Ceanothus 'Spring Party' - California Lilac

The Ceanothus impressus 'Spring Party' is a recent variety that will charm with its hardiness and generous flowering of intense violet-blue from May to June. Decorative all year round, it is a beautiful bush that can be trained against a wall or fence in a not-too-harsh climate. Give it sun and well-drained, acidic to neutral soil.

The Ceanothus Spring Party is a horticultural hybrid originating from, among others, the Ceanothus impressus, a botanical species native to California. All evergreen ceanothus belongs to the Rhamnaceae family, cousins of our buckthorn (Frangula purging). They are plants of chaparral, scrub vegetation, and garrigue, which, once well rooted, are content with rainwater. They fear heavy and permanently wet soils, growing quickly but not living very long.

This 'Spring Party' variety forms a beautiful bush with a bushy, somewhat upright, dense habit, which tends to widen slightly with age. It will reach a height of about 1.80 m and a width of 1.50 m in about seven years. Depending on the climate, its inflorescences appear abundantly between May and early July. They form at the end of the branches in dense panicles of tiny flowers of deep violet-blue colour with prominent stamens. This abundant and slightly fragrant flowering attracts many pollinating insects. The foliage persists in winter and comprises alternate, rather large, ovate leaves with few teeth on the edges. They are glossy, dark green, with a more greyish underside. This variety tolerates light pruning after flowering. Its hardiness is around -15°C when the plant has been established in the garden for several years, in a sheltered position from the wind, for example, against a wall.

In recent years, horticulturists have 'invented' beautiful varieties of ceanothus that are easier to acclimatise and have more modest dimensions, suitable for our gardens and terraces. Reasonably resistant to summer drought and tolerant of poor or sandy soils, the Ceanothus Spring Party is a beautiful subject to plant against a wall (it can be trained), as a standalone specimen, or in a mass of shrubs in mild climates. It will also look good in a mixed hedge associated with other evergreen shrubs (bay laurel, Osmanthus, oleander, photinias, privet, Mexican orange blossom...). To accompany it, consider, for example, butterfly bushes, Fremontodendron californicum (in April-May-June), coronillas (in April), shrubby rockroses, botanical roses and small strawberry trees.