Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca Citrina

Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca 'Citrina' is a rare and pretty form of the glaucous coronilla, a small evergreen shrub native to southern Europe. Its flowering starts as early as January in mild climates, and continues until April. Spectacular and pleasantly fragrant during the dreary days of winter, it takes the form of pea-like flowers clustered in small crowns, illuminating a finely cut foliage of a slightly greyish green. This plant is perfectly adapted to dry and hot climates and naturally forms a beautiful, dense ball that will make an impression in a large pot on the terrace and will thrive in a dry garden.

Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca is a shrub of the fabaceae family, cousin of perennial peas, perfectly adapted to poor, dry, and chalky soils. It is native to the Mediterranean basin, distributed in the south of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sicily, Greece, Algeria, and Morocco. In the wild it grows on the edge of woods and limestone hillsides. The 'Citrina' variety, little known and little used in gardens, offers a brighter flowering, perhaps more pleasing to the eye than the species with slightly garish yellow flowers. It is a bushy, dense, and rounded shrub about 1m (3 ft 4 in) tall and 90cm (35.4 in) wide, with rapid growth and a relatively short lifespan. The flowering takes place very early in spring, depending on the climate. The very honey-sweet and nectar-rich flowers buzzing with bees and tightly packed together are grouped in circular inflorescences at the end of the branches. Their sweet and floral fragrance perfumes a whole area of the garden. The evergreen foliage is composed of leaves divided into 2-3 pairs of thick, glaucous green leaflets.

This attractive shrub can be used in dry gardens or rockeries, in a yellow, blue, and white group for example, in the company of rosemary, creeping Ceanothus, Caryopteris, Convolvulus cneorum, and Scilla sibirica or muscaris. On the edge of clear undergrowth, associate it with Phlomis samia, periwinkles, Acanthus, and Geranium macrorrhizum. Not suffering from drought or sea spray, it excels in a rocky or sandy garden where few plants grow. Create an evergreen group to accompany your Citrina coronilla and evoke the scrubland, mixing the foliage and scents of lavender, silver artemisias, rosemary, and thyme. Add Californian poppies, a creeping rose, and drought-tolerant euphorbias with a compact conifer for some dynamism in your composition. You can plant this shrub in the ground (with appropriate drainage) almost anywhere, however, for the coldest regions, growing it in large pots protected in winter is preferable. Take particular care with the drainage and water abundantly but spaced out in time, letting the substrate dry between waterings.