Re: Rockery plants
- Subject: Re: Rockery plants
- From: John MacGregor j*@earthlink.net
- Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 11:45:28 -0800
on 1/10/05 8:51 AM, Linda Starr at mtnstar@ocsnet.net wrote:
> A good gray foliage ground cover is Cerastium tomentosa or Snow in Summer,
> gets covered in small white flowers in the early summer, hence the name.
> Likes the heat and exists on very little water.
Pamela, Linda
Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer), despite its beauty, is a plant to
avoid when planting a rock garden, unless you intend for your rock garden to
consist exclusively of Cerastium tomentosum (which, intend it or not, will
inevitably be the case if you plant it). It is extremely invasive,
spreading by underground stolons, that spread between and below the rocks
and these are impossible to remove without disassembling the entire rock
garden. Even the tiniest fragment of root will resprout to restart the
invasion. Once established, they will crowd out and smother any small
neighboring plants and climb up into shrubs, shading the lower branches and
leaving them bare of their own leaves.
Cerastium makes a good groundcover that must be sheared back at least once a
year, but be careful where you plant it, especially if you value any of its
small neighbors!
John MacGregor
South Pasadena, CA 91030
USDA zone 9 Sunset zones 21/23
