On 24/05/2014 09:09, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Sat, 24 May 2014 07:50:14 +0100, (Peter
James) wrote:
I have a one year old Ceanothus that produces a blue flower that is
planted in totally the wrong place faceing East rather, than as the book
says, a southerly aspect.. It's where it gets full exposure and is
fully into the wind, and it doesn't like it.
It got frost burnt and wind burnt in the winter, and has reacted by
producing a mass of plain green leaves instead of the variegated leaves
on the rest of the plant.
The RHS site said it hates being moved, so I think it's stuck where it
is, but can I cut off the plain green leaves without doing any further
damage to the bush. There are quite a lot of them including one spur
that is totally green.
I am in North Cornwall if that should make any difference.
Peter
I am a bit further west and south from you. I have (actually, I had!)
several varieties of ceanothus, all of which were badly burnt by the
winter's salt gales, some burnt completely leafless, and some were
blown right over as well and all these had to be taken out. I pruned
out the leafless and now dead parts of the survivors, mostly
low-growing C. repens, not in the expectation that they will re-shoot
from the pruned stems, but in the hope that eventually growth from the
surviving part of the plant will overgrow and cover the bare parts.
Not sure about your variegated versus all green problem. Perhaps the
original variegated plant was grafted onto a conventional rootstock
and the all green shoot is coming from below the graft.
But I'm reluctantly coming round to agree with NM's comments. Despite
ceanothus being described as a maritime plant (it comes from
California), it's not a plant suitable for exposed coastal gardens in
Cornwall where humidity is always high and salt gales regularly sweep
in and cause devastation. I shan't be planting any more.
I grew C. "Zanzibar" for many years on Sussex clay. It did very well
despite once being partially blown over in a gale (I got it as upright
as I could and staked it for a couple of years). When I moved, it had
been in the ground over a dozen years. It got a bit scruffy below 1
metre, but never reverted or showed any sign of losing variegation. It
survived some very cold winters (-10°C) without a mark, despite the
variegated form supposedly being less hardy than non-variegated
Ceanothus. In another place in the garden, C.thyrsiflorus repens did
well until it got smothered by other, higher-growing, plants. It too got
very scruffy before it disappeared.
I'm now growing Ceanothus arboreus 'Trewithen Blue' in South Hampshire,
again on clay. But despite supposedly being a plant which is quite happy
in drought conditions, it lives in a very wet area after heavy rain -
almost boggy. It seems to be thriving.
--
Jeff