When you hear a reference to wallflowers, you might think of a bashful person at a dance or the band started up by Bob Dylan's son. It can also refer to a member of the cabbage family that produces a surprisingly beautiful array of colors and fragrances.

There are a variety of wallflowers in the genus Erysium, which is part of the botanical family Brassicaceae. Most varieties are short-lived perennials and biennials. Sally Roth and Jane Courtier, writing for the 2015 book "Essential Perennials for Every Garden," says wallflowers tend to grow one or two feet high.

Their flowers come in numerous different hues including purple, yellow, pink, rust, and orange. Costa Gardens, a company in Miami, Florida, says they are attractive to butterflies and hummingbirds and resistant to deer and rabbits.

Wallflowers can be started in the spring or early summer. Benjamin Raynard, owner of the English gardening company Higgledy Garden, says plants grown as biennials will not flower until the season after they are started. You can either sow them in the garden and wait for them to bloom in the spring or get them started in containers so they can be planted later in the season.

The plant will grow well in either full sunlight or partial shade. The Missouri Botanical Garden says full sunlight is the better option in northern environments, since the plant is less likely to be scorched by hot temperatures. Look for a place that is sheltered from gusts of wind.

Wallflowers won't have much need for fertilizer, since they can tolerate very poor soils. The English seed company Thompson & Morgan says neutral or alkaline soil is ideal. Roth and Courtier says the soil should also be well-drained.

Amending the soil before you plant the seeds can help with growth. Eulalia Palomo, writing for SFGate, says working a two- or three-inch layer of compost into the top eight to 12 inches of soil is a good way to prepare a site.

Seeds planted directly into the ground should be covered with about a quarter-inch of soil. Raynard says plants should be thinned out to leave about six inches of space between them once they start to grow.

The Missouri Botanical Garden says wallflowers will tolerate drought and dry soil, so the plant's water needs will be modest. Natural rainfall will likely be sufficient for its needs, but you might want to help it out if there has been a particularly dry stretch.

Remove flowers once they start to fade to help prolong blooms. You can also keep the plant growing longer by cutting it back to about three-quarters of its size.

Before you do this pruning, see if you can harvest the seeds or allow them to fall to the ground. This self-seeding process may be necessary to keep wallflowers growing. Even so, you might have to replant wallflowers after a few years due to their short lifespan.

Wallflowers work well in a number of environments, including rock gardens, raised beds, and borders. Their name derives from the fact that they can easily take root in the crevices of stone walls, growing along these garden features as well as the sides of houses.

There are plenty of ways to experiment with wallflowers. Palomo says you might organize them by color or variety, placing them in groups of about 15 flowers.

Wallflowers will also complement other types of plants nicely. Costa Farms suggests planting them alongside other early blooming annuals and perennials. Roth and Courtier say wallflowers can be paired with tulips to complement or contrast their hues.

Some diseases may affect wallflowers. Mildew or other fungal diseases can be treated with fungicide. The Australian gardening professional Penny Woodward says wallflowers are subject to some of the same problems as the rest of the Brassicaceae family, so you shouldn't plant them in the same area where similar plants have experienced disease in recent years.