Sometimes, it’s love at first sight. I am talking about close encounters with plants you have never seen before and then, suddenly, they make the whole world a much more inviting and compatible place. Just to know they exist makes your heart flutter.
Take, for example, the Port Orford cedar. When you first lay eyes on it – as I recently did while strolling through the California Botanic Garden – you will not imagine that such a lush green specimen could possibly be a California native. Yet California is so diverse in terms of climate that when you get up along the northwest coast of the state – where the Port Orford cedar is found — you have actually entered the southern tip of the Pacific temperate rainforest which stretches all the way up to Alaska.
Picture deep blue-green foliar fans. This tree (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), although it may grow up to 60 feet in its habitat, would make a wonderful specimen in a container due to the marvelous color and texture of its leaves and the fact that it demands shade. So those with nothing but a shady balcony on which to grow plants could find satisfaction in cultivating it. When I asked Chip Grubbs, the horticulturist in charge of its care, he noted its need for regular irrigation during the summer; not all California natives are drought tolerant.
The California Botanic Garden (calbg.org), planted exclusively with California natives, is located at 1500 North College Avenue in Claremont. It’s open Tuesday-Sunday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. and tickets may be pre-purchased through the website.
Grubbs is one of only six people employed to care for the 86-acre site which, despite such a skeleton crew, is clearly well maintained. I commented on the dearth of rainfall this year and he reminded me that “rain is not only needed for meeting many natives’ water needs, but for washing the dust that covers the leaves.” In fact, the glowing visage of foliage after a rain is not just a beautiful sight to see, but also a boon to photosynthesis. Photosynthesis, the process by which plants turn water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrate which they use as their energy source, is much more efficient when the light that reaches a plant’s leaves is not diminished by a layer of particulate matter.
“On the other hand,” Grubbs noted, “one benefit of less than usual rainfall is fewer weeds.”
Speaking of rain, there is a plan afoot to requisition four acres of the Los Angeles County Arboretum in Arcadia for the purpose of constructing a stormwater retrieval and storage facility. Over 400 mature trees from the arboretum’s Australian collection, some of which are endangered species, might have to be removed for the project to proceed. It seems rather backward in this day and age to even mention the idea of such an undertaking; it would be a significant loss for the half-million annual visitors to the arboretum, to say nothing of the loss of the trees themselves.
I have long wondered why California has balked at desalination of the ocean when it comes to increasing our water supply. Perhaps those obsessed with storage of rainwater should bear in mind that, when it comes to rainfall, Californians have been living in a fool’s paradise. By examination of tree ring data, it has been shown that during the Middle Ages, for example, there were two megadroughts in this part of the world, each lasting around two hundred years each.
But are we prepared for even 20 years of drought? Stormwater storage certainly makes sense as long as there is stormwater to store, but while future rainfall in California will always be in doubt, the ocean remains a reliable source of water like none other. As Chris Grubbs commented to me when I raised this issue, perhaps we need an Elon Musk type figure to lead a desalination effort.
I asked Grubbs if he had a favorite California native ground cover, shrub, or tree, and his answer was intriguing. “The thing about California native plants is that we are talking about a very distinct plant community and ecology, that being chaparral. Instead of one species of plant or a favorite tree, I like to think about natives as a grouping of plants, or a plant palette, if you will. A well-rounded native plant community, habitat, or residential landscape would have one species (or more!) in the following genera: Quercus (oak), Arctostaphylos (manzanita), Ceanothus (California lilac), Frangula (coffeeberry), Ribes (currant/gooseberry), Cercocarpus (mountain mahogany), Eriogonum (buckwheat), Penstemon (beardtongue), and Salvia (sage).
“One of the most beautiful and critically endangered trees in California is Ornithostaphylos oppositifolia, a manzanita relative. If you pressed me, I would say that is my favorite. There are only about 100 known in the wild on the border between the United States and Mexico, near San Diego and Tijuana. It has great form, stunning bark, and provides food for wildlife.”
Speaking of endangered species, The California Botanic Garden has a number of large specimens, fully six feet tall and wide, of Nevin’s barberry (Mahonia nevinii). Only 500 of these plants are still growing in their habitat that includes canyons, foothills, and washes stretching from the San Fernando Valley all the way to San Bernardino. It has miniature, spiny, holly-like leaves and puts on a lavish annual display of yellow flowers.
One of the most rewarding trees this time of year is the California buckeye (Aesculus californica). A deciduous species, its leaflessness allows its glowing bark to shine without foliar interference during the winter. If you are considering planting a deciduous tree with white bark, forget about the birch – a relatively short-lived water guzzler – and plant a drought-tolerant California buckeye instead.
If you only allow fragrant plants into your garden, there are a number of native selections thriving in the California Botanic Garden you may want to consider and all of them are appropriate for the shade. The first is California bay (Umbellularia californica), a relative of sweet bay (Laurus nobilis). Both plants are suitable for hedges or screens and are shade tolerant. Used as a seasoning, the camphor-cinnamon scented leaves of California bay are more pungent than those of the more familiar bay leaves plucked from the sweet bay. After removal of their shells, California bay seeds can be roasted and munched. Their flavor, depending on the degree of roasting, has been said to resemble dark chocolate, burnt popcorn, or roasted coffee.
Catalina perfume (Ribes viburnifolium) has leaves redolent of wine grapes after it rains. This is a shade-loving shrub that handles drought, clay soil, and freezing temperatures without complaint. Leaf veins, stems, and flowers are red, contrasting nicely with deep green foliage.
California hedge nettle (Stachys balluta) is actually a ground cover and although leaves are hairy, they do not sting as some nettles do. Pink or white flowers are abundantly present on stems that reach up to two feet tall and make excellent elements for a vase arrangement. Crushed leaves have a citrusy scent. While it needs water the first couple of years, hedge nettle displays drought tolerance subsequently. Ultimately, it just spreads and spreads.
Now we come to one of my favorite natives. It’s known as fragrant pitcher sage (Lepechinia fragrans) and, like hedge nettle, belongs to the mint family and may have either pink or white flowers. It grows easily from seed but, while perennial, may not live more than a few years. The fragrance of its crushed velvety leaves is powerfully fruity. It is not fussy about soil conditions and is drought tolerant in the shade. Although pollinated mostly by bumblebees, it also attracts hummingbirds and butterflies. It can grow up to six feet tall and as wide but is often of shorter stature. Flowers are bugle shaped and hang down decorously all along 1-2 foot stems.
Tip of the Week: The California Botanic Garden shows off a variety of the more than 2,000 species in its collection in containers. You may think of natives as wild types that would not take kindly to confinement but the truth is otherwise. Aside from native succulents such as Dudleya, buckthorn cholla cactus and an Ocotillo relative (Fouquieria columnaris) that you might expect to see here in containers since succulents almost always grow quite well in them, I was pleasantly surprised to see several robust giant chain ferns (Woodwardia fimbriata) growing in containers too, as well as a redwood tree and a Tecate cypress (Cupressus forbesii). Keep in mind that any leafy plant, no matter how drought tolerant when planted in the ground, is going to need regular monitoring when grown in a container as far as its water needs are concerned.
Please send questions, comments, and photos to joshua@perfectplants.com.
