Leptospermum 'Dark Shadows' is my favorite plant in the garden (this week)…

For everyone who’s been frustrated by my featuring plants that aren’t hardy in your zone here’s one I love that isn’t even hardy in my own zone…Leptospermum 'Dark Shadows’…

I fell hard for that foliage last spring at the HPSO Plant Sale…damn! Only hardy to Zone 9, but wow…I was in love (it was so small then!)…

Into a container it went.

Okay honestly I really wish I could put this plant in the ground, but I can’t. It spent the winter under the shade pavilion where (because I am a wimp) I did turn the heat on our coldest nights (23F), but I doubt I really needed to.

Isn’t that foliage just gorgeous?

The stats:

• A shrub or small tree in the Myrtle family, from Australia
• Blooms in the summer, cream colored flowers (haven’t seen them myself, couldn’t really care less)
• Size (when set free in the ground) 12-16 ft tall, 15-20 ft wide
• Full sun, drought tolerant
• Hardy 20-25F

The only problem it has given me was a brief interlude last summer when I didn’t realize how dry it was and it lost a few leaves. So it might be drought tolerant in the ground but watch it if you’re growing it in a container.

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.