% of the edge.
- 3 plants in one run. An unbroken run of one kind gives the edge a clean line.
Why now
- In flower for six weeks. From mid April to late May.
- Fills a gap. For one of those weeks nothing else on the plan is in flower.
- One of two evergreens. They are what the bed has to show from November to March.
Planned as an English border: 6 of the 6 groups (100%) are drifts, longer along the bed than they are deep. Stiff goldenrod and wild quinine anchor the back corners of the bed: the tallest plants on the plan stand there. Neither end outweighs the other: the visual weight is split 51 to 49, left to right.
The planner's own design check: 13 Excellent, 4 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where candytuft goes in a border
At 10 in it belongs at the front of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is low (6 to 12 in).
Its job: edging. A low, neat plant used in short runs of three or five along the front to finish the edge (or, in a formal bed, in one even row).
Its brilliant white makes tulips and other spring colours look sharper, and its dark evergreen leaves give the front of the bed a neat line all winter. Shear it by a third after flowering.
- Evergreen edging
- Spilling over walls
- A white foil for spring bulbs
What to plant with candytuft
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Tulip: in flower together for four weeks, from late April; tall enough (18 in) to stand behind it.
- Creeping phlox: in flower together for five weeks, from mid April; low enough (6 in) to stand in front of it.
- Aubrieta: in flower together for five weeks, from mid April; low enough (6 in) to stand in front of it; happy in the same dry soil.
Questions about candytuft
Does candytuft need sun or shade?
Candytuft grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants dry, sharply drained soil, of average fertility, and little watering once settled. Once settled in, it stands drought.
What zones does candytuft grow in?
USDA zones 3 to 8. It is hardy to zone 3, which means it survives winter nights down to about −30 °F (−34 °C).
Above zone 8 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does candytuft flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers mid April to late May. As a spring flower it moves about a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer, later where it is colder.
| Zone 3 | Early May to early June |
|---|---|
| Zone 4 | Late April to late May |
| Zone 5 | Mid April to late May |
| Zone 6 | Mid April to mid May |
| Zone 7 | Early April to early May |
| Zone 8 | Late March to early May |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should candytuft be planted?
18 in (45 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 24 in (60 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 10 in (25 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many candytuft plants do I need?
At 18 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 5 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 7 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 17 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as runs of three or five along the front (or one even row, in a formal bed).
In the bed above, the planner used three in one group.
Is candytuft poisonous to dogs and cats?
No toxicity is recorded for dogs, cats, horses or people, according to NC State Extension.
"Not toxic" is not "edible": a pet that eats a lot of any plant can be sick.
Do deer eat candytuft?
Mostly not. NC State lists it as resistant to deer and rabbits. No plant is proof against a hungry deer in a hard winter, but this one is low on the menu.
What flowers after candytuft?
Candytuft is over by late May. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Creeping thyme: from early June to mid July, 3 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Lady's mantle: from late May to early July, 18 in tall.
- Carpathian bellflower 'Blue Clips': from late June to late August, 8 in tall.
What does candytuft look like in winter?
Candytuft keeps its dark green leaves all winter, so it is one of the plants that hold a bed together from November to March, when the perennials have gone.
Is candytuft good for bees and butterflies?
Candytuft is visited by butterflies and songbirds.
In these guides
- Salt-tolerant plants for roadsides and coasts
- Deer-resistant perennials for full sun
- Rabbit-resistant plants
- Drought-tolerant perennials for full sun
- Pet-safe plants for a sunny border
- Plants for butterflies
- Plants that feed garden birds
- Low plants for the front of a border
- Evergreen perennials, ferns and grasses
- Plants for a white garden
Zone guides: Zone 3 · Zone 4 · Zone 5 · Zone 6 · Zone 7 · Zone 8
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 10 in (25 cm) tall, 24 in (60 cm) wide
- Plant
- 18 in (45 cm) apart
- Height class
- Low (6 to 12 in)
- Place in the bed
- Front
- Flowers
- Mid April to late May; dense clusters; white
- Leaves
- Fine texture, evergreen; dark green
- Shape
- Mounding, clumping
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 3 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Average, dry and sharply drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Brassicaceae
- Comes from
- Iberian Peninsula--Spain and Portugal to Turkey, and NW Africa
- Attracts
- Butterflies, songbirds
- Stands up to
- Deer, rabbits, drought, salt
Checked against NC State Extension and VASCAN (plants of Canada). Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.