Ceanothus (new shrub 39)

That's a Ceanothus Fran. :)

thanks, Karen! another one bites the dust ...

I've never seen one pruned like that before...but it doesn't seem to be doing it any harm at all. I think the last Tenant liked clipping things!! :))

lol this was the gardener that the HA got in to trim back before I moved - when I first saw it the stems were long enough to touch the ground in a large mound.

I thought lilac was soft, but these flwoers are like bristle-cones - unless that's just the skeleton, and the flwoers proper haven't started yet

No, it's nothing like our lilac Fran. A totally different plant :)

lol live and learn! thanks \0/

Yes, you do! My pleasure! That's why I find common names unhelpful. When you are first starting out as a gardener, common names don't help you remember...they usually confuse.

they succeeded here! you're right,the proper names are the best - and if i get used to calling plants by the proper names the bahit will stick; lol it's just that some of those names are a bit long and complicated! I did find a "what the names mean" dictionary, now just got to find it again.

Yes, I think my grounding in Latin really helps me. Not that I can translate the words very often, but somehow, being used to Latin helps me remember them I think.

i've learned a few - while looking for "miniature plants" - had to list, and learn, the varoious tags: lol few of which I can remember at the moment! nana and montana - but I'd know them when i saw them.

and the colours are pretty obvious in latin; i'll learn the rest as i go along.

lol i got a "teqch yourself latin" and actually started working through it, but got stuck on the Third Declension; i couldn't understand *why* - i did ask around, but the only answer i got was "that's the way it is". maybe I'll go back and try again one day, though I'll have to start from page 1 again.

yeah, when i get my shelves up and books unboxed at last!

:))

I'll have to look up how it's normally cut - this all is new to me!

maybe it was new to the gardener that did the cutting, too - give everything a short-back-and-sides, that'll do.

I noticed that it's flowering a lot more now; and the spikes are soft, not spiky. meant to get a pic today but hten forgot. I'll try to remember to get a few tomorrow.

Like you Homebired, I was surprised it was flowering. Clearly ceanothus doesn't mind a good haircut! Who knew? :)

lol mqybe I just got lucky this time! or maybe it would be ten times better if it had been pruned more sympathetically. I really should Google the plant and see what shape it ought to be.

Well, we usually grow them as tall wall or fence covering shrubs Fran. And there are some that are grown as ground cover also.

thanks for that, Karen.

when I first saw it, it was only a bit taller than it is in this pic, but the stems were curved down so much they touched the paving. so it seems that, left to its own devices, it prefers a low altitude

Probably...and as it had no vertical support, it had no option but to droop.

mmmm. might be a bit hard to lift it and move it now. unless a trellis thing could be got round it? but that'd block growth on one side - or two if I got an angled one, which was my first thought, to halp stabiliity. but then if it were growing against a wall growth on one side would be blocked anyway

I love the way this is growing Fran - just looked at my own Ceanothus and there are ten or so flowers on it - hooray!

Yes, Shirley makes a good point....if it ain't broke, don't fixit Fran!

lol thanks Shirley and Karen - that's another job I don't hve to add to the list!

Odd though, it's not flowering at the top, only around the sides. maybe that's SOP for this plant, or maybe the top needs to recover a bit before it's ready to flower there.