Ceanothus rigidus 'Snowball'

Ceanothus rigidus 'Snowball' is a low evergreen shrub with small dark green, leathery, holly-like leaves, and white flower clusters cover the foliage in spring.  'Snowball' needs some summer water and afternoon shade in the interior. Snowball can be used as a large scale ground cover along the coast where Buck and Bambi think your place is a salad bar,

Ceanothus Snowball loves to have the dust washed off every week or two. As long as the ground doesn't get wet you can water every summer this way. This keeps the plants looking clean, doesn't trigger lunch with bambi, and makes the planting relatively fireproof. Use with other Ceanothus for its white flowers. Compatible with Ceanothus 'Mills Glory'. in large scale ground covers. Or plant in the center for a mounding effect when mixed with Ceanothus porrectus. Drop a couple of (Cercis occidentalis) Western Redbud. in also and you've got a stunning garden. This California lilac, like many others, likes cool soils (roots hidden under rock, log, mulch or afternoon shade) and to be summer dry, but for the soil to still have some moisture in it. They LOVE to be five to ten foot from a lawn. Having said all that, at our Santa Margarita location we planted the original plants in part shade and they grew to four foot tall and six feet wide. Later we planted a few, during winter, in full sun, watered once, and we got true 'Snowballs'. Two to three foot round mounds of white, with no water in full sun, in soil that dries to bedrock (about 10 feet) every summer (100-110 F. for months). 

Grows in sandy soil, but this Ceanothus has tolerated our clay soil very well so far, for over 15 years. 'Snowball' has survived with no water in a planting do in adobe soil in San Luis Obispo since about 1980,. There it was mixed with Catalina Ironwood and Toyon.

Ceanothus rigidus is a rare plant, centered on Monterey. No damage at 10 degrees F. 

Click here for more about California Lilacs (Ceanothus). Why do the roots of some of the Ceanothus look funny?  This may actually be Ceanothus rigidus var. albus, according to some botanists.