Hello! You might try calling a nursery called interestingly enough"Cistus" They are located in Oregon, but I know they will be able to help you. THey are also a mail order company, but I am not sure if they ship to Canada. They do have a website and I'm sure you can email them as well.

Is there a color you prefer? C. x purpureus will be a relatively compact plant to about 4'x4' and with bright orchid pink flowers. C. 'Sunset' (sometimes sold as 'Brilliancy') is a popular selection here and will stay shorter but with a wider sread and with large magenta flowers. My favorite is C. ladanifer or Crimson Spot rockrose, with large white flowers with a dark maroon spot at the petal base. Should stay around 5'x5'.

I wouldn't improve the soil too much - these plants actually prefer rather lean soil and require excellent drainage. They will also benefit from a light shearing in spring to remove winter damage and encourage some denser branching. They resent hard pruning and tend not to be especially long lived in the PNW.

And an added bonus is that deer don't like them! I have a couple and they are great, easy care shrubs.

Does anyone have experience with transplanting a large cistus? I'm wondering if they transplant well. I quite like these plants, but they tend to outgrow the location I've put them in and as mentioned hard pruning is not an option.

Can't remember the botanical name (have it somewhere in a pile) but I planted a few sweet broom 2 years ago that are supposed to have bright yellow flowers in Spring. The first year they did but not after that. In a hard freeze there's die-off. So far this winter they've done well, just some tips withered, and I'm hoping they'll bloom again. They're about 6' tall now. The slugs love these and devour the blossoms and new growth so I have to liberally sprinkle slug bait around these continually and hand-pick oodles of slugs off. Very pretty evergreen bushes.

I think with cistus you have to look at not just desired flower color but foliage and plant structure for the particular area. I have several 'Brilliancy' in my pond area and elsewhere and I quite like them. I also had a number of 'Skanbergii' which I did not like and transplanted them four times before finally admitting that the only place they would work for me was in the compost pile :-(

Here's a picture of a 'Brilliancy' above one of my streams. It spreads out and kind of creates a tunnel over the waterfall at the top of the stream. There's actually another less mature one in the upper right of the photo that kind of blends into the other plantings.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:32176}}

Thanks for all the help.... I thinbk I'll look for "Crimson Spot".... it seems to fit my needs. I knew there would be an expert out there!

As long as white flowers are OK your best bet would be Cistus laurifolius. Appears to be hardier and structurally more resilient than most other rock roses sold and planted here, including crimson-spot rockrose (a common name and not a cultivar 'Crimson Spot') which seems neither particularly enduring nor floriferous here.

February 2008 'Northwest Garden News' newspaper has a 'Cistus and Ceanothus Trials' article.

Are older specimens worth saving or moving if overgrown the space? I'd be interested in hearing practical experience with them.

When would it be good to do the following?
transplant
layer branches
take cuttings

Pull it/them out and replace with fresh stock in spring.