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Nick Maclaren[_3_] · 25-05-2014, 11:19 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article ,
Janet wrote:
In article ,
says...
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.

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've has several die young here (including a prostrate one which got
blown out of the ground) except for one, that defies all the above. I've
long since lost the name. It's in its 12th year from planting and hugely
robust, 9ft tall and wide, and covered in flower buds about to open.
It's freestanding, facing north and east over the bay, with the feeble
protection of a buddliea globosa at its back. The buddliea often gets
branches blown off by wind. Rainfall is around 90" a year. We're on a
clifftop and regularly subject to severe SW gales with salt; and when we
get the occasional cold NE wind it has absolutely no protection from
that. Yet it has never "burned".

Now, if we could all remember which ones lived and died, we might
be able to identify which are rubust against such things, and which
aren't! I suspect that the standard rules are over-simplistic.

Regards,
Nick Maclaren.