I don’t want to keep you in suspense, so I’m going to name the plant right now: Teucrium cossonii. Here’s a picture of it, just starting to bloom, in a flat in the nursery–it’s not the type of picture that really helps sell the plants…and for a better (more flowers) picture you might want to check out Plant Delight’s photo of it.
They call it Pineapple Germander. http://www.plantdelights.com/Teucrium-cossonii-Perennial-Pineapple-Germander/productinfo/8509/
This article was inspired by Ina Bernard, a great gardener who has a very low-water garden in Pueblo. When she visited the nursery this week she raved about this plant and told me I could quote her. “This plant should be the perennial of the year! I’ve only watered in once in this hot, dry spring and it’s doing great! Blooming and spreading.”
When I typed the title of the post just now, I considered adding a subtitle: The Most Misnamed Plant. When I first bought it, way back in 1990, it was sold to me as Teucrium majoricum. I wasn’t sure it would be hardy, but planted it anyway and it survived many the long, cold winter at 6500′. When we started selling it we called it Teucrium majoricum, but then learned that the proper name was Teucrium aroanium, so we changed it to that. THEN we heard that no, it’s not T. majoricum, it’s really Teucrium cossonii….or maybe Teucrium cossonii majoricum…and our labels reflect this current name change.
If you google it you’ll see cossonii spelled a number of different ways at different nurseries including cussonii and cassonii! In my internet search I saw that High Country Gardens sells a plant they call Teucrium aroanium and I’ve heard (you know how horticulturalists will talk) that there is a true Teucrium aroanium out there, a more refined plant, maybe more of an alpine plant. Or something. The one I grow is supposedly from Spain. The “true” T. aroanium is from Greece. Maybe. It’s all quite confusing. I’m thinking about ordering the High Country version to compare it to mine.
Our teucrium is wonderful, no matter the name. I think it smells like a cross between lavender and cedar wood. It’s very drought tolerant, as Ina noted. It is ignored by deer. It is hardy to at least Minus 20, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it could survive colder temps.
Under-rated, under-appreciated, and over-named. You should be growing it!
