Is your Lithodora brown right now? After the rough Winter weather, it’s possible your evergreen Lithodora looks dead. Do NOT do a thing. It will come back! Mine did!
I wrote two articles years ago extolling the seemingly never-ending virtues of Lithodora.
It’s an evergreen perennial and has the most intense blue flowers every Spring.
Click on the links below to get my complete information on planting and care:
Lithodora: Evergreen and Electric Blue Radiance
Blue Perennial Flowers? Try Lithodora! (an update)
We redid our entire landscape over — from when those articles were written — and last year I added Lithodora into our (newer) garden beds.
During the Summer months, there are sporadic blue flowers, but Lithodora mainly serves as an easy-care small evergreen background plant to the Summer flower show going on.
During the Winter, we had lots of snow, but our Lithodora kept its vibrant green color.
Then we had several early Spring snowstorms with heavy, wet snow that froze so many plants.
And our Lithodora looked dead.
But I remembered my own advice — from my original articles about Lithodora:
Don’t rip it out because Lithodora is a much tougher plant than it appears to be.
Look closely at the images above and below, and you’ll see bits of green among all of the brittle, dried brown stems.
Yes, the stems even “feel” like they’re dead, but trust me: the roots are still good and this plant will sprout green right on the seemingly dead stems!
The new growth comes onto the plants all over — not just from the bottom, and not just at the tips — so don’t touch the plant or remove any of the dead-looking stems!
I was encouraged when I saw this new growth and just let the plants be.
And just a month later?
Blooming Lithodora!
I was so happy that I took my own advice and didn’t give up and rip the plants out.
You can see how the new green growth covers the old stems, and some new stems form too!
Lithodora brown to green…and blue!
Here’s some before-and-after pictures for you to see.
Early April:
Mid May:
Oh no, the Lithodora looks like it’s dead:
Not so fast! Lithodora is tougher than it looks!
(The white flowers in front are Candytuft — and you can read my article about them here.)
So.
Is your Lithodora brown after Winter?
It’s not dead.
There is hope!
For complete care and further reading about Lithodora, read my additional posts:
Lithodora: Evergreen and Electric Blue Radiance
Want Blue Perennial Flowers? Try Lithodora! (an update)
Happy gardening!
Thanks for the update. Your care in posting and writing about this, after 5 to 6 years of caring for the plant is not only sweet but it is endearing. You are persevering and as determined as the lithodora.
Are yours “Crystal Blue” lithodora?
Also have you ever tried giving them a shave after the flowers fall or fade away? I was wondering if this might cause them to spread faster?
Thank you! Initially I had a planted a Lithodora and it did so well and spread rapidly (July) but then all of a sudden it slowly started turning brown (Sept) and I thought about pulling it up but I will be happy to leave it now in anticipation of seeing it revived later! Thank you again!
You’re welcome Teresa! I hear you about the plants sometimes turning brown — it has driven me nuts when it happens too! But yes, these do come back and are surprisingly tough, although they don’t seem to be when all we can see is brown leaves and stems. Hang in there!
As one of my treasured plants for many years…. I was horrified when in Feb/ March for the first time ever all my LITHODORA plants looked as if they were about to dye on me.
None of my numerous gardening books mentioned this until I read your advice, what a relief, it may be brown but not be dying..
Thank you so much.
Also, knowing this lovely plant as well as you do. What are the secrets of success in propagating it. I am continually taking
cuttings but only succeed with a very few. Usually I am quite good at taking cuttings & caring for them. But I find these very
‘tricky’.
Hi Anne, I’m so glad to provide relief that your Lithodora should be ok! I have never personally tried to propagate Lithodora, however I know that other gardeners have had more success getting Lithodora to root if they use soft cuttings versus hardwood cuttings. In other words, clip just the green stems with leaves, versus the harder brown stems. I also understand it takes quite a bit of time for these to begin rooting in water or in a planting/potting mix. So it does sound like these are tricky. And yet, sometimes I find one or two pop up in the garden on their own! I wish I had more advice, but when I’ve wanted more plants, I’ve had to purchase them. I hope this helps somewhat!