Grace Ward Lithodora

Follow a regular watering schedule during the first growing season to establish a deep, extensive root system. As a groundcover, space plants 5 ft. apart, (closer for faster coverage). Control weeds with mulch until the plants cover the area. Pruning time: summer after flowering.

This blue mat-like perennial looks gorgeous around rocks and landscape boulders. Use at the top of retaining walls or to soften unsightly curbs. Like a groundcover, it spreads over a very large area. Great on slopes, berms and banks to offer both color and erosion control. Though it's ideal for the traditional rock garden, it's also a natural in the Mediterranean landscape.

This group of shrubs is classified in the borage family, Boraginaceae. It was named by German botanist, August Grisebach, 1814-1879, who is most noted as author of Flora of the British West Indian Islands. This genus contains just seven species of low hairy shrubs from Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor. This species is found in southern Europe and Morocco. It was formerly known as Lithospermum diffusum by Mariano Lagasca y Segura, 1776-1839 of Spain, and many contemporary references still consider this a synonym for L. diffusa. This and other plants were separated from that genus and reclassified in a whole new genus created for them by botanist Ivan Murray Johnston of the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, Massachusetts.