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California Lilac: “Ray Hartman"


Yep, it's July. Yep, my Ray Hartman Ceanothus (aka California Lilac) decided to bloom....again! I am baffled - and thrilled.


After the tiny one I planted in fall kicked the bucket very, very quickly, I replaced it with a larger one and it has thrived. Being a bit of a Ceanothus groupie, to put it mildly (after growing our first back in P-town, I planted at least 10 on the farm and 4 or 5 different varieties in the city cottage, the latter which had a sad one that I brought back to life and is now a force of nature in purple every spring), I'd always dreamt about planting the 'tree' version after seeing it at the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens back in 2019 with my love, and was so stoked to spot this up here in the Valley! It can get to over 12' tall and, as anyone growing California Lilacs knows, is a total bee magnet!!


I can't find any information online as to ceanothus reblooming months later, so I'll just take this as a very, very good sign.


That and climate change effing up the natural order of things...

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