Category: Gardening with Native Plants
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Elegant Shrubs for the Garden
Today’s post features California native shrubs that are “front-yard natives” because they look good year-round, are easy to care for, HOA’s love them, and they are evergreen. Manzanitas (Arctostaphylos species) are great in front-garden landscapes because they are leafy evergreen plants with bell-shaped blossoms that support native bumblebees and other wildlife. ‘Sunset’ manzanitas are medium-sized…
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Designing a California Native Garden
Today I am highlighting a few California native plants that provide a formal foundation for a home landscape. Planting a California native garden is a beautiful solution for the state’s water challenges because native plants reduce water consumption while also supporting nature. If you have space in your home landscape, a Coast Live Oak (Quercus…
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Why Native Plants Matter
California native plants can be a little tricky for the inexperienced gardener, and if you live in central and north Orange County, they can be hard to find. So why bother planting native plants in your garden? Because wildlife, butterflies, and native bumblebees are absolutely dependent upon local native plants for food and shelter, and…
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Spring to Life
We have had less rainfall than normal in Southern California, so what is a plant to do? Bloom anyway.
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Water for Wildlife
Rainfall has been scarce in Southern California in 2022. After a rainy December, we’ve had warm weather and windy conditions for most of January and February.
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Planting a Seasonal Meadow
Last December 2021, we created a seasonal meadow of local grasses and wildflowers that would provide beauty, color, and life after winter rains in a 12,000 square-foot park space at Vera’s Gardens.
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Creating an Avian Garden
In September, we began work on the east side of Vera’s Sanctuary in Trabuco Canyon, where we created an Avian Garden, a 10,000-square-foot project that is interconnected with two large front lawns.
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Helping a Canyon Landscape
For the past two and a half years, a group of gardeners and I have volunteered to rehabilitate the landscape of a five-home cul de sac in Trabuco Canyon. The site totals 12 acres and is owned by the nonprofit, The Teen Project…
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Flowers in Bloom as Summer Wanes
Spring in southern California is the biggest and showiest blooming season for native plants. Poppies, verbenas, and penstemons are strutting their stuff after a cool, rainy winter. But by late summer, the plants are pulling back, waiting out the long dry season and protecting themselves from the 90 degree days. How do our pollinators, birds,…
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Summer Blooms for Butterflies
You may be aware that milkweed is the only food that monarch caterpillars eat. Monarch butterflies, however, need more than just milkweed to sustain them. Monarchs and other butterflies need gardens that have different species of summer-flowering plants to provide nectar. Today’s post features five terrific summer-blooming California native plants for butterflies that are great…
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Late July and the Woolly-Pod Milkweed
Every year in late July, I hike along Vista Trail in O’Neill Regional Park to observe two healthy populations of wild milkweed growing along the trail. Last year at this time, the woolly-pod milkweed (Asclepias eriocarpa) plants were in full flower and bustling with bumblebee activity and hungry caterpillars.
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What is Milkweed?
Milkweed is a flowering plant named after a milky latex substance that is exuded when the plant tissues are damaged. Milkweed’s scientific name (genus) is Asclepias, named after Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine. Milkweed is the host plant for monarchs because the caterpillars rely solely on milkweed for food. The latex in milkweed plants…