Spring is in full swing and we have been busy! Gardeners are definitely looking for water conserving and habitat friendly plants. Check out our latest inventory to see the many possibilities.
Looking for a drought tolerant tree? Consider the perfectly adapted California buckeye. Beautiful in all it’s seasons, buckeyes have handsome jade green, palmately compound leaves with great masses of creamy-white flowers on long, erect spikes. Pear-shaped fruits follow that split open to reveal large chestnut colored seeds. Buckeyes respond to drought by dropping their leaves when they get drought stressed. This depends on conditions and may begin in early to mid summer. Once the leaves fall the smooth silver-grey bark and shapely form is easily admired. Fast growing and adaptable. We have tree pots, five gallon and seven gallon containers available now.
People are rethinking their lawns and looking for low water using ground covers. We are offering two spreading native sedges that use far less water than a traditional lawn. Spreading by rhizomes, these fine-textured grass-like plants form dense carpets of undulating blades. They provide a meadow like appearance rather than a well manicured lawn, though they can be trimmed or mowed. Excellent for stabilizing soil, they will form a dense solid carpet. Carex pansa and Carex praegracilis (pictured above) have a similar appearance and require similar conditions. Carex pansa is lower, growing 8-12 inches tall, while Carex praegracillis reaches 12 inches tall. Full sun in coastal areas, light shade inland. They do require water to keep from going brown in the summer, but not nearly the amount of a typical lawn. We have four inch pots as well as 2-1/4 inch liners.
We have a good supply of California fescue, a bunch grass often seen in oak woodlands. Beautiful in mass, the graceful clumps are quite drought tolerant once established and are deer resistant. We have seed grown crops as well as the cultivars ‘Phil’s Silver’ and 'Scott Mountain’.
The versatile Western sword fern is back in stock. Extremely useful in shady areas, near buildings, under trees.We now have one gallons and four inch plants available.
A lily family member that is extremely drought tolerant is soap plant. You may have noticed bundles of bristly fibers emerging at soil level out in nature. Long blue-green leaves emerge from the large fibrous coated bulbs. Late spring brings tall flower stems carrying loose clusters of white spidery petals which open in the late afternoon and are moth pollinated. They have a long list of historical uses by native people and early settlers for both the fibers and the bulb. Plant in full sun near the coast and light shade inland. We have gallon containers that have tall flower stems in bud available now.
Not drought tolerant but exquisite is the native leopard lily. We have been growing them for many years from bulb scale divisions. Now we have a beautiful crop of seed grown leopard lilies from seed collected in the wilds of Marin County. Available in four inch pots.
Our crop of Toyon will need another two months to fully grow in. We have bought in some one gallon Toyons from another grower to help fill the current demand. We have 30 beautiful one gallon pots available now.
We often talk about the flowering currants and carry many varieties. An unusual hybrid now available is Ribes x gordonianum, a cross between our native Ribes sanguineum and Ribes odoratum. The resulting shrub produces beautiful clusters of red flowers with yellow centers.
We are now open 7 days a week. We invite you to come by and look around.