Mountain Sweet

Mountain Sweet (Ceanothus) - Beautiful shrubs of the Buckthorn family, some hardy enough on light soils in sunny places to endure our climate, even as bush plants, though the majority form good wall plants. In all the kinds the flowers are small, but abundant. As wall shrubs it is best to prune them in April; and as all the sorts flower on the shoots of the current years growth, from one to three eyes of the preceding years wood should be left, reserving, or at most only topping, such shoots as are required for filling up the open spaces on the wall. Most of the introduced kinds are of free growth in warm soil, and they flower most freely in sunny exposures. As they are for the most part natives of the Pacific slope of N. America no one should attempt their culture except in warm soil. The following are distinct and pretty:—

Clethra alnifolia L. - coastal sweetpepperbush

Clethra alnifolia L. - coastal sweetpepperbush

Clethra alnifolia L. - coastal sweetpepperbush

Clethra acuminata Michx. - mountain sweetpepperbush

Clethra alnifolia L. - coastal sweetpepperbush

New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus Americanus) - Though one of the hardiest, this thrives best against a wall, and in a dry porous soil; the flowers, in succession from about the middle of June till August, white. E. America.

Ceanothus Azureus - From the temperate regions of Mexico, where it grows as a straggling bush about 10 feet high. It is one of our prettiest wall shrubs, flowering abundantly in dry, sunny situations, the flowers bright blue, from June to September. C. pallidus is a handsome variety, with pale blue flowers. The result of crossing with this species may be seen in such lovely shrubs as C. Gloire des Versailles, Arnoldii, Lucie Simon, Theodore Froebel, Bertinii, President Reveil, Lucie Moser, and others, all of which have flowers in large plumy clusters, some white, others rose, but mostly of some shade of blue.

Ceanothus Dentatus - an elegant little evergreen shrub, rarely higher than about 3 feet. The flowers, which appear in May or June, are deep blue, and continue the greater part of the season.

Ceanothus Divaricatus - ows as a dense broad evergreen bush of about 10 feet high. It is a free-growing handsome wall plant, flowering from May to autumn, the flowers a bright blue.

Ceanothus Papillosus - a pretty little species from the mountains of California, where it is a densely-branched straggling bush 6 to 10 feet high. The panicles of pale blue flowers are borne on long foot-stalks from the sides of the young shoots. Like the other kinds, it loves the protecting of a wall, on which it blooms in summer.

Ceanothus Rigidus - a sub-evergreen, or in sheltered places an evergreen, rarely exceeding 6 feet in height, the branches stiff and wiry; the flowers, in clusters on the sides of the young shoots, are deep purple, in April and May.

C. veitchianus is one of the best kinds, the flowers of a rich deep blue, in dense clusters at the ends of leafy branches.

Ceanothus Verrucosus - rms a thickly branched evergreen bush about 6 feet high. As a wall plant it is of free growth, and has a good effect, the flowers coming in May and during the summer months, borne in corymbs along the whole length of the young branches, often so profusely as to hide the foliage.

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