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| A wonderful sea of weeds in a good marriage of colour and shape |
Weeds, by definition, are vigorous. They spread, flourish, self seed, and that is precisely why we have a negative perception of them. Then we go out and buy exotic things that are not vigorous or hardy, that are attention seeking, sniveling shriveled up things that will not co operate. I have decided that it is easier to change my perception of some of the weeds in my garden, that try to coax along the exotics in such dry reactive clay.
I have written about the elegant, shimmering sea of Agapanthus that rise up along my borders every Christmas. Regardless of the purists and town councils that want to eradicate sweet Agapanthus, she deserves a place to flourish and bless us with her brilliant seed heads every summer. She will grow where other things will not - rotten spots.
This summer I would like to pay homage to the California Lilac (Ceanothus) who thrives in hot dry spaces. She survives on poor clay soils, shooting out her angular shiny dark green foliage, rapidly expanding, and blessing the horizon with shafts of flower heads. In the picture above the California Lilac is the second row of blue at the back, behind the common lilac.
