Category Archives: Nature

Helping a Canyon Landscape

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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 is 12 acres in size and is owned by a non-profit, The Teen Project, that shelters women who were subject to human trafficking and homelessness.

The property was formerly owned by Boys Town, a Catholic charity that helped troubled teens. Boys Town put the property up for sale and, in late 2018, The Teen Project acquired the site.

When we first saw the site in January 2019, we identified invasive plants that had overtaken much of the natural landscape, including fountain grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides), ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), and sea lavender (Limonium). Black mustard (Brassica nigra) was also present on the property.

Fountain grass overtaking a hillside. (E. Wallace)

The Teen Project was busy getting the homes repaired and ready for residents to move in, and the landscape needed help. The new owners considered using artificial turf to solve some of the problems in the landscape, but I stepped in with a couple of partners to offer an alternative: Plant a natural landscape instead of using artificial turf. The natural landscape would be healing for the land and for the future residents.

Sea lavender growing in the middle of a native yucca (Hesperoyucca whipplei). (E. Wallace)

We offered to plant three front yards with California native plants. Native plants belong in the canyon, are beautiful, and require minimal water once established. In January 2019, with the help of volunteers, we began removing invasive plants and planting 300 one-gallon native plants. We removed about four semi-truck loads of invasive plants the first four months, and by April we had landscaped three large front yards and more.

  • Before
  • After

That first year, we completed all of the work by hand. As the project progressed, we hired a landscape contractor to help with drainage and more complex designed areas like the butterfly garden shown below.

  • Before
  • After

If you would like to learn more about the project, you are invited to attend a presentation I am giving at the San Clemente Garden Club this Wednesday, September 1, at 2 p.m. at St. Andrews by the Sea United Church at 2001 Calle Frontera in San Clemente. Join us and enjoy some dramatic photographs of our progress and hear about future plans for the site.

Summer Blooms for Butterflies

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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 additions to your garden.

Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) is from the rose family. This plant grows quickly, becoming a small tree up to 25 feet tall. In the hottest days of summer, toyons are covered with white blossoms that butterflies love.

Toyon blossoms and the monarch butterfly. (Kevin Alison)

After the toyon’s white flowers are pollinated, they form bright red berries at Christmas time. The abundant holly-like berries are the reason that one of toyon’s common names is California Christmasberry. Migrating birds like cedar waxwings come to Southern California in the winter to munch on the red fruit.

Two cedar waxwings eating toyon berries. (E. Wallace)

Coyote mint (Monardella sp.) is an easy-to-grow shrub that blooms throughout spring and summer with pink flowers that attract butterflies.

Swallowtails feasting on nectar from coyote mint. (Kevin Alison)

Another low-growing flowering shrub is Verbena lilacina. Verbena’s blossoms are butterfly magnets throughout the summer months.

Western white butterfly finding a sip of nectar. (E. Wallace)
Painted lady butterfly on Verbena lilacina. (E. Wallace)

You can count on native Milkweed’s (Asclepias sp.) creamy white flowers to provide nectar for butterflies and other pollinators. The leaves and seed pods also feed hungry monarch caterpillars.

Monarch butterflies on narrow-leaf milkweed. (Rachel Whitt)
Monarch caterpillar eating narrow-leaf milkweed. (E. Wallace)

Lastly, the classic California native plant, Buckwheat (Eriogonum sp.), with its beautiful white snowball blossoms, provides nectar for butterflies and pollinators all summer long. There are many species of buckwheat that are great additions to every garden.

Marine blue butterfly visits buckwheat. (Kris Ethington)

Toyons, coyote mint, verbenas, milkweed, and buckwheat are just a few of the many lovely California native plants that flower in the summer, supporting butterflies and other pollinators. You can bring nature to your landscape by planting these easy-to-grow, low maintenance plants in your garden.

Late July and the Woolly-Pod Milkweed

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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.

Bumblebees (Bombus crotchii) gathering nectar from milkweed late July 2020. (E. Wallace)
Monarch caterpillars munching woolly-pod milkweed last July. (E. Wallace)

This year, I was surprised to see that the woolly-pod milkweed blossoms were dry and seed pods were already forming. And I didn’t see any monarch caterpillars on the plant.

Pods forming in late July 2021. (E. Wallace)

Did last winter’s drought (only 5 inches of rain) and this summer’s heat cause the woolly-pod milkweed plants to set seed early? And is this year’s change in the milkweed blossoms detrimental to the monarch butterfly population?

Seed pod development started early this year compared with last July. (E. Wallace)

A recent article in Popular Science magazine discussed findings from scientists who studied 25 years of data from more than 18,000 monarch counts to try to determine whether increased herbicide use, mortality during migration, or changes in climate might be most responsible for the decline in monarch numbers.

The magazine article summarized findings recently published in the July 19, 2021 scientific journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. The findings concluded that breeding season weather was nearly seven times more important than other factors in explaining the changes in summer monarch butterfly populations.

Michigan State University scientist Elise Zipkin and her team found that “monarchs tended to thrive when weather conditions stayed close to average in their spring breeding grounds, and when temperatures in the northern and southern parts of their summer habitat weren’t too cool or warm.”

The Nature Ecology & Evolution report concluded that “If observed changes in spring and summer climate continue, portions of the current breeding range may become inhospitable for monarchs. Results highlight the increasingly important contribution of a changing climate to insect decline.”

Although the study focused mainly on data from the eastern monarch population, it is likely the changing climate is also contributing to the precipitous decline of the western monarchs that inhabit our California landscapes.

Monarch visiting my garden. (E. Wallace)

I hope that we can learn from recent scientific studies to create change that will help support monarch butterfly populations. As I write this post on a hot summer afternoon, I see monarch butterflies in my yard. They are doing their best to cope with changing conditions. Let’s do what we can to help monarchs thrive.

What is Milkweed?

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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.

Narrow-leaf milkweed growing in the wild in Southern California (E. Wallace)

Milkweed is the host plant for monarchs because the caterpillars rely solely on milkweed for food.

The latex in milkweed plants contains cardenolide, a substance that can be toxic if ingested by humans and some animals. It has a bitter taste that most animals will avoid.

Two monarch caterpillars eating native narrow-leaf milkweed. (E. Wallace)

When monarch caterpillars eat milkweed, they ingest some cardenolide, which gives them a protective advantage from predators. If a bird tries to eat a monarch butterfly, the bird will have a bitter taste in its mouth and may throw up.

Even though milkweed plants contain a toxic substance, they are beneficial wildflowers that are important to birds and many insect species. The image below shows milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) enjoying narrow-leaf milkweed flowers.

Milkweed bugs feeding on milkweed blossoms. (E. Wallace)

Endangered bumblebees (Bombus crotchii) are gathering nectar from woolly-pod milkweed flowers in the image below.

Bumblebees (Bombus crotchii) gather nectar from native milkweed. (E. Wallace)

In Southern California, native milkweed plants go dormant in winter and die back to the ground before re-emerging in the spring.

Many nurseries sell non-native, orange-flowered tropical milkweed (Asclepias curassavica) because it’s easy to grow and appealing to the eye. Unfortunately, it has a deleterious effect on monarchs. Scientists have found that tropical milkweed causes monarchs to be under-weight and parasite-ridden.

Tropical milkweed can harm monarch butterflies. (Monarch Butterfly Garden)

If you live in Southern California, resist the urge to buy tropical milkweed.

Instead, search for nurseries that offer milkweed that is native to your area. The healthiest milkweed you can buy in Southern California is narrow-leaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, or at Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano.

This year, Tree of Life Nursery is also selling a beautiful native milkweed called woolly-pod milkweed (Asclepias eriocarpa shown below).

Woolly-pod milkweed. (E. Wallace)

Summertime is a great time to plant native milkweed, and it is one of the easiest things we can do to help monarchs flourish. Visit Roger’s Gardens or Tree of Life Nursery soon and try planting a native milkweed in your yard.

Monarch butterfly at rest. (E. Wallace)

A Chemical-Free Garden for Monarchs

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Is it possible to have a beautiful garden without using pesticides and herbicides? In my experience, it has been easy to have a healthy garden that doesn’t require chemical pest control.

Reducing our reliance on chemicals protects butterflies, and invites wildlife to step in and manage the unwanted insect population.

Birds feed their offspring mostly insects and caterpillars because insects are easy to digest when the baby birds are young and vulnerable. One nest of baby birds need more than 5,000 caterpillars to develop and be ready to fledge.

Adult birds, including hummingbirds, also rely on insects for protein and calories.

The images below show a kingbird after it captured a potato bug. The kingbird flew with the insect to a nearby elderberry bush and proceeded to smack the insect against a branch before eating it.

Kingbird captures a potato bug, smashing it to get ready to eat. (E. Wallace)

If you had killed the potato bug, the kingbird would have gone hungry. Sterilizing the outdoors with chemicals may be part of the reason terrestrial birds in the United States have declined by 3 billion birds since the 1970.

Instead of using pesticides, you can let birds and beneficial insects like the praying mantis shown below, do the work for you.

Mantis eats a winged insect. (E. Wallace)

Although birds and beneficial insects help with pest control, some pests are better managed by the gardener.

I remove tiny orange aphids that are attracted to native narrow-leaf milkweed by squishing them with my fingers. First I make sure there aren’t any pearly monarch eggs nearby. The aphids are soft, and removing them takes about 10 seconds.

I recently heard an entomologist say adult monarch butterflies won’t lay their eggs on milkweed that has aphids, so I keep an eye on my milkweed plants and make sure to smash the aphids when they appear.

Monarch caterpillars eating aphid-free narrow-leaf milkweed. (E. Wallace)

Before reaching for a pesticide, remember the possible harm chemicals can do to birds, butterflies, and bees. When you preserve the web of life in your garden, you will have fewer pests naturally, and a thriving butterfly population too.

Simple Support for Western Monarchs

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Every winter, volunteers travel to western monarch overwintering sites to count butterflies roosting in trees near the coast. Last winter, fewer than 2,000 monarch butterflies were found overwintering along the California coast.

Overwintering monarchs November 2015. (Kathy Keatley Garvey)

Compared to 1997, when it was estimated that more than 1 million monarch butterflies overwintered, the numbers from the 2021 count were historically low.

Emma Pelton and Stephanie McKnight of the Xerces Society write, “Iconic and beloved monarch overwintering sites like Pismo Beach and Natural Bridges reported only a few hundred monarchs during the count. More startling, Pacific Grove, which goes by the name “Butterfly Town, USA” because of its overwintering sites, had no monarchs at all. Each of these sites normally host thousands—in some years, tens of thousands—of butterflies during the winter months, and are locations where visitors travel to experience the marvel of glittery orange monarch clusters.”

Scientists are not sure exactly why the overwintering monarch butterfly numbers were so low last winter, but they know that wildfires, increasing use of pesticides and herbicides, climate change, and habitat loss are some of the culprits. 

Western monarch butterfly. (E. Wallace)

What can we do to help western monarch populations recover? 

Plant native: Plant milkweed that is native to the area where you live. For Southern Californians, you can find native milkweed at Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar and Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano.

Plant pesticide free: There is a dizzying array of chemicals available to kill insects in your home and garden. But many of these pesticides kill beneficial insects like monarch butterflies as well. The Xerces Society writes:

“‘Pesticide” is an umbrella term that includes—but is not limited to—insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, and rodenticides. Each year in the United States, more than a billion pounds of pesticides are applied across home gardens, parks, and farms to manage unwanted weeds, insects, diseases and other ‘pests.’ The majority of pesticides used are ‘broad-spectrum’ meaning they kill broadly. Contamination resulting from the extensive use of pesticides has been tied to the decline of species important to ecosystems, including pollinators.”

A beneficial insect, the praying mantis, hanging out on a pesticide-free narrow-leaf milkweed. (E. Wallace)

Xerces also writes about the dangers of using herbicides: “Herbicides may kill plants or, in the case of pre-emergent herbicides, prevent plant germination. Herbicides can indirectly impact pollinators and other invertebrates by eliminating habitat. For example, declining populations of the monarch butterfly have been linked to increasing herbicide use—because that, in turn, leads to the loss of milkweed and nectar plants that monarchs rely on.”

Instead of reaching for a pesticide, consider planting a more diverse plant palette in your home landscape to attract beneficial insects and provide support for birds and other predators to pests. To learn more about pesticides, click here.

This video shows a monarch caterpillar climbing on native milkweed, on its way to finding more milkweed leaves. This video is in real time. The caterpillar is speedy! (E. Wallace)

We can all provide a healthy environment for creatures living in our home landscape. A healthy garden will support western monarch butterflies as they seek out nectar this summer. And when a female monarch butterfly finds native milkweed in your yard, she can lay eggs there. Your native milkweed will provide food for caterpillars to munch and grow.

Monarch caterpillars eating woolly-pod milkweed. (E. Wallace)

Monarchs Arrive for Summer

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Have you noticed monarch butterflies flying around your California yard this summer?

Western monarch butterflies are an iconic butterflies that delight us with bright orange plumage, black stripes, and white polka dots. They are so large, they cast a shadow when they fly overhead.

After hearing about the historically low overwintering monarch butterfly count last winter, I have been surprised to see a healthy number of western monarchs making daily visits to my home landscape over the past few months. 

Monarch rests on a native milkweed. (E. Wallace)

I am seeing more monarchs than I expected because last winter, fewer than 2,000 monarchs were counted overwintering in California. 

According to Xerces.org, “Early count numbers from Xerces’ Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count suggest that the western migratory population is headed for an all-time low. With approximately 95 percent of the data in, only 1,800 monarchs have been reported…This is a significant decline from the low numbers of the last two years where the total hovered just under 30,000 monarchs. These numbers are a tiny fraction of the millions of monarchs that likely visited overwintering sites in the 1980s and the hundreds of thousands of monarchs that graced California’s coast as recently as the mid-2010s. In fact, this represents an overall decline of more than 99.9% in the migratory population.”

Photo of overwintering Western monarch butterflies by Candace Fallon/Xerces Society

What can we do to help reverse their dramatic decline in numbers?

Monarch caterpillars only feed on milkweed. The first step you can take to help the western monarch butterfly is to plant milkweed that is native to your area. Good native milkweed choices for Southern California include narrow-leaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) and woolly-pod milkweed (Asclepias eriocarpa). 

You can install native milkweed plants now, and support monarch butterflies looking for a host plant to lay their eggs. 

Western monarch caterpillars feasting on woolly-pod milkweed in Southern California. (E. Wallace)

Planting milkweed that is native to where you live is more beneficial than non-native (tropical milkweed) because non-native milkweed often hosts parasites that harm butterflies and disrupts their reproduction and migration.  

One nursery in Southern California is trying to help increase western monarch populations by offering a free trade-in. At Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, you can bring your non-native tropical milkweed into the nursery and receive a free native narrow-leaf milkweed replacement plant.

Another great nursery to buy native milkweed is Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano. Tree of Life Nursery has several species of native milkweed plants for sale this year including woolly-pod milkweed shown above.

Monarch caterpillar munching native narrow-leaf milkweed yesterday. (E. Wallace)

Planting plenty of native milkweed in your garden is a great first step in helping the western monarch butterfly populations recover. I will discuss more ways you can help monarchs in my next post. In the meantime, visit your local nursery and buy several milkweed plants for your garden, and while you are outside, look for monarchs cruising your garden.

Powered by Insects

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Did you know that most birds gather insects every day to nourish themselves and feed their offspring? Many people believe birds can survive eating seed from bird feeders, but most birds need insects to provide digestible protein for energy, migration, and breeding. A baby bird’s tender digestive system needs soft, fat-filled proteins from insects and caterpillars to fuel its growth.

Bushtit collects insects. (K. Ethington)

The photo above shows an American bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) gathering all sorts of insects, including aphids, from a salvia in a Southern California backyard. A bushtit is a tiny bird, smaller than many hummingbirds, weighing about .19 ounces. Despite their diminutive size, bushtits still need plenty of insects to feed themselves and their babies in the nest.

Birds are having a hard time finding enough insects to eat. Scientists have estimated that 40 percent of insect species are threatened by extinction. Insects are integral to the food web, eaten by everything from birds to mammals and fish. Insects also pollinate crops that produce one-third of the world’s food supply, and they break down waste.

Insects for breakfast. (K. Ethington)

Bird populations have declined along with insect populations. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, bird populations have declined by 2.9 billion birds since 1970. The decline is due to habitat loss, invasive plants, pesticide use, and more.

Breakfast. (K. Ethington)

Each of us can do our part to help increase bird populations. If we plant vegetation that is native to where we live, we won’t need to use pesticides or herbicides. It may seem counterintuitive to encourage insect life, but they are a valuable and necessary part of our food cycle.

More breakfast. (K. Ethington)

The next time you need to replace a plant in your yard, plant a native! Your soil health will improve (without amendments or compost), you won’t need to use pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers, songbirds will come to nest, and butterflies will appear.

Roger’s Gardens and Tree of Life Nursery are offering a free California buckwheat to homeowners who want to try starting a native plant garden in their home landscape. Stop by their garden centers to pick up a free buckwheat plant while spring is in the air.

Garden While Spring is Here

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Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano and Roger’s Gardens in Newport Beach are open and have free buckwheat plants available for pick-up (while supplies last).

When you go to pick up your free buckwheat, consider buying a few extra native plants to install in your garden this spring. Tree of Life Nursery is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, closed on Sundays. Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. everyday.

New native plants. (E. Wallace)

I visited Tree of Life Nursery last week to purchase a dozen native plants to replace non-native ferns that grew in a small planter. I removed the ferns and installed monkey flowers, yarrows, coral bells, and dudleyas before the rain poured another 3 inches on my garden. The finished installation is shown below…the hummingbirds and bumblebees now have more plants to provide nectar.

New natives. (E. Wallace)

Featured below are a few recent photos that illustrate what happens when you install native plants. Birds, bumblebees, and other pollinators flourish and multiply.

Bushtits. (K. Ethington)

Rufous hummingbird.  (K. Ethington)

Swallowtail. (K. Ethington)

Hoverfly. (E. Wallace)

Gray Hairstreak visits buckwheat. (K. Ethington)

Stop by Roger’s Gardens or Tree of Life Nursery and pick up your free buckwheat plant while supplies last. Enjoy your time in the garden. It is one of the safest places we can be right now. Stay safe and be well!

Befriending the Bumble Bee

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Did you know that honey bees were imported from Europe and are not native to the United States?

Honey bee collects pollen. (K. Ethington)

In California, we have about 1,600 species of native bees, and 26 of these are bumble bees. The bumble bee is the largest and gentlest of all the known species of bees. The queen bumble bee hibernates in the winter, then emerges in the spring to collect nectar, rebuild her strength, and find a suitable nest location. Click on this link to learn more fascinating details about a year in the life of a bumble bee from the Xerces Society.

If you look closely at the vegetation in your garden or park space now, you might spot a bumble bee collecting pollen from the flowers. Bumble bees are particularly good at pollination. Their wings beat 130 times or more per second, according to the National Wildlife Federation, and the beating combined with their large bodies vibrates flowers until they release pollen, which is called buzz pollination. Buzz pollination helps plants produce more fruit.

Crotch’s Bumble Bee. (E. Wallace)

When you see a bumble bee, snap a photo and share it with scientists. One of the best places to record your bumble bee sighting is iNaturalist. iNaturalist is a joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society. With iNaturalist “every observation can contribute to biodiversity science, from the rarest butterfly to the most common backyard weed.”

The Crotch’s bumble bee pictured above was verified by scientists after I imported the photo to iNaturalist. It is classified as endangered due to the impacts of pesticides, climate change, and human development.

Black-tailed bumble bee. (E. Wallace)

Bumble bees need three things to thrive:

  1. Flowers on which to forage.
  2. A place to build their nest (abandoned rodent holes in the soil, leaf litter, and cavities in rock piles).
  3. A pesticide-free environment.

Yellow-faced bumble bee. (E. Wallace)

Let’s help our bumble bees so we can enjoy their fuzzy buzzing every spring. Now that we have been forced to slow down, we can spend some of our free time watching the secret lives of animals, and then upload our observations on iNaturalist. Maybe we can plant a native plant or two in our gardens, and see if we can help these creatures while we help ourselves.

Buckwheat blossom. (E. Wallace)

Speaking of native plants, the Orange County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (OCCNPS) is offering free California ‘Dana Point’ buckwheat plants (while supplies last) at Tree of Life Nursery and  Roger’s Gardens. These two nurseries are operating carefully and have made some changes in light of COVID-19. Tree of Life Nursery has reduced their operating hours — check the web site before picking up your free buckwheat. Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar is also operating with protective measures in place.

Digger bee. (K. Ethington)

After you pick up your buckwheat, send us an email at buckwheat@occnps.org. Let us know where you planted your new buckwheat and we can input the location on our Buckwheat iNaturalist map. Wishing you the best in these uncertain times. I hope you spot a bumble bee, and take some solace in your garden or local park space. Be well.

My Interview with the LA Times

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Jeanette Marantos, garden reporter for the LA Times, called me in mid-February as I was returning home from a landscape restoration project I work on in Trabuco Canyon.

(L to R) Brad Jenkins, president of OCCNPS, volunteer Vern Jones, Jeff Wallace and myself, after planting four Coast Live Oak trees and two toyons at a landscaping project in Trabuco Canyon. (E. Wallace)

Marantos asked me to provide a short list of the best native plants Southern Californians can plant in their home landscapes, and also why it is important to plant natives in the home garden.

We spoke on the phone for an hour and I suggested California native plants that are beautiful and easy-to-grow. We researched the plants together on the Calscape database. We also discussed Doug Tallamy’s research that shows when non-native ornamental plants are installed in the landscape, insect populations plummet because insects are co-evolved to feed from native plant species, not from introduced plant species.

Marantos’ article appeared in the LA Times on February 28 and is titled “Want to help bees and butterflies? Add these plants to your garden.”

Want to help bees and butterflies? Illustration by Julie Yellow for The Times.

Marantos wrote: “Once upon a time in Southern California, landscaping was primarily about decoration — the greenest lawn, easy-care sculptural shrubs and a few showstopper flowers, almost none native to the region or welcoming to butterflies or bees. In truth, we did everything we could to keep bugs out of our yards, and it worked — far too well.”

She spoke with Ron Vanderhoff, vice president of the Orange County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (OCCNPS) and general manager of Roger’s Gardens nursery, who said, “Bees, butterflies and other native insects are dwindling because they’re running out of the habitat and food provided by native plants. If we want to save them — and the birds and other animals that need those insects to survive — we need to change how we think about landscaping.”

“There’s been a mind change where gardening is not just decorating, it’s doing something to help the world,” Vanderhoff said. “It’s gardening with a purpose to it.”

Hummingbird visits native manzanita. (Kris Ethington)

Kris Ethington, board member of OCCNPS, and winner of Orange County’s 2018 California Friendly Garden contest for re-landscaping her entire yard with only native plants, discussed her favorite plants for the garden including oaks, lemonadeberry, toyon, and verbena de la mina.

Here is a list of California native plants that Ron, Kris and I consider must-haves in every garden as reported in the LA Times:

Buckwheat growing under fruit trees

Buckwheat blossoms in late summer home garden. (E. Wallace)

If you are going to add just one native plant to your yard, make it a California buckwheat. At OCCNPS, we believe this is such an important plant for the landscape that we gave away 1,500 starter buckwheat plants to Orange County homeowners in our A Buckwheat in Every Garden program.

Hummingbird finding nectar from a Cleveland sage. (Kris Ethington)

Salvias and sages are pollinators’ favorite flowers. White sage is a sacred plant to Native Americans; it has silvery foliage and thrives in hot, dry locations. For shady locations, hummingbird sage spreads abundantly, blossoming with magenta-colored flowers in spring and summer. Vanderhoff also recommends the fragrant Cleveland sage which thrives in most parts of Southern California.

Monarch caterpillar munching on a narrow-leaf milkweed. (Cynthia Grilli)

Narrow-leaf milkweed has white flowers and is the best milkweed for monarch butterflies in Southern California. Many nurseries sell the orange tropical milkweed, but tropical milkweed is not native to Southern California, and researchers have discovered that tropical milkweed hosts a protozoa that makes adult monarchs sickly and weak, according to Vanderhoff. For that reason, Vanderhoff’s nursery, Roger’s Gardens, only sells narrow-leaf milkweed.

Maritime ceanothus. (Kris Ethington)

Ceanothus, commonly known as the California lilac, is a gardener’s favorite. With its honey sweet scent and profuse violet blossoms, this is a must have for every garden. The ceanothus variety ‘Yankee Point’ spills down hillsides in shady inland gardens. ‘Ray Hartman‘ ceanothus is a small-tree-sized California lilac covered with deep violet blossoms in springtime.

Native bumble with pollen on its legs and a lupine. (Kris Ethington)

California poppies and lupine wildflowers are easy-to-grow annuals with spectacular spring and summer flowers. Gardeners can sow the seeds of these flowers just before winter rains and provide abundant support for pollinators. You can purchase these seeds from Tree of Life Nursery and Theodore Payne Foundation.

Black-tailed bumblebee visits manzanita. (Kris Ethington)

Manzanitas are the superstars of California natives. If anything will turn people toward natives, it’s manzanitas. Manzanitas’ bell-shaped blossoms, structural characteristics, and rich red bark make this a garden standout. Two varieties of manzanitas are excellent choices for the first-time native gardener: Arctostaphylos ‘Sunset’ and ‘Howard McMinn.’

Join me at and other members of OCCNPS at The Dana Point Headlands Earth Day Celebration on April 25, and pick up a free California ‘Dana Point’ buckwheat plant. We care about your garden and the pollinators your garden can support with the right native plants. Join us and bring your questions. We are here to help.

How Many Trees on the Planet?

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For many years, scientists could only guess at the number of trees on earth. But in 2015, Thomas Crowther and colleagues at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies used a combination of satellite imagery, forest inventories, and supercomputer technologies to produce a global map of tree density at the square-kilometer pixel scale.

Coast Live Oak trees growing in Trabuco Canyon. (Elizabeth Wallace)

The study published in Nature on September 2, 2015, concluded that 3.04 trillion trees are growing on earth.

California sycamore (Platanus racemosa) growing at Tree of Life Nursery. (Elizabeth Wallace)

Studies also estimate that the number of trees worldwide have declined 46 percent since the onset of agriculture thousands of years ago.

California Sycamore at O’Neill Park in Trabuco Canyon. (Elizabeth Wallace)

In an effort to increase biodiversity and combat climate change, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) launched a Billion Tree Campaign in 2006. By November 2007, they had achieved the goal, and one billion trees had been planted worldwide.

In December 2011, after more than 12 billion trees had been planted, UNEP formally handed management of the program over to the youth-led not-for-profit Plant-for-the-Planet Foundation (an organization that has been participating in the Billion Tree Campaign since 2007).

More recently, in the World Economic Forum 2020 at Davos, the Forum launched an initiative to bring support to plant a trillion trees by 2030.

Native California Sycamore tree leafing out in springtime. (Elizabeth Wallace)

If you want to join the tree-planting momentum, the Audubon Society recommends careful research in Plant Trees that Turn Your Yard into a Bird Oasis. Planting a native tree that contributes to life where you live is important, and the Audubon Society is a great resource that will help you select the best tree for your outdoor living space.

Coast Live Oak trees and deer browsing. (Elizabeth Wallace)

If you have a small yard or patio, and you live in California, a great tree for wildlife is the Scrub Oak (Quercus berberidifolia). The Scrub Oak grows 15 feet tall, is evergreen, and supports more than 100 species of butterflies and moths.

Scrub oak tree. Photo by Valley News.

A versatile California native shrub for pollinators is the California buckwheat. The California Native Plant Society Orange County (OCCNPS) chapter will be giving away four-inch California buckwheat plants during the April 4 weekend at the Fullerton Arboretum’s Green Scene.

California buckwheat in the Dana Point Headlands. Photo by Debra Kettler.

OCCNPS will also be offering a variety of California native plants and trees for sale at  Green Scene. Native plant experts will answer your questions and offer support to help make planting with natives successful and fun. Join us at Green Scene on April 4.