<em>Teucrium</em>, germander: planting, care

Description and botany

Teucrium, or germander, belongs to family Lamiaceae, like its close relatives sage, mint, lavender and thyme. The genus comprises about a hundred species native to hillsides and rocky areas of the Mediterranean regions of southern Spain, southern Portugal and Morocco, and even the arid hills of Iran and the Caucasus. Germanders are divided into groundcover species such as Teucrium chamaedrys (germander ‘little-oak’) and shrub-like species such as Teucrium fruticans also called ‘tree germander’, the latter being the most common in gardens. This species grows wild on Mediterranean coasts where it is protected. ‘Azureum’, a teucrium with blue flowers, is one of the loveliest cultivars of this shrubby germander.

Among Teucrium species are also Teucrium hircanicum, the Iranian germander, and Teucrium x lucidrys, germander Lucydris, an undershrub perennial that forms a very spreading groundcover, to name only the species most commonly planted in gardens.

Habit and size vary by species: shrubby and somewhat untidy, reaching up to 1.4 m, even 2 m in all directions in Teucrium fruticans; forming erect clumps about 60 cm high in Teucrium hircanicum; and creeping, very mat-forming in Teucrium chamaedrys and Teucrium x lucidrys, two species whose height ranges from 15 to 40 cm. Teucrium aroanium, one of the smallest (8 to 10 cm high), makes an excellent groundcover.

Foliage is often evergreen, sometimes semi-evergreen or even deciduous depending on climate, and develops on stems with a quadrangular cross-section that are often woody and sometimes cottony. Some germanders produce upright, strongly ramified stems (Teucrium fruticans), while others (Teucrium chamaedrys) spread slowly via stoloniferous stems that root where they touch the soil.

Leaf shape, texture and colour also differ by species. Leaves are arranged in opposite, decussate pairs — that is, in a cross along the stem. They measure 3 to 5 cm long and are linear, ovate to oblong or lanceolate, with prominent veins, entire or so strongly crenate that they resemble tiny oak leaves in germander ‘little-oak’, which earned this undershrub its vernacular name.

Teucrium chamaedrys / Teucrium hircanicum

Leathery, green and glossy above in most species, leaves are covered with a fine down that gives Teucrium fruticans a bright silvery grey-green colour. The underside of the leaves is often covered with a thick white felt or tomentum, very downy. In some, leaves are slightly aromatic when crushed, the foliage then giving off a scent reminiscent of hay or a rather bitter aroma.

From this glabrescent or pubescent vegetation, both compact and airy, emerge in spring (from February to June, sometimes as early as December in Mediterranean regions) or in summer (from June to September north of the Loire), depending on species and climate, small inflorescences typical of Lamiaceae. Grouped in twos to sixes, in racemes or spikes on the upper parts of the hairy stems, the round, downy flower buds open into bilabiate corollas about 1 cm long. These small but numerous flowers, set in a campanulate calyx, are divided into five pointed petals fused together to form a single lower lip. The median lobe is more elongated. Each flower shelters a cluster of four prominent stamens, two more exserted than the others.

Teucrium hircanicum is notable for long violet spikes that can reach up to 20 cm in length.

Each of these small delicate flowers opens in shades ranging from pure white in Teucrium chamaedrys ‘Alba’ to lilac pink, through the deep crimson of the Iranian germander, and more rarely yellow (Teucrium polium, Teucrium flavum), while cultivar ‘Azureum’ stands out with bright blue flowers tinged with lavender.

This delicate flowering, particularly nectariferous and melliferous, blooms for many months and attracts pollinating insects.

Teucrium fruticans (photo Peganum) / Teucrium lucidrys / Teucrium chamaedrys ‘Alba’

Its fruits consist of four achenes containing seeds that can naturalise through spontaneous self-seeding.

This Mediterranean plant grows in full sun, tolerates poor soils, is indispensable in dry gardens and can withstand short frosts down to around -12°C.

Teucrium, notably the famous germander ‘little-oak’, has antiseptic and digestive therapeutic properties and is also used to relieve rheumatism and headaches. Its young leaves can be added to salads, and it is used to flavour liqueurs such as chartreuse and vermouth with its slightly bitter taste. Its dried flowering tops are consumed as an infusion.

Main species and varieties

Most popular

Our favourites

Teucrium fruticans Azureum - Tree Germander

With vivid blue flowers, one of the most attractive varieties of shrubby germander. Perfect as a specimen plant in dry and seaside gardens, in hedges, in shrub borders, as a solitary plant and even in a container on a terrace. Responds very well to pruning and to topiary.

• Flowering time March to September
• Height at maturity 1,20 m

See the product sheet

Teucrium chamaedrys Alba - Germander

With small bushy habit, white-yellow flowers and fine aromatic glossy dark green foliage, nearly evergreen, ideal in rockeries, in pretty borders or as low no-maintenance hedging.

• Flowering time July to September
• Height at maturity 30 cm

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Teucrium hircanicum - Germander

A robust perennial germander, very hardy, with aromatic foliage and a more spectacular display of flowers than other species. A treasure for rockeries and dry gardens.

• Flowering time July to September
• Height at maturity 60 cm

See the product sheet

Teucrium x lucidrys

This perennial undershrub, very groundcovering, stands out for its long flowering in upright spikes. This small groundcover will grow on banks, on rockery slopes or at edge of a low wall, from which it will fall in a cascade.

• Flowering time July to October
• Height at maturity 30 cm

See the product sheet

Planting

Where to plant Teucrium?

Germander is a Mediterranean plant accustomed to dry, poor, calcareous soils. It is well equipped to cope with drought and long hot, dry summers. Most Teucrium species nevertheless tolerate cold quite well and can withstand short frosts (down to -10°C to -12°C) once well established. Teucrium fruticans, slightly more tender (suffers from cold from -5°C), will do better in regions with mild winters; in our coldest and wettest areas, grow it in a pot and overwinter frost-free.

It likes full sun, which will enhance the silver colour of the foliage of some species and intensify its scent.

Native to arid regions, it prefers stony, poor, dry, calcareous soils in which it grows best, but will accept any good garden soil provided it is very well drained: it dislikes waterlogged soils in winter, in which case it will be difficult to get it through winter. In heavy soils, grow it on a slope or in a raised bed.

This undershrub or small perennial is a good plant for dry soils where it forms attractive glossy green or silvery tufts. It has a place in all natural gardens or as a windbreak in coastal gardens, as it is not bothered by sea spray.

Smaller species will grow on dry slopes, on the slopes of a rockery, in the crevices of an old stone wall in the most inhospitable parts of the garden and even in pots.

Shrubby germanders are ideal for informal or clipped hedges and for shrub borders. They are perfectly suited to being pruned into topiary.

When to plant Teucrium?

Plant Teucrium in spring from February to May depending on region when temperatures rise, or in autumn from September to November in warm climates.

How to plant Teucrium?

In the ground

For creeping species allow 5 plants per m². For shrubby germander, 1 plant per m² is enough.

• Dig a hole 2 to 4 times wider than the rootball
• Aerate the soil well
• Lighten with coarse sand
• Spread a 10 cm layer of gravel across the bottom of the planting hole
• Plant and backfill
• Press down lightly
• Water generously at planting then moderately, avoiding waterlogging the roots

Teucrium hircanicum with grasses

In a pot

Teucrium can also be grown in pots on a terrace or balcony, to overwinter frost-free in the wettest regions. The substrate must be very free-draining to avoid stagnant moisture at the roots: do not leave water in saucers.

• Spread a good drainage layer (gravel or clay pebbles) across the bottom of the pot
• Plant in a mix composed of equal parts coarse sand and potting compost for Mediterranean plants
• Water at planting then sparingly
• In cold regions, store the pot for winter and bring it out again in spring

Maintenance, pruning and care

Le teucrium est une undemanding young plant vraiment peu exigeante qui requires very little attention et sera idéale dans un jardin de week-end sans entretien. Water les deux premiers mois après la planting pour favoriser l’enracinement puis uniquement en cas de sécheresse prolongée et toujours avec parcimonie car c’est un habitué des longs étés arides characteristic du climate méditerranéen. Une fois bien enraciné, laissez faire la nature !

Remove faded flowers regularly pour favoriser l’apparition de nouvelles et rallonger la durée de flowering. Laissez grainer quelques sommités afin de pouvoir faire des sowing l’année suivante.

Pour les germandrées en pot, veillez à des arrosages plus regular en laissant toujours le substrat bien sécher entre deux apports d’water.

Pour cette undemanding young plant, no fertiliser is necessary.

Surveillez les self-seeded sowing, souvent nombreux, supprimez-les ou replantez-les où bon vous semble.

Dans les régions aux hivers rigoureux et humides, rentrez les teucrium les plus frileux comme le Teucrium fruticans à l’abri du gel et de la pluie, et ressortez-les dès que les températures remontent au printemps. Repot tous les deux ou trois ans ou top-dress au printemps tous les ans en apportant du compost.

Insensibles aux maladies, les teucrium n’ont pas d’ennemis.

Découvrez plus de conseils pour care for perennials et protect your plants from cold.

When and how to prune?

La pruning du Teucrium est le seul entretien véritable. Elle est conseillée chaque year pour garder un joli habit fourni à la plant. Les annual prunings en fin d’hiver et en été l’empêchent de former du vieux wood. Si on ne la taille pas, la germander adopte volontiers une silhouette hirsute. Elle se prête très bien à la pruning en boule comme le buis ou en topiaire. Nous vous recommandons donc deux prunings :

1. Au printemps, épointez à la shears le plus gros des jeunes shoots pour égaliser la touffe, prune assez court, éliminez tout le dead wood
2. Juste après flowering, éliminez les flowers fanées par une pruning de nettoyage en coupant juste en dessous de la flower head

Tous les 4 ans, rajeunissez les pieds les plus âgés en les rabattant sévèrement à 3 bud de la stump, il repartira de plus belle !

Multiplication

Germander is easily propagated in June by herbaceous cuttings or by semi-ripe cuttings in July–August, by sowing in spring with mature seeds harvested in garden in autumn or by layering for shrubby species, a more laborious operation.

Taking cuttings of Teucrium

• Take heel cuttings 5–10 cm long
• Remove leaves from lower half of stem
• Insert cuttings two-thirds of their length into a tray or into buckets in a well-draining mix of equal parts compost and sand
• Keep in partial shade and water regularly until rooting, which is fairly quick
• In winter, shelter cuttings from frost under cold frame
• Plant out permanently the following spring
• Pinch out young shoots to encourage bushiness
• Water well during first year after planting

Sowing

• Under cover in February–March, sow seeds in a tray containing good seed compost and sand
• Cover seeds lightly with compost
• Firm down and keep moist until germination
• Keep sowings in light
• Prick out seedlings into individual buckets when strong enough to handle
• Plant out into ground when temperature has risen
• Pinch young stems so they ramify

By layering

• In spring, bend down a low branch
• Remove leaves from that part of the stem
• Lay it into a mix of garden soil, turf and sand
• Bury it so it can root
• In September, cut off rooted layers using pruning shear
• Pot up each branch into a bucket, in a mix of compost and sand
• Keep over winter under cold frame
• Following spring, plant into garden in well-drained soil

Pairing germander in the garden

Germander is a plant accustomed to long hot periods and naturally finds its place in dry gardens and natural gardens where sun reigns supreme, in a scree garden or rockery alongside dry-soil plants and other Mediterranean perennials.

Teucrium fruticans, with its somewhat bushy habit, will be happy as an informal or clipped hedge alongside bushes with summer flowering that are as frugal as it is: Escallonia, Vitex, Australian rosemary, Cistus, Althéa. In a natural border, you can create a lush summer scene by combining it with shrubby lavateras, Caryopteris, hollyhocks, dry-soil euphorbias, Achillea millefolium, nepeta, and a few clumps of Stipa tenuifolia and Stipa pennata. The silvery foliage of Teucrium fruticans ‘Azureum’ will find an echo in the handsome grey leaves of Artemisia, santolinas or Helichrysum italicum.

An example of a natural pairing: Teucrium hircanicum and Achillea ‘Cerise Queen’, Cirsium rivale ‘Atropurpurea’, Echinacea purpurea, Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Blackfield’, Verbena bonariensis and Allium sphaerocephalon

In a rockery evoking garrigue, small germanders will keep company with other undemanding, drought-hardy plants such as creeping rosemary, Helichrysum petiolare, Perovskia, woody thymes, salvias, small potentillas, and sedums.

They will also form pretty aromatic borders, paired with lavenders. Blue or violet flowers of germanders marry well with small hardy geraniums or with Echinops ritro and will offer a lovely contrast with complementary yellow of coreopsis flowers and helianthemums.

Groundcover species can also cover base of ceanothus or buddleia and Mediterranean bushes such as creeping broom, olive, mimosa, cistus and lantanas — like those of small dry-soil bushes such as Hertia cheirifolia, Hypericum olympicum.

→ Discover more ideas to pair Teucrium in our advice sheet!