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The darkest blue flowered form of the species, though the picture doesn't show it. I grew on a few rooted cuttings out of interest even though my garden is not well suited
to such things. As the plants got too large I gave them to a Plant Heritage sale. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1983, Roy Lancaster says: "In the sun baked scrub which forms an interesting diversion from the vedar forests of the High Atlas in Morocco the late Captain Collingwood Ingram once found an attractive plant. It belonged to that unusual shrubby member of the mint family Teucrium fruticans and rather than the usual slatey-blue the flowers were a striking gentian blue contrasting effectively with the white hairy stems and leaf under-surfaces. This form is in cultivation under the cultivar name 'Azureum' (Ingram at first hoped it might be a distinct species) and received an A.M. in 1936. It is however rather tender and those who have seen it thriving in a Mediterranean garden have seen it at its best. It was interesting therefore to see at the Show on 21 September an A.M. being given to the species itself as a half-hardy shrub for foliage effect. Teucrium fruticans has been in cultivation here a long time, since the eighteenth century at least and is a popular choice for so called 'grey borders' and othe plantings where strong colours such as rose, purple or blue require a suitable foil. Although claimed by some to be hardy it is more suited for warm sheltered borders in the south and west and even there in places it is subject to frost damage unless protected." |
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| 6th February 2018 | ||