The best time for planting most California native plants is Autumn. Planting in the fall gives plants time to establish their roots and take advantage of the upcoming rainy season. This time of year soils are still warm and nights are cool, perfect conditions for getting plants off to a stress free start. Even without rain, keeping plants watered is much easier now than in the summer.
We like to remind our customers how quickly plants can move in our small nursery. Buckwheats, coyote mint and monkey flowers are already moving fast. We have a good supply of some favorite ground covering sages. 'Bee's Bliss', hummingbird sage, and Sonoma sage. We have a diverse selection of shrubs to consider for planting. Drought tolerant candidates include manzanita, California lilac, bush mallow, sugar bush and matilija poppy. For areas with some shade we have flowering currants, creambush, hazelnuts and mock orange. Creekside natives include red twig dogwood, western spice bush, western azalea and spiraea. We are well stocked with dependable evergreen shrubs in one gallon containers including huckleberry, wax myrtle, coffeeberry and western sword ferns.
Check our website for a complete list of our offerings. There a few items we'd like to point out for your consideration.
Over and over we hear reports of customers' struggles to get Matilija poppy established in their gardens. This is where fall planting may really pay off. The cooler conditions of fall are less favorable for soil borne pathogens that are the likely culprits dooming your success. We have young vigorous stock perfect for fall planting. Remember any new plant needs to be watered until established or the rains begin. Even though Matilija poppy can be finicky and difficult to establish once it settles in it can be an aggresive spreader.
Another challenging native, but much admired is Madrone, Arbutus menziesii. Fall planting will better your chances for success. We have some beautiful one gallon Madrone in stock now.
We love manzanitas and grow many different varieties. Check our website inventory for our complete list. New this year is the charming Arctostaphylos edmundsii 'Bert Johnson', a Tilden Botanic Garden introduction. Dense, cascading habit with gorgeous foliage, bronzy new growth and plentiful flowers. 'Monica' and 'Sebastopol White' are two manzanita selections from Sonoma County which offer beauty and disease resistance. Good old 'Sunset' manzanita is a cultivar we recommend with confidence. Adaptable and beautiful with bronzy new growth and abundant flowers tolerating less than perfect manzanita conditions. Manzanitas flower in late winter and early spring, providing nectar for bees and hummingbirds. The upright forms give us some of our most drought tolerant shrubs.
California lilacs are sun loving, evergreen shrubs with forms including ground hugging carpets, medium tall shrubs to tree-like. They tend to be fast growing, wide as they are tall and drought tolerant. They are fantastic habitat plants offering food and cover for a wide array of wildlife. We have good numbers of popular cultivars such as 'Dark Star', 'Julia Phelps', 'Concha' and 'Joyce Coulter'. The selection 'Skylark' offers compact habit and especially late flowering beginning when most of the others are through blooming in late spring. Ceanothus maritimus grows slowly for a Ceanothus and tends not to be as wide spreading. A rare species native to coastal San Luis Obispo County has proven very tough and able to thrive in hot inland situations given a little shade. We have two cultivars, 'Pt. Sierra' and 'Valley Violet' the later being a U.C.Davis Arboretum All Star, one of their top 100 recommended plants. This year we have a crop of Ceanothus incanus the coast whitethorn, a rarely cultivated species. Look for two varieties grown for their golden variegated foliage. The upright 'El Dorado' and the low growing 'Diamond Heights'.
Don't Forget the Fall Color
The California flora isn't well endowed with fall color though we have a few candidates. Big leaf maple can offer some of the most intense with bright golden yellow fall color. The vine maple can have good color too and is perfect for smaller spaces. This large shrub or small tree sports nice yellow leaves in the autumn often showing pink or red tones with cold temperatures. Service Berry and Nine Bark can sport butterscotch leaves in the autumn and the dogwoods, both streamside species and the prized Pacific dogwood take on pink and peachy tones. The native grape has decent yellow fall color and the popular hybrids 'Roger's Red' and 'Russian River' with their European wine grape influence gives us dependably bright reds and plum fall color along with abundant clusters of small tight purple grape clusters. The grapes are tasty though thick skinned and heavily seeded, make delicious juice and is favored as a winter food for bluebirds and woodpeckers here at the nursery.