Cliffbush

Description

Jamesia americana is a wonderful perennial/deciduous shrub of the Sierras and east to Utah. Cliffbush tolerates high calcium soils, drought, garden conditions, frost, heat. If you have a mountain mansion at 8000-12000 ft. with rocks everywhere this is your plant. If you have a bird bath, this is a good plant to put three feet or so from it, with columbine, Satureja mimuloides, and lilies under the bath. The white flowers look kinda like a Philadelphus, but have the texture of an azalea, and are delicately fragrant. Foliage is somewhat like a rockrose, or Salvia officinalis crossed with currant. (Syn. Edwinia americana, Jamesia americana var. rosea, Edwinia macrocalyx, Edwinia californica, Jamesia americana var. zionis)