A ray of California sunshine
It must have been a terrible shock to the Californian lilac when someone ripped it from its mother earth and brought it several thousand miles east to England's green and pleasant and very damp land.
It's a surprise that this family of evergreen shrubs didn't just curl up their roots in protest and refuse to grow. But although many may have withered, some also weathered the storms of Britain's temperate climate. The results can be seen on many walls where the sun spends a lot of its time and where the soil is well dug and well drained.
A healthy, happy Californian lilac is quite something. Lust after it, envy its owner, beg some semi-ripe cuttings in summer so that you can try to grow your very own in a cold frame. But if your garden is shady and damp and cool, forget it. The ceanothus family like things their own way. Even the deciduous members, hardier than their evergreen cousins, will sulk if they get insufficient sun.
But if they get what they want, the likes of the popular C 'Gloire de Versailles' and C 'Marie Simon' will happily grace any garden from June to mid-October.
But it is the evergreens which are the most popular, in particular C Burkwoodii, which begins flowering in late June and continues to produce bright-blue, bee-beloved blooms until the onset of autumn. Almost as highly regarded is C 'Autumnal Blue' whose flowers give the shrub the appearance of being enveloped in a haze of blue. For earlier flowerers, there is C 'Cascade' and the daddy of them all – the magnificent C arboreus, the tree ceanothus, which can grow to 20ft in height and the same in width. Get a glimpse of one of these in its prime and you will never rest until you have your own. Evergreen ceanothus only require pruning to keep them in shape. Do this soon after flowering, and never prune back to old wood.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: West
