My rock roses (Cistus) are flowering and have never looked so gorgeous.
This is surprising in a wet spring, as they're Mediterranean endemics and love low rainfall and lots of summer sun.
There are about 20 cistus species all told and many hybrids, from ground covers to shoulder height by up to two metres wide shrubs, evergreen, drought proof and generally at least moderately frost hardy.
They bear single, rose-like flowers with five showy petals, three to 10 centimetres across, carried alone or in clusters.
A plant in full bloom is an astonishing sight as the flowers completely cover the foliage. They last only a day but keep opening, hence the long blooming period.
Relate reading:
The flowers come in shades of red, pink and white, some with a chocolatey purple, central blotch.
They have no scent but this is made up for by the leaves which in several species are sticky to touch and aromatic, hence another common name, gum cistus.
Rock roses are wonderful shrubs for October, filling the gap between spring and early summer and overlapping both, providing up to six weeks of non-stop bloom.
They start opening as the may and mahonias finish and continue until the hybrid tea and floribunda roses take over. My favourite cistus is C. ladanifer (1.5 metres) from North Africa and the south-west Mediterranean.
It has dark green, wrinkled leaves smelling strongly of resin when crushed, and 10 centimetre, snowy white flowers with a crimson central splodge on each petal and bright yellow stamens.
C. x purpureus 'Brilliancy' is similar but with strident, magenta pink flowers. C. x argenteus 'Silver Pink' has pure grey leaves and lovely pale pink flowers.
C. salviifolius (1.5m.) has shiny, olive-green leaves, bigger than those of most species, and white flowers with a central yellow splash.
I also have a couple of low growing cistus, C. x skanbergii from Greece and Cyprus with grey leaves and palest pink flowers, and 'Sunset', a spreading ground cover with sage green leaves and deep rose-pink flowers.
All of the above are reliably frost hardy. A light trim after flowering prevents legginess but as they shoot from dead wood (unlike lavender) you can prune them hard to any size you like.
They are easily propagated from semi-ripe cuttings with a heel, taken in autumn.
Rock roses make perfect companions for Ceanothus 'Blue Pacific', tree germander (Teucrium fruticans), purple flowers of Italian lavender (L. stoechas), rosemary, and lacey, silvery foliaged cotton lavender (Santolina).
The only minor problem with rock roses is their limited red/pink colour range.
Late spring blossom includes purple and mauve lilac, wisteria and Australian mint bush (Prostanthera ovalifolium), all begging for yellow or orange companions.
Depending on where you live, one answer might be the closely related sun roses, Halimiums and Helianthemums, which bear yellow and orange flowers.
Halimium calycinum has pale yellow blossom, H. lasianthemum formosum has darker yellow blooms with a chocolate blotch, and the easy ground cover Helianthemum 'Copper' has brilliant orange flowers from now until autumn.
Flower times vary a lot but experimenting is half the fun.
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