The Santolina moment that is happening in my garden right now.
This is Santolina neopolitana ‘Lemon Queen’ and it is just about the coolest thing ever. The slightly brighter yellow you can see in the background is Santolina virens and the silvery blobs are Santolina chamaecyparisis ‘Nana’ which will have even more intense flowers. All the species of Santolina hail from the Mediterranean and are very drought resistant. In fact summer water will shorten their lives. So I have let them go about three weeks between watering and they seem fine. When they are established next year I’ll try to give them no water at all for 4 or 5 months.
I’m so happy with them that I plan on expanding the mediterranean garden this fall and including more of the plants that did work and removing the ones that didn’t and making it look more like a designed garden rather than the current hodge podge of a plant collection.
Bravo, love this! beautiful form on this plant.
Spectacular. I have been enjoying your posts since I have begun studying drought tolerant plants for Long Beach’s ‘Lawn to Garden’ program. Planning to get rid of as much grass as I can. Am amazed to hear how little water some plants can thrive on… 4 or 5 months between waterings?! Thanks for sharing your successes as well as your failures.
Well we’ll see how it works out next year. I may not have the courage to let them go that long between watering! But so far this year I have let them go as long as 3 weeks between watering and they show absolutely no sign of drought stress.
One of the coolest true summer dry plants! I’m trying to think of installing a 1/4″ ball valve on our irrigation lines for plants like this that only need establishment irrigation, and then very infrequent after that. I have seen regular water kill them repeatedly as they burst into steroidal growth, then collapse within a year. Were still learning how to best integrate true cal. natives and summer dry plants in our landscapes
That’s a good idea. Have to figure out a way to prolong their lives! I’ve read that water in summer makes Santolina and lavender prone to fungal attacks too.
Santolina when it holds its shape is the best thing ever. My little chartreuse ‘Lemon Fizz’ santolina is really starting to come into its own, coping with full sun and not much water in the front gravel garden. Congrats on yours!
Yes the worry is keeping them to hold that nice round ball shape. I so often see them all wild and unkempt. I think they need rather harsh cutting back after they bloom.
My Lemon Fizz are really tiny but I have seen really nice ones in a garden here. They do revert though.