Ceanothus 'Mountain Haze'

Ceanothus Mountain Haze is an  evergreen shrub to 8 feet with medium to small, dark green leaves. Garden tolerant, good hedge or screen, and fast, to 8 feet high in 2 yrs . This one is so fast that a gopher ate off one side, the plant fell over, and still made 8 ft. in 3 years (it looked a little crooked).

First introduced in 1948 by Walter Lammerts, Mountain Haze seems to appear a hybrid, with one of the parents being Ceanothus cyaneus and it's cousin Ceanothus 'Sierra Blue'. Probably has some Ceanothus impressus var. nipomoensis in the gene pool. This hybrid needs more water than 'Frosty Blue' (which looks its twin but for lighter flowers).

Not the best candidate for growing in heavy soil if you tend to overwater, or on drip irrigation. It will basically grow so fast there's no bottom to the plant, just top leaves and then it looks beat up. A winner in a lean loam with minimal water and occasional pruning. A dream hedge, (Mountain Haze is so fast) it has enormous value as a fast filler to plant with slower, longer lived bushes like Arctostaphylos 'Dr. Hurd', the scrub oaks, Heteromeles(Toyon), or Rhamnus californica.

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