Cactus Blog

The Abutilon palmeri in the backyard pond area is blooming.

Pt. Reyes Lupines threatened by invasive beach grass, with the help of a cute little native mouse.

It’s a battle between an invasive plant and a native plant, but with a new twist. The two plants, European beachgrass and Tidestrom’s lupine, are not in direct competition, and yet the beachgrass is helping to drive the lupine over the cliff.

European beachgrass provides cover that allows a timid deer mouse to get close enough to the lupine to snip off stalks of lupine fruits without being nabbed by overflying birds.

How cute is that little mouse? This cute:

Awwww…..

Derby Street

Epilobium canum – California fuchsia. Now those are some tubular blooms. Also known as the Hummingbird Trumpet, since those tubular flowers attract hummingbirds, and the wide open end resembles a trumpet. At least, that’s what I would guess. But the truth is that a trumpet is brass-like in color and the Epilobium is bright orange, so the comparison only goes so far.

Anyway, it’s a nice full specimen plant, even if they are low growing and this plant is less than a foot high.

Did I mention that we have our California native lupines back in stock in the liter pot size?  No blooms yet on these smaller plants. The first one is of course more popular with the Berkeley crowd.

Lupinus albifrons

Lupinus arboreus

Still wondering why L. albifrons is the more popular? Because it’s less common. That’s the crux of the bargain at a small specialty nursery.

Here’s a larger plant from last year.

Man, that’s an attractive lupine. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s more popular because of those silvery leaves. One never knows what goes on in the mind of a customer. Except when they tell you, and then you do know.

Epilobium canum usually has orange trumpet flowers. This selection has white. Now that’s not something you see every day.

OK, so it’s not really called lavender sage. It’s Official Common Name is Musk Sage, but that’s just nasty.

Salvia clevelandii ‘Winifred Gilman’

Aromatic grey green leaves are topped with whorls of lavender blooms. The shrub will get to about 3 ft., and not an inch more.

It’s history is all Bay Area. First found in a Strybing Arboretum sale, later found growing in a Berkeley garden, and introduced into the nursery trade in 1990. This is considered by many to be a hybrid, unlike other more common varieties like “Allen Chickering”. On the other hand, “Allen Chickering” smells delicious.

Heuchera “Canyon Belle”

I can’t tell if this photo is in focus. I took it with my phone, and am blogging it direct without seeing the results on a computer. What do you think?

Cylindropuntia prolifera

A shrubby California coastal native cholla grows 3ft. to 8ft. tall and blooms like you wouldn’t believe. Would you?

Dudleya setchellii is included in the CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants on list 1B.1 (rare, threatened, or endangered in CA and elsewhere). It is listed by the Federal Government as Endangered (Feb 03,1995) (via Calflora).

But we’re growing it, and it’s flowering and hopefully we’ll get some seed this year.

Eriogonum latifolium flower buds are about to open. I wonder what color they’ll be?

Achillea “Paprika”

The color on these varies. They will come in much darker red, too.

The achillea hybrids are generally from Achillea millefolium which has subspecies in Europe and the Americas. I like to think of them all as California natives since there is one native subspecies, and the hybrids seem to have all interhybridized pretty readily, so I figure that’s close enough. But apparently this one really is hybridized from the California native yarrow. Good to know.

Achillea millefolium “Lilac Beauty” – a very mellow lilac, practically white, but not quite pure white. A nice glow above the rich green yarrow leaves.

Mimulus “Trish” is the last of our currently blooming native monkeyflowers.

Mimulus puniceus is more of a burgundy monkeyflower to my eye. Not as showy as the white monkeyflower I featured a couple days ago.

Hybridized from a native Mimulus.

Ceanothus “Tilden Park” is a small-leafed, very shrubby, overly bloomful local variety.

This Wild California Lilac is a late bloomer for the California Lilacs, lasting into early summer. Can handle full sun, and even the inland heat, or the coastal fog belt. Can tolerate poor soils, as long as it has good drainage. Great for large swaths of the hillsides. Attracts native bees.

Easy to prune, but make sure you prune in spring before the blooms.

Not actually a grass, but in the iris family.

Sisyrinchium bellum – Northern California native, easy to grow and get all those pretty little blooms. Look, the thing is, you should be replacing your water-intensive lawn with a native meadow look, and these beauties are a key component between the bunch grasses and the yarrows. I’m telling you the truth here, so you should listen to me.

From the Channel Islands

Calystegia Macrostegia ssp. Cyclostegia ‘Candy Cane’ can be evergreen with some summer water. Full sun at the coast, with afternoon shade further inland. Fast growing vine, but not one of the more invasive of the morning glories. On a hillside, it can be grown as a groundcover.

From @back40feet there’s this remarkable picture of a blooming Fremontodendron californicum in Sacramento, CA.

That’s a lot of blooms. Thanks Chuck for letting us use it!

Allium unifolium is the most beautiful of the ornamental onions. That’s not just my opinion, it’s pedantic fact – I mean just look at the flush of those pink blush flowers with the little striping in them. Sometimes they’re more of a lavender color.

Native to coastal California all the way up to the Oregon border, they are a productive herbaceous perennial, producing lots of new bulbs every spring, and popping up pretty early with large swaths of flowers.

I recommend planting it among a garden filled with native grasses, and every spring you’ll get this little surprise of pink flowers poking out.