Ceanothus Southern Blue

9 years ago

I have tried and failed three times to get Ray Hartman started next to the patio. This winter I bought Southern Blue, a smaller, tree-form ceanothus, on impulse. It's planted in the same place as the deceased Ray Hartmans and doing well. It's supposed to be more tolerant of garden conditions, but the success may be due to this winter's extra rain. I can't know for sure.

i planted it with the root ball a tiny bit proud and made a big watering well around the one gallon plant (if I had thought it would survive, I would have bought the five gallon!) and so far so good. After it flowered and just as the new leaves were opening, the old foliage yellowed and dropped. I thought it was going to follow ol' Ray, but the new foliage has filled in nicely. So far I've been watering it with rain water only from my rain tanks.

I thought that it might be of interest to ceanothus fans. I have sandy, nematode-y soil, two miles inland in north SD county.

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Comments (4)

kentc
9 years ago
I have tried Ray Hartmann twice with no success. But I have a Frosty Blue that is incredible. FB has the tinier leaves instead of the larger ones that RH has. I think the tiny leaved ceanothus fare better in hot weather. I planted a tiny 1 gallon 3 seasons ago and decided it was in the wrong place after 1 year. I cut it back and transplanted, not really expecting it to survive. But it is about 5' tall now. I'm in the Crescenta Valley in LA county and have very sandy nematode rich soil as well.
5birdy
9 years ago
JXBrown, I can't find any info about your Southern Blue ceanothus. Anything you can share?

Ray Hartman was one of the first native plants we tried in our new construction yard 3 years ago. Miraculously it has survived my numerous black thumb blunders. It is on a west facing side of fence on a slight slope with reddish clay type soil. No mulch until I left prune clippings underneath. No supplemental water after first year.

We're about 30 miles inland of San Diego so the dry intense heat is fierce. (I hand water from our rain tanks so most plants really don't get very much!) My biggest error was placing it where the wind really beats it up so it's staked and I must carefully prune this summer to lessen the uprooting threat. Bunnies have since discovered us and they love ceanothus so any new varieties must be protected.
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JXBrown (Sunset 24, N San Diego County)
Original Author
9 years ago
How embarrassing! I got the name wrong. It's South Coast Blue from Moosa Creek:

South Coast Blue
5birdy
9 years ago
Aha! (So funny, I buy most of my plants from Moosa, so many that they gave me a free Tshirt!) Interesting that it is a hybrid of kentc's ceanothus. Be sure to post photos.