Clematis heracleifolia China Valley type

I remember these plants from my first tour in China Valley. Lawrence Lee, the curator at that time and of course my direct supervisor, collected seed in China. When I arrived a few years later they had been germinated and potted into 1 qt pots. There were many of them; I don't remember the numbers but a lot! We planted them out about halfway down China Valley and there are a few dozen of them still there. They're nice compact upright plants that top out at about 2 feet. Interestingly about half of them have pale blue flowers, the other half soft pink.

I am not a taxonomist so I'm not going to challenge the name of this plant but I will observe that the Clematis heracleifolia that I am familiar with typically grow to twice that height, have larger (2x?) flowers that are almost all a darker blue color, and spread by rhizomes. Their flowers also have, what I consider to be, a delightful perfume. On the downside they tend to lodge, or flop because of their height. Their stems just aren't rigid enough to hold them upright. Still, they are wonderful plants in the right place.

Regardless of the names, Larry's collection has at least two very useful traits: they don't spread by rhizomes, and they stay compact and upright. They're in full flower right now; small grouping so of them abut the China Valley Path midway down the valley.

Thymus pseudolanguinosus....pretend you're very small, and standing on the road looking up the 6" cliff of the curb

I know I've mentioned before how much I like the plantings in the circle in front of the USNA Administration Building. It's a great site in full sun, with good drainage (because the soil is mounded). The black surface of the road absorbs plenty of heat; those Mediterranean plants love their heat. The blue flowers in the background are, of course, Perovskia or Russian Sage.

Wooly Thyme is a great prostrate groundcover for sunny well-drained areas. Period. Sometimes you need a groundcover that's willing to step back and allow the specimen plant or plants to be the focus of an area. There are lot of 6", 8", 10" groundcovers but often their growth is just irregular enough to distract visual focus downward away from the headliners. Prostrate Cotoneasters, larger Thymes, most of the prostrate Junipers. Another issue with many of these plants is their tendency to grow on top of themselves and so eventually become shells of foliage perched on ugly accumulated leafless stems. Junipers are notorious in this regard.

Wooly Thyme is content to lay low and play second fiddle.