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Ceanothus (ancient Greek name). Rhamnaceae. Ornamental woody plants grown for their profusely produced white, blue or pink flower-clusters.
Deciduous or evergreen shrubs or trees: lvs. alternate or sometimes opposite, short-petioled. serrate or entire, usually 3 - nerved, with small stipules: fls. perfect, small. 5-merous, in small umbels forming panicles or racemes; sepals often incurved, colored; petals clawed, spreading or recurved; filaments slender; disk annular; ovary partly adnate to the calyx-tube, 3-celled; style 3-cleft: fr. a 3-celled drupe, dry at length and separating into 3 one- seeded dehiscent nutlets.— Nearly 50 species in N. Amer., chiefly in the Pacific coast region.
These are free-flowering shrubs, some especially valuable for their late flowering period. Many of them are hardy only in the warmer temperate regions, but C. americanus, C. ovatus, and C. Fendleri are hardy North, while the numerous hybrids of C. americanus are only half hardy, and even if protected they are killed to the ground in the North, but the young shoots will usually flower the same season. The safest way, however, to have good free-flowering plants of these beautiful hybrids will be, in the North, to dig them up in fall, store them away in a frost-proof pit or cellar, and plant them out again in spring. Pruning of the late-flowering species will be of advantage; about one-half of last year's growth may be taken away. They grow in almost any soil, but best in a light and well-drained one, and most of the Californian species prefer a sunny position. Propagated by seeds sown in spring and by cuttings of mature wood in autumn, inserted in a cold- frame or greenhouse; softwood cuttings also grow readily if taken in early spring from forced plants. Sometimes increased by layers, and the varieties and hybrids by grafting on roots of C. americanus under glass in early spring; the cions must be fresh and with leaves, taken from plants kept in the greenhouse during the winter.
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[[Category:Rhamnaceae]]
[[Category:Rhamnaceae]]
[[Category:Flora_of_California]]
[[Category:Flora_of_California]]
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