In recent years, phytoremediation using metal hyperaccumulators has been proposed as a cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solution to the problem of heavy metal contaminated soils. Despite their ability to accumulate high levels of metals in the shoot, however, most hyperaccumulators are of limited usefulness for commercial-scale soil remediation because of their small size and slow growth. Finding ways to improve the phytoremediation performance of hyperaccumulators will contribute to the development of phytoremediation as a commercial technology. We studied phytoremediation by the Ni hyperaccumulator Alyssum corsicum in three soils (a paddy soil, Yuangjing soil, and Mojing soil) with and without inoculation of the soil with the plant growth promoting rhizobacterium (PGPR) Pseudomonas vesicularis. After 70 days of incubation, several plant and soil indices, including soil nickel concentration, soil bacteria, soil fungus, soil actinomyces, soil microbial biomass and soil enzyme activity, were studied. DTPA-extractable Ni concentration in the paddy soil with added P. vesicularis was significantly lower than it was in the control treatment, and there was some reduction of DTPA-Ni in the inoculated Yuanjiang and Mojiang soils. In all three soil types, microorganism population and microbial biomass were elevated in the inoculated treatments, suggesting that P. vesicularis had colonized the tested soils successfully. Amplification of microbial DNA from the tested soils with five primers showed that the Shannon-Weaver index of microbial DNA sequence diversity was higher in control soils than that in treated soils. Activities of soil enzymes, including urease, alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase, polyphenol oxidase and catalase, were generally higher in treated soils than in control soils. In the inoculated treatments, the biomass of A. corsicum was increased by 29% in the paddy soil, 309% in Yuanjiang soil and 43% in Mojiang soil compared to the control treatments. Phytoremediation efficiency was also improved, by 54% in the paddy soil, 306% in Yuanjiang soil and 32% in Mojiang soil. The nickel concentration in A. corsicum shoots, however, was not significantly affected by inoculation with P. vesicularis. In conclusion, the PGPR P. vesicularis promoted the growth of the Ni hyperaccumulator A. corsicum and increased its phytoremediation efficiency.