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Saturday 14 May 2016

Shrubs In Flower Now #Ceanothus, #Wisteria, And #Lilac Are This Weeks Bloomers


Ceanothus Italian Skies
Top 3 bloomers this week would have to be ceanothus, syringa and wisteria.
 Ceanothus come in a range of sizes to suit all from small spreading ground cover to arborensus or tree size. Known as California Lilac for its sky blue blooms. Its a glossy evergreen needing a well drained sunny place.



Syringa (Lilac) 'Charles Joy' click for more info
Easy to grow. Tolerant plants but prefer well drained. They have been in the UK since the 1600 so I think they are here to stay. They are a lovely begining to the late spring follow perhaps with a season of roses.
Wisteria sinensis
Contrary to popular belief wisteria is not a difficult plant to grow. The concept of pruning is to maintain only a couple of flowers in each stem that whips off a main trunk often trained to grow horizontally. If it makes long wispy branches the flowers at the end are weak. You have two goes at pruning. One after flowering late summer and the other very early spring.