Plant in full sun to light shade along the coast with increasing shade inland, in well drained soil, and irrigate only occasionally. Hardy to 20-25° F.

This plant was discovered in 1995 by Peter Anthony Brand as a sport of cultivated Ceanothus griseus var. horizontalis 'Yankee Point' in Hatfield, England. A cutting was rooted in 1995 and in 1996 a selection of the plant was further made from one branch that exhibited a uniform cream-white variegation within each leaf. From this branch were grown many plants that all exhibited this strong variegation. In 2000 a single plant was selected for its overall appearance, plant habit, and strong variegation and assigned the named 'Brass'. This plant received the now expired US patent PP14,566 in February 2004 and was marketed in the US under the name 'Silver Surprise' by PlantHaven.

We started growing this cultivar in 2005 and after several years of production, we noted a considerable amount of reversion to all green foliage. While diligent gardeners can prune out the stems bearing this non-variegated foliage, we decided for this reason to discontinue growing it in 2007.

. The genus name comes from the Greek word keanthos which was used to describe a type of thistle and meaning a "thorny plant" or "spiny plant" and first used by Linnaeus in 1753 to describe New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus americanus. 

This information about Ceanothus griseus horizontalis Silver Surprise [Brass] displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.