Well, the odyssey is over. Taken back in October last year, these cuttings, which looked so promising for so long, have all now died. Not sure why, but stems have gradually been going over through the last month or two. They were perhaps hastened on their way by the relatively hot weather we’ve had recently. Or perhaps it was the relatively cold weather we had in the early spring that did for them. Or a combination of the two! Who knows.

To add insult to injury, the parental ceanothus tree is not looking too great. They are not especially long lived shrubs, this one is perhaps 10 or 12 years old, so I wonder if it is slowly giving up the ghost. It looks ok from the front, particularly at this time of year, although the flowers are basically done now.

From the side, however, it looks distinctly patchy. In anything else I would be tempted to prune it back hard and see what happens, but I gather ceanothus would greatly resent such harsh treatment.

It has my resident thug jasmine growing up through the middle which probabky isn’t helping. I may just take the lot out later in the year. bringing a bit more light into that border. An opportunity for some new plants!

My original thought back last year when futilely attempting to propagate this shrub was to train the offspring as a wall shrub down the side of the house. I’ll just have to look out for one for sale somewhere. This shrub has beaten me, I hereby admit defeat. C’est la guerre.

I’ll be back soon with more propagation perambulations.