California Gardening: bush idea needed, 1 by jkom51

jkom51 wrote:
I would NOT recommend the 'Bowles Mauve' erysimum, or wallflower! It likes sun and dry conditions, certainly, but it is a very stiff, prickly, 5' tall and wide shrub. I've grown several of them - I love erysimums, but the BM will certainly not fit in a 2' space by any stretch of the imagination. Pruning will ruin its natural shape, which is a large bowling ball.

With only 2' wide you are looking at a dwarf or similar shrub. Sometimes like the green or gray santolinas, or if you can keep it watered, a dwarf canna would also work. If you don't mind thorns, you can grow miniature roses, which are in the 2x2' range, but few of them are fragrant.

Here's a photo of the BM plant, about 2 yrs old, behind a 'Sundowner' phormium. By way of scale, each one of those concrete blocks forming the walls is 7" across.