Trichostema lanatum, close up of Wooly Blue curls flower
Trichostema lanatum, woolly blue curls
Flowers of Trichostema lanatum, Woolly Blue Curls.
Wow, that looks yummy! A skipper checks out a Trichostema lanatum
Trichostema lanatum, Woolly Blue Curls
A Costas Hummingbird on Trichostema lanatum, with Woolly Blue Curls,with Eriodictyon tomentosum and Adenostoma fasciculatum.
A Northern white-skipper on Woolly Blue Curls, Trichostema lanatum
California Dog-face Butterflies on Woolly Blue Curls, Trichostema lanatum
A Painted Lady Butterfly on Woolly Blue Curls, Trichostema lanatum
Artemisia californica, California Sagebrush, and Trichostema lanatum, Woolly Blue Curls.
A Costas Hummingbird on Trichostema lanatum, Woolly Blue Curl
Companion plants of Trichostema lanatum, Dendromecon rigida,and Lepechinia calycina. And Dogus domesticus and her cohort.
Trichostema lanatum Woolly Blue Curls with a Trichostema parshii in background. They are similar, flower sizes are similar, but lanatum is more compact. Parshii is a smaller bush though.
Description
Woolly Blue Curls is a three to four foot evergreen shrub
with flowers violet in fuzzy spikes in May-Aug and narrow aromatic
leaves. Woolly Blue Curls is native to dry slopes, south coast ranges
of California. (I've seen it as far north as San Benito.) Trichostema
lanatum, Blue Curls, Romero, etc., needs full sun, good drainage, no
water after established. Cold tolerant to 10 deg.F(maybe even 0F)
with no foliage burn. It will burn to the ground at -5 F. but recover.
More of a problem for many people is its need for perfect, absolutely
perfect, SUMMER drainage.. Standing water will kill it, areas of much
summer rain will kill it, soil amendment will kill it, fertilizer will
kill it. If you have a clay soil , plant it so water cannot stand. A
ity-bity 'mound' of a 1/4 inch is enough so the water can't stand. It
is native on sites that range from serpentine clay to gravel with a
rainfall from 14-45". Some companion plants are Artemisia californica, Eriogonum fasciculatum, Penstemon centranthifolius, Nassella cernua, Quercus douglasii (between), and Quercus agrifolia
(just outside drip line). One of the most unusually beautiful
combinations is groupings of Artemisia californica interspersed with
individuals of Trichostema lanatum, between trees of Quercus douglasii.
This shimmering blue of the blue curl flowers, with the silvery gray
foliage of the Artemisia, against background of the muted blue of the Quercus douglasii,
is like nothing I have ever seen. On bad years deer browse this plant
heavily. The flowers and foliage sell it easily. The flowers are royal
blue, fuzzy, 12" clusters and excellent for cut flowers. . Both the
flower and foliage has a sweet fragrance like freshly cut cedar with a
bouquet of lavender. Plant in your soil, water well once/week
indirectly (first year only), put a rock or boulder next to it and get
the vase ready! Mix with Salvia Pozo Blue', Encelia californica, Desert mallow (Sphaeralcea spp.) with Salvia Gracias' in the foreground.
AND, did I mention, they smell wonderful? A pine forest meets a chaparral glen. That perfect campsite, your back yard.
