Rock Rose
Cistus × purpureus
Thrives in the hot, dry, poor spot nothing else wants, then goes leggy with age — and cutting into old wood won't rescue it.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green
- Flower color
- Pink · Purple and violet
- Sunlight
- Full sun; the hotter and drier the spot, the better.
- Watering
- Barely any once established — a true drought plant.
- Feeding
- Don't feed it; poor soil suits it better.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- May
- Pruning
- A light trim after flowering only, and never into old wood.
- Overwintering
- Hardy to -10°C with shelter; winter wet is the greater danger.
- Mar–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–May Spring Growth
- May–Aug Flowering
- Aug–Dec Growing
- Jan–Mar Growing
- Plant spacing
- 3 ft 11 in
- In-row spacing
- 3 ft 11 in
- Between rows
- 4 ft 11 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Woody, with a taproot it keeps
- Working depth
- 24 in–5 ft
- Can reach
- 10 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 6–10 ft across, about 1.5–2.5× the width of the plant
It anchors downwards as well as sideways, which is what lets it stand in a gale and what makes it hate being moved. Plant it small: past a few years in the ground a taprooted tree transplants badly, and often not at all.
It resents root disturbance so completely that an established plant is never moved and never cut back into old wood. Plant it small, in sharp drainage, and replace it when it goes leggy.
The habit is Rock Rose’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
Shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com