California Lilac, a weed needing the right rotten spot

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.




I first planted  California Lilac in Hartley, New South Wales in 2000, and it just exploded with growth and rapidly became leggy, top heavy, casting a wide shadow in which nothing grew. It attracted swarms of bees. I had put some others in the wrong place, and at that point in my gardening life I tended to look at single plants rather than the broad picture effect, and I thought they were ugly because they are not delicate or pretty in any way. They are stately.  I ripped out four or five massive five year old California Lilacs and swore I would never again attempt to use them.

Fast forward several years and I am at a different house, and my gardener suggests she prunes, rather than removes the one California Lilac that is growing in the front of a wide bed. She finds my prejudice curious. The result is that a couple of years later I have a nicely shaped, well controlled shrub that casts its shade over some Lamb's Ears that appreciate shelter from the angry Western sun. Nothing else would have taken root in this precarious ledge of clay.This plant has not evidenced the need of extra water, although it has caught some extra moisture as I have gardened around her. Moreover, as no other shade giving plants will grow in that barren spot, I have more recently put two more in to create a small hedge.

I can buy these plants in tubes for about $5, and grow them on in larger pots quite quickly. This is the most economical way of establishing a hedgerow, if you have a large property and you are happy for them to rampage away.  You might want to throw out some hives! The California Lilac is not really a candidate for backyards and urban front yards. But she can be controlled and shaped if necessary.