We have the most remarkable blue flowering shrub in the garden at Lou Messugo. It’s in full bloom and in its prime right now. I just had to share it with you. It’s certainly one of the most successful things we’ve planted here. It’s name is Céanothe in French and Ceanothus or Trewithen Blue in English.
Four years ago, in May 2010 we planted a small spindly plant about 40 cm high. Today it’s over 2.5 metres high and about 4 metres wide.
See those tiny plants at the end of the arrow? One of them is our Ceanothus
Same shot 4 years later, the Ceanothus is not the only thing to have grown
I’ve tried to show some before and after photos, but the befores weren’t easy to find as we had a disaster in 2010 and lost pretty much all our photos of that year. Tragic! And a lesson to BACK UP everything numerous times. They were on an external hard drive which met with an untimely and unnatural death!
This is March 2012, not much growth yet
Look at it now! April 2014
I’ve managed to pull a few things out of the archives, though it’s extra sad that we lost photos of 2010 as that’s when we opened the gîte and really started to get to grips with the garden. 2009 was all about building the house. 2010 was the beginning of the garden; though anyone with a garden will know that it’s a never-ending project. For more photos of our transformation click here
What do you think of our monster Trewithen Blue? Do you enjoy watching your garden grow? I’d love to hear from you.
You may these other posts about the garden at Lou Messugo:
Summer garden – flowers, weeds and bees
September Mediterranean garden
From forest to garden – 4 years in the making
You must have green fingers to grow such beautiful flowers and the blue of the Ceanothus blends so well with the amazing blue skies you get in your part of the world.
Thanks! 🙂
You’re right, some things just work, others don’t thrive…it’s trial and error for us amateurs here.
Don’t forget to take before photos! Glad I gave you some inspiration.
Thank you Karrington 🙂
I love before and after photos. But extra important when you start from a forest, go to a muddy building site and then transform it into a garden! It’s great to see the difference in relatively litle time.
Its perfume isn’t strong, but if you take a good big sniff it does smell nice.
Thanks Rena
Oh I’m glad you’ve acknowledged my pain over losing photos, but I’m sorry it happened to you to! It’s the worst isn’t it? 🙁
Where were you when you had snow Magali? In the south or Brittany? Do plant a new one they grow so fast. We love the colour of our shutters too. Thanks!!
Goodness, the transformation is just beautiful! I wish we had a garden of our own.
I do love blue flowers. It’s amazing how well some plants take and grow. #lab
Wow that is beautiful! we bought our own house last year and just this weekend we have gutted all the borders in the garden to start from scratch and I’ve been looking to see what would fill big spaces and look pretty. This is definitely on my list now!
It’s spring and it’s always a happy feeling when you can bring out the flowers. Yours look so nice and even though the process took a long time the end result is a beautiful master-piece
I adore Ceanothus, such a satisfying shrub as it looks amazing and just grows and grows. Such a good idea to take lots of photos as you set about transforming a garden. It is so easy to feel that no progress is being made so it can boost one’s confidence to be reminded of how the ‘before’ picture looked.
It’s certainly grown and adds a real splash of colour to the garden. I bet it smells lovely as well
Beautiful pictures!
I adore that bluey purple colour – it really stands out against the lovely colour of your home. It’s a nightmare when you lose photos – a year ago our laptop went band AND the external hardrive at the same time – beyond gutted!
Thank you for joining in and sharing!
Hi, neighbour from the South!
I like your ceanothe. I used to have one in the garden, but it died the first winter I spent there when we had unexpected snow. Yours gives me the idea to plant a new one! I love the colour of your shutters!
Yes I feel the same way about “dead twigs” it’s always incredible how thay transform each year!
No it sure isn’t! We have some tiny shrinking violets somewhere in the garden but they’re not so easy to spot!!!
We’re learning as we go along Natalie, we started with a building site so we HAD to do something!
Yes I like that one too Fiona!
It all looks lovely and lush in spring and then gets parched and brown in summer. This is definitely the best time to see th esouth of France.
I love seeing how plants transform over time, every year those dead twigs amaze me. This year I bought a blackcurrent bush which looked like a dead twig, hopefully it will be full of berries soon!
I love the blousy loudness of Ceanothus – it’s no shrinking violet! #HDYGG
I love your yard space! I want to do some landscapin’ so badly, but I don’t know the first thing about any of it. But I love what you did!
I am so jealouse of your space!!!! So big! Everything is so lush now too =) #HDYGG