A fuzz of blue at Portmeirion

Regular readers will know that Portmeirion is a place I like to visit often.  I have recently returned from staying there for a gloriously relaxing week, a holiday that was very much needed.  There is ususally a plant that will catch my eye when I am staying at Portmeirion and this year there was no doubt what the plant was.

Whilst the sky moved from blue to grey to blue, the blue of the ceanothus was bright.  I started noticing the ceanothus from the moment I arrived.  They are like bee magnets and whenever there was a vague moment of sun, the ceanothus began to buzz.

As I wandered the village during the week I was there, the more ceanothus I saw.  They seem ideally suited to the Eryri craggy rocks, draping themselves languidly.

I had no need to really seek them out, they seemed to be everywhere I looked.

Though I did spend some time trying to get nice angles to view them through.

I became completely enamoured with this shrub during this week.  I have had ceanothus in a couple of gardens previously including here where I live now.  There was a beautiful one in the front garden when I first moved in but sadly it died in the hard winter of 2010.  I did try and replace it but to no great success and actually I would say I sort of forgot about them.   I would see them and think how nice they were but I stopped appreciating them if that makes any sense.  

I returned from Wales with my appreciation truly relit and of course I have ordered one to arrive in the Autumn - would you expect any other outcome?  This though involved choices as ceanothus can bloom in Spring or Summer/Autumn.  I seem to have a thing about Spring flowering shrubs so I have plumped for a Spring flowering one.  Most ceanothus are evergreen, which is not a usual choice for me but some green in Winter is welcome.  They like to be in a sunny position and apparently are not keen on too much wind but I look at these on the coast at Portmeirion so there are some varieties more tough than others.  They can be quite drought tolerant so should not need too much care when it has settled in.  Planting in Autumn helps with settling in as there tends to be sufficient rain (as I write this, the rainy Spring continues.....).  They are not too keen on sitting in very wet ground so this I do need to consider carefully.  Most of my garden is thick heavy clay but I do have some better draining areas, so the shrub will head for that part of the garden.

I am excited already awaiting its delivery.  

Take care and be kind.

For more from the Blackberry Garden follow me on Twitter X  Facebook and Instagram