Tag: pollinators
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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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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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California in My Garden Tour Coming to Orange County
The California Native Plant Society Orange County Chapter (OCCNPS) is hosting a two-day garden tour featuring 22 gardens that are at least 50 percent California native plants. This is your chance to view public and private gardens that feature California native plants in landscapes in North and South Orange County. When you take the tour,…
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Plant of the Month: the California Poppy
Guest author Dan Songster of the California Native Plant Society Orange County Chapter (OCCNPS), shares his horticultural expertise with a monthly article featuring an excellent native plant for your garden. This month’s featured plant is the California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica). The California Poppy is a perennial wildflower that is often treated as an annual. It…
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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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Ron Vanderhoff 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’…
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Find Native Plants that Best Support Butterflies and Moths
Guest author, Chris Cosma, Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology at the University of California, Riverside, shared this October 23, 2023 article about his web application called The Butterfly Net that helps gardeners know which native plants are most supportive of butterflies and moths. Which native plants are the best for insects?…
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2,000 New Sages in SoCal
We did it! The Orange County Chapter of the California Native Plant Society distributed 2,000 four-inch white sage (Salvia apiana) plants free to Southern California residents during our A Sage in Every Garden (SIEG) campaign. Our SIEG team began planning for the giveaway campaign last July. We decided to focus entirely on white sage. We…
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Free Sage February
February is the final month to get a free four-inch White Sage plant from The California Native Plant Society Orange County Chapter’s (OCCNPS) A Sage in Every Garden (SIEG) giveaway. Volunteers from OCCNPS have been bringing White Sage (Salvia apiana) to events across Orange County since last November and have almost completed their goal of…