Bruce over at Rutgers Gardens obtained a new Ceanothus specimen today. Another variety of Ceanothus x pallidus nicknamed “Marie Bleu”. It’s much closer to Ceanothus americanus than the Marie Simon bushes that I currently have (which seem to have more C. herbaceous and C. coeruleus in them), except that the flowers are bluish instead of white.

The excellent properties of Marie Bleu is that the leaves hold more water in them, which makes the process I’m developing for properly curing the leaves easier, but this also seems to make them a little more popular with insects as where nothing with six legs will eat the Marie Simons, there is some insect damage to some of the leaves on the new Bleu. Hopefully I’ll be able to cross-breed them together and find a strain that keeps Simon’s resistance. 🙂

Now all I need is some ‘straight’ C. americanus or C. herbaceous and I have red white and blue. 🙂

Peace,
-Steve