[ritamax]

To my delight and surprise in the last 1,5 years of my new garden I have lost only 2 plants, which I consider entirely due to the irrigation system and the choice of drought-tolerant plants. Even after 6 months' drought the garden looked green in September. This is all of course very controversial and I feel guilty about my water consume. On the other hand the clay soil seems to retain moisture very well especially under the geotextile and gravel. This autumn has been, however, unexceptionally rainy, with a torrential rain 28th September of about 120mm on one day. When I came there the next time in the end of October I found the Ceanothus looking awful. When I digged it out, it was sitting in a black, crumbly, moist soil full of rainworms! The kind of a soil suitable for roses. What had happened? While planting on the last day of my trip, I ran out of sand and perlite, and improved the soil with rotted horse manure, that's all I had. So in one year the soil had turned into a very fertile soil, but not at all suitable for a Ceanothus. So with a clay soil there are possibilities, but not everything goes. The way they irrigate in my area, every night shortly keeps this type of soil moist, but avoids compacting and waterlogging.

[pamela]

Well, I can tell you I have killed no less than 3 Ceanothus... Beautiful as they are they just dont like me at all!

[ritamax]

That is very interesting, you have the similar soil, I suppose, so it seems they don't like Costa Blanca! Do you have other plants which dislike your soil? My lavenders do not look good, they would probably need better drainage. Grevilleas, which I thought to be a problem, are fine, they have even taken the overhead watering well.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

This topic has changed to a discussion of lavender so has been moved to Trees and Shrubs.

http://www.mgsforum.org/smf/index.php?topic=1122.0

[Umbrian]

In my experience, Ceanothus can be quite short lived. I planted two C thyrisiflorus, one either side of two shallow steps leading to a water feature. They flourished for a year or two and then started to die back. Pruning off the dead branches only resulted in further die back and in the end one gave up the ghost completely and the other sad specimin had to go too! The position seemed well suited to their requirements, full sun and protected from strong winds and indeed they did look lovely in the beginning, blue flowering shrubs not being easy to find.

[ritamax]

I read some interesting stuff about Ceanothus. It dislikes irrigation in summer, soil amendment, fertiizing and absolutely demands a well-draining soil.

[Fleur Pavlidis]

Sally Razelou is testing out two cultivars of Ceanothus at Sparoza: Yankee Point and Concha. Three of each just planted.
My own experience exactly mirrors Umbrian's even though our growing conditions are fairly different.

[David Bracey]

Ceanothus or Californian lilac is a Caliform^nian weed.  O Filippi says"it lives longer if the soil is dry...........they should never be watered in summer".

[Trevor Australis]

Can only agree about no summer water. They are adapted to this regime naturally in California. I wouldn't call them weeds tho. The are very beautiful plants with many forms from prostrate to tree-like. I found none of the 7 I planted lasted longer than 20 yrs. And Boy are they hard to cut down when dead and dry. The timber is like iron.