A Most Serpentine Experience! [Psst… Loree are you Reading This?]

Once upon a time there lived a most peculiar plantaholic – one obsessed with the colour blue – and only the truest of blues would measure up to his somewhat lofty standards. It had all started with this…..

the delightful Corydalis flexuosa, and had gradually strengthened in its intensity to include this….

  His garden friends were convinced that once he’d mastered Meconopsis, the penultimate Holy Grail selection, that he might move on to something else…. seriously?

And perhaps he might have, had he not been ever so gently reminded of a tree that had caught his eye some years ago! Blogging friend Loree had purchased one sometime last Fall, and upon reading her post, his heart did what it always does in the presence of blue – it skipped a beat, and then another and then…. well, you get the idea.

On a whim while placing a nursery stock order at his new place of employ, he decided to throw caution to the wind, and casually glanced at the page containing Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca Pendula’ [Serpentine form]

  A week later, he got his answer! Still in a state of shock over the sheer size of the serpentine beauty, he has sold his soul to ensure that it will over winter for him.

 Cedrus atlantica ‘Glauca Pendula’ [Serpentine] is a delightful weeping form of what is often referred to as the Blue Atlas Cedar, native to the mountainous Atlas Mountain region of Africa, as well as Morocco and Algeria. With its weeping, pendulous form, the serpentine often thick branches are clad with bluish gray green needles in clusters, and upright barrel shaped cones.

It is best grown in deep, moist but well drained acidic loams in full sun. It does not tolerate poorly drained, wet soils, Alas, this shady character does have a few choice spots in his mostly shaded vampire’s den where it would bask in the sun’s golden rays most of the day! Of course the kicker is that its hardiness ranges between Zones 6-9 – of which this plantaholic’s zone is firmly one digit below the minimum stated. I know there is a massive potted specimen at a local supplier [the same one from whence this staggeringly beautiful serpent was shipped from!] and my intention is to quiz them most thoroughly when I visit next week.

My employers also fell in love at first sight, so they too might be in possession of one before the end of the coming week. Oh, and while we’re at it I might as well confess that I’ve thoroughly blown my plant budget right out of the stratosphere! I know….. tell me something you didn’t know!

So Loree, how goes your experience with this beauty. A million thank you’s for jogging my memory. And now to think of a name…… I’m leaning towards Snape myself!