On our recent trip to the San Francisco Bay Area I had a deja vu moment when I first spied this pink flower........it is THE most memorable flower from my childhood as we had some bushes lining the driveway and who can forget sticky leaves! I had truly forgotten about this tissue paper-like bloom, and I was so surprised when it just popped back into my consciousness! It really is quite remarkable, and unique, though like any drought tolerant blooming bush, likely used so much that folks might just tire of it? Really, a pink bloom like this? So maybe one bush will do, but do look into gum rock rose for your garden or even container garden! Okay, lets learn a bit more about this beauty, shall we?
About Cistus
Cistus are a great summer-flowering shrub for a hot, sunny spot. Try growing them on a free-draining bank or in a gravel garden. They grow best on chalky, alkaline soil. With their silvery-green drought-tolerant foliage and covering of tissue-paper flowers in shades of pink or pure white, often with attractive splodges at the base of each petal for extra interest, they’ll add lots of color during the summer months.
Lightly prune them after flowering to keep the plants in good shape and covered with fresh growth. Also consider Cistus ladanifer, which has big white flowers with maroon spots around the golden boss of anthers in the center, or Cistus x purpureus, a reliable plant with deep pink flowers.
Do be aware however, that the plant is quite aggressive and considered invasive in some areas of Europe and regions of central Spain. There, the ladanifer cistus plant has overtaken grasslands and farmland covering much of southern Portugal. The Spanish common name for gum rockrose is Jara pringosa, which means sticky shrub.
Other Things To Note:
- During the bloom time, the Cistus ladanifer flowers only last for one day. However, the shrub has a vigorous flowering capability, quickly replacing spent flowers in the garden with a succession of new ones for an entire month.
- Based on their growth patterns in their native habitats, these plants are well-suited for Continentalized Mediterranean climate where the summers are dry and winters, wet and mild.They are hardy to USDA Hardiness Zones 7 through 10. The foliage grows nice and luscious green when planted in the garden out in the full suThe preferences might be mesic, dry-mesic or simply dry. The Cistus ladanifer plant is also The plants are quite good at adapting to different types of soil. They can grow well in poor soils along with sandy, clay, and loamy soils.