Artemisia douglasiana

I planted the very smallest bit of Artemisia douglasiana (California Mugwort)on this slope adjaent to my driveway earlier this year.  It's gone crazy.  Here it is towering over the two year old Cercis occidentalis (Western Redbud) and the Agapanthus (slated for removal).  Mexican sage in the background.

The brown flowers in this photo are all A. douglaisiana.

Up close they look like this. 

They were never that impressive even before they ripened.  I want the Artemeisa mostly as a lower fill and I had visions of how it would grow that way based on my observations in the wild.  I think that the ones in the wild don't get nearly as much water as mine and so they flower less frequently.  They are also usually established, whereas this is new, and I speculate that there may be different growth patterns depending upon the age of the root stock.

One thing that I selected for among the available ones at the CNPS plant sale was the deeply lobed leaf that I preferred.  I raised the unanswered question some time ago about why some Artemesia develop a deeply lobed leaf and some do not.  The best answer was, "It's variable".  The ones in this photo mostly have it and it looks like it's older growth that develops the lobes.  Smoother edged leaves appear  less worn and therefore I assume they are younger.

I will need to make more observations and less causally in order to really answer this question.