Tag: california native plants
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Board Member Outreach Brings Native Plants to the Urban Environment
Daphne Christle, Board Member of the OCCNPS, shares her passion for California native plants, inspired by childhood experiences and environmental activists. She emphasizes the importance of community outreach and hopes to re-wild urban environments. Her future goals include promoting biodiversity and encouraging others to appreciate and protect native plants.
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Native Plant of the Month: Bladderpod
Guest author Dan Songster submitted this article featuring an outstanding California native plant for May: This fast growing, densely-branching shrub routinely grows in a mounding habit, becoming about 3-6 feet tall and as wide. It produces abundant bright-yellow flower clusters at the ends of its stem branches. These showy flowers are about a half-inch to…
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If Money Were No Object, How Would You Grow Your Garden?
Learn about native gardeners’ dream gardens if money were no object.
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Systems Analyst Weaves Together Nature and Friends
Brad Jenkins, board member, webmaster, and treasurer of the California Native Plant Society Orange County Chapter (OCCNPS), is featured this month, and answers the question: What draws us to our relationships with nature and native plants? “Innate influences, happenstance encounters, analytical purposefulness, and social associations.“ Brad writes: “My first wedding was in a wild field…
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April’s Plant of the Month: Saffron Buckwheat
What: Eriogonum crocatum – Saffron Buckwheat Dan Songster shares his native plant expertise with this article featuring a California Native Plant of the Month. April’s featured plant is Saffron Buckwheat (Eriogonum crocatum). Saffron buckwheat is lovely whether in flower or not. A colorful, compact mounding shrub to 1 1/2 feet tall by 2-3 feet wide…
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Environmental Planner Builds Community Around Native Plants
This article was contributed by guest author Thea Gavin and features Sunny Saroa, an active board member of the California Native Plant Society Orange County Chapter (OCCNPS). A CNPS member for nearly a decade and an OCCNPS board member for just over a year, Sunny serves native plants and our chapter members in all kinds…
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Tending the Native Garden
Dan Songster of the Orange County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (OCCNPS) contributed this article for the March/April Native Gardener’s Corner-Member’s Tips, Tricks, and Techniques. Tips and Tricks offers chapter members and local experts a chance to share information on the many things related to gardening with native plants. This month’s request was: …
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Dreamy Native Plants
Our rain totals in Southern California have already exceeded the average 14 inches per rainy season. As I write, two more inches of rain has fallen with more to come. It is an understatement to say that our native plants are thriving. This is great news for the wildlife, birds, and pollinators that depend on…
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Botanist Shares Wonders of the Natural World
Thea Gavin presents her monthly feature of a member of the Orange County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (OCCNPS) Board of Directors. This article features Ron Vanderhoff, OCCNPS Plant Science Chair and current President of CalFlora. With a career in horticulture that has spanned decades, Ron is also General Manager and Vice President…
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Native Plant Roots Grow Deep for This Scientist
This column was compiled by guest author Thea Gavin who interviewed OCCNPS Vice President Rebecca Crowe for this month’s feature article. Rebecca Crowe has been a CNPS member since 2007, and an OCCNPS board member since 2019. With a master’s degree (San Francisco State University) in ecology/evolution/conservation biology, she especially enjoys plant identification and propagation,…
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Native Plant Goals for the New Year
Native Gardener’s Corner-Member’s Tips, Tricks, and Techniques This article, compiled by guest author Dan Songster, offers OCCNPS chapter members and local experts a chance to share information related to gardening with native plants. This month’s query asked: Do you have any New Year’s resolutions for your native garden or plans for changing your landscape in…
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Manzanita Favorites for the Garden
Native Gardener’s Corner-Member’s Tips, Tricks, and Techniques is a regular feature compiled by OCCNPS board member Dan Songster to share information from chapter members and experts statewide about gardening with native plants. “With winter here, manzanita blooms can’t be far away. Which is your favorite Arctostaphylos for your garden, and why?” Terry LePage-“Arctostaphylos ‘Howard McMinn’…