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Ceanothus 'Victoria' (Victoria Wild Lilac) - A dense, fast growing fairly long lived shrub that can grow 5 to 8 feet tall by equal width with relatively large (for Ceanothus) dark green leaves and bright cerulean blue flower clusters that appear in late spring well into summer and fall – one of the latest blooming of the Ceanothus.
Plant in full sun to part shade and irrigate occasionally to infrequently. It is tolerant of regular garden watering, a wide range of soil types and is hardy to 10° F. This durable cultivar is a nice medium sized late flowering cultivar with dark foliage that provides a nice foil to the bright colored blue flowers.
We grew this plant under this name from 1991 until 1996 and was under the impression then that it was an introduction made by the University of British Columbia and named for the city of Victoria. In Dave Fross and Dieter Wilkens book Ceanothus (Timber Press, 2006) it is noted that this plant is likely the same as the popular variety Ceanothus 'Skylark', a plant introduced by Mitch Nursery in Aurora, Oregon in the 1970s and circulated unnamed until it was named 'Skylark' by Mike Nevin Smith, who at the time was working for his father at Skylark Nursery in Santa Rosa. Fross and Wilkens speculate that the plant is a hybrid between Ceanothus thyrsiflorus and C. velutinus, which they note would be "consistent with the broad physical characteristics of the plant" though it is sometimes listed as a cultivar of Ceanothus impressus (which it does not resemble at all!) or C. thyrsiflorus. Mitch Bell of Oregon State University also lists 'Victoria' and 'Skylark' as synonymous in his article on the "Evaluation of Growth, Flowering and Cold Tolerance of Ceanothus in Western Oregon" in the April-June 2006 issue of HortTechnology.
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 'Victoria' 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.
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