Ceanothus thyrsiflorus Esch.

An evergreen shrub or small tree 15 to 30 ft high in this country, but half as high again in a wild state. Young branchlets angled, slightly downy or glabrous. Leaves alternate, three-veined, glabrous and glossy green above; green and either glabrous or downy on the main veins beneath; glandular-toothed, ovate, 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. long; leaf-stalk about one-third the length of the blade. Flowers pale blue, in roundish stalked clusters 1 to 3 in. long, produced from the leaf-axils of the previous season’s growth, and surmounted by the growing leafy shoots of the current season.

Native of California; introduced in 1837. According to Sargent it attains its greatest size in the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains. This is the hardiest of the taller-growing ceanothuses. At Kew, quite unprotected, and in an exposed position, it has grown 20 ft high, and withstood all but the severest winters uninjured; at Warley Place, in Essex, it has been 10 ft higher. Farther north it will make an admirable evergreen for walls. It flowers in May and June in great profusion, and is the most striking among the really hardy species. It exhibits considerable variation in a wild state, in stature, size of leaf, and in the colour of the flowers, which are sometimes almost white. The basal pair of veins extend almost to the apex of the leaf.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

C. griseus – The low-growing var. horizontalis mentioned was described from plants growing near the sea at Yankee Point, Monterey County, and is sometimes known as the Yankee Point ceanothus. Its typical form makes wide mats only 6 in. or so high, but cultivated clones grow taller, to about 3 ft, much more in width. In ‘Louis Edmunds’ the main branches are prostrate, the laterals erect, making a plant eventually 6 ft high and 20 ft wide (Pacif. Hort., Vol. 40(2), p. 44).

The cultivar C. ‘Blue Mound’, raised by Messrs Hillier, was a seedling of C. griseus. It resembles C. griseus var. horizontalis in habit, but is perhaps a hybrid.