It’s little plants like Arenaria ‘White Sparkler’ that make having a small garden fun. There’s always astonishment, during the lengthy period of spring and early summer flowering, that such a bounty of blooms could be produced by something so small. This is a plant to grow in sunny spots and well drained, but not dry, soils. It makes an excellent plant for a pot too.

In gardens it is best positioned at the front of borders, in raised beds and planters. Mix it with little bulbs such as snowdrops, miniature daffodils and rhodohypoxis for a long season of interest, leaving gaps for compact and free flowering annuals, such as violas, and ground hugging plants such as deep blue Lithodora ‘Grace Ward’, which is smothered in beautiful flowers during spring, and little shrubs such as Tetratheca bibelles. Keep to dwarf plants and don’t be afraid to do a bit of trimming if one grows more vigorously than the others. In the background, grow some white or creamy yellow flowers such as the little, silver-grey foliaged daisy Leucanthemum ‘Sparkles’ with flowers the colour of snow and marguerite daisies such as ‘Sugar Crystals’.

In pots is a rewarding way to grow Arenaria ‘White Sparkler’. Here you can use it as contrast to bolder plants without fear of it becoming overgrown. Mix it with pots of other gorgeous flowering plants, such as Helipterum ‘Paper Cascade’, Rhodohypoxis, which are miniature bulbs from South Africa with an astonishing ability to flower all spring and into summer, and violas and pansies. Potted foliage plants to combine with Arenaria ‘White Sparkler’ include succulents such as small, cold hardy Sempervivums and more tender, large and spectacular kinds such as Echeveria ‘Blue Curl’, and Heucheras which now come in a range of mouth watering shades of chocolate, burgundy, caramel and silver-green.