I have two evergreen ceanothus bushes in different parts of the
garden, both about five years old and grown from cuttings from a plant
in a garden about a mile away, in West Cornwall (don't know the
variety but possibly Dark Star). Over the winter, both lost virtually
all their leaves, apart from a very few on the side protected from the
winter gales. This spring, there were a very few signs of new shoots
appearing, but mostly the branches were dead. I've cut them back
fairly hard in the hope that they'll regenerate, but I'm not
optimistic, especially as it's my understanding that ceanothus don't
take kindly to such treatment.

But I was surprised it happened. The winter was milder than usual,
with less frost than in previous years. AIUI ceanothus in general are
maritime shrubs mostly from California, that tolerate a degree of salt
gale exposure, and although the winter gales this year were possibly a
bit stronger than in previous winters, I wouldn't have expected them
to have suffered the way they did. They've always come through past
winters unscathed to provide a mass of deep blue flowers about now.
Curiously enough, the parent plant from which these were raised has
suffered in exactly the same way. There are just a few green shoots on
the leeward side. This one is almost at sea level, some 300 ft lower
than us, and winter frosts in that position are a rarity.

Could it have been the dry summer that actually did for them, and the
winter gales just stripped off what were virtually dead leaves? Having
said that, I thought they were reasonably drought resistant. Are
ceanothus short-lived plants? Has anyone else lost their ceanothus
this way this spring?


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net