Ceanothus 'Perle Rose'
5th July 1987
Believed to be a hybrid between C. coeruleus and C. americanus, the former parent a rather tender blue flowered species from Mexico.
The latter parent is hardier with white flowers. There may also have been some involvement from C. ovatus.
The result has been a pink flowerted, deciduous hybrid that benefits from hard pruning in spring, which many of the evergreen forms would resent.
I had a brief "blue period" when I moved into this garden, determined to give some of the Ceanothus a try. I was depending in their fast growth to create some structure
and their short lives to keep them from being a nuisance as the garden developed. I tried quite a few, some of them worked. Many disliked the wet climate here and 'Perle Rose'
was one of them. It never really made much impact and disappeared without its absence being noticed (until I found this picture thirty years later).