Category: Sierra Foothills

What’s blooming in June

Here are the native and non-native flowers and plants that are blooming this month in my Sierra foothill garden.

Chocolate scented daisy, Berlandiera lyrata

Chocolate scented daisy, Berlandiera lyrata

The green seedpods of the Chocolate-scented daisy will dry in a layered pattern circling the center of the flower. None of the seeds I collected sprouted with the winter-sown method this year so further reading will have to be done to grow these from seed. They really do have a chocolate smell!

Clarkia amoena Farewell to spring

Clarkia amoena Farewell to spring

In the new meadow, the Clarkias are blooming, adding a carnival of color combining with the still blooming poppies and the powder blue Globe gilia.

Cleveland sage 'Aromas' and Rudbeckia hirta

Cleveland sage 'Aromas' and Rudbeckia hirta

The Cleveland sage looks great next to the Black-eyed Susans, I think, and both bloom at the same time in June.…

Celebrate the Summer solstice

Welcome Summer!

On the summer solstice which is today, the Northern Hemisphere receives more sunlight than on any other day of the year, but that doesn’t mean the first day of summer is also the hottest day of summer,…except here where I live.

Rudbeckia, Black-Eyed Susan, a California native

Rudbeckia, Black-Eyed Susan, a California native

Garden first, breakfast second

Going out to the garden first thing with a cup of coffee and some clippers can be a good way to start the day during our summer heat spells in the Sierra Foothills. I try to take advantage of the long days by getting out in the garden before I eat breakfast! Watering pots and clipping the spent blooms in the garden are much more pleasant then and it’s amazing how much you can do in half an hour or so. With no chores in mind, you can putter and groom, pinching a flower here and there before you begin your day. …

Working quietly along with quail

Weeding the natural meadow I work quietly, allowing my thoughts to fade away into just being. I especially don’t think about the enormity of my goal, and the only urgency I feel is the one. The weeds are going to seed. The last three days I have spent in the natural meadow two levels below…

Euphorbia, drama queen of the Sierra foothill garden

 Euphorbia is one of the most diverse family of plants, with many different shapes, sizes and colors, from shrubs to cactus-like succulents. The common name for the perennials and shrubs is spurge, a not very glamorous name to be sure, I have learned to pronounce the Latin, ‘You-for-bia’.  You may already know one type, Poinsettias!…

Lewis Creek: The Wildflowers

Lewis Creek is about 7 miles south of Yosemite National Park, CA. The trail all along it with the flowers,waterfalls and natural beauty are a lovely alternative to visiting the Park if you have limited time, or if you want to avoid crowds, or if the roads are snowy in the Spring. I described the trail and…

A profusion of Pretty Face

Pretty Face, Triteleia ixioides Sunny starry yellow, Pretty Face is sometimes called Golden brodiaea or Golden Stars, and is native to California, appearing only slightly beyond the borders, according to CalFlora. This variety, found on our place and all through the Oakhurst Yosemite area, may be Triteleia ixioides ssp. scabra or Foothill Pretty Face. This pretty bulb first shows up…

Sitting…looking up at oaks

The Oaks of the Sierra foothills “I am sitting with a philosopher in the garden; he says again and again ‘I know that that’s a tree’, pointing to a tree that is near us. Someone else arrives and hears this, and I tell him: ‘This fellow isn’t insane. We are only doing philosophy.” — Ludwig…

May Day bloomers and identifying new native plants

Recently identified, four CA natives on the property are  ‘new to me.’  If you read this blog very much, you know that I’ve been compiling a sort of natural history of the California natives on the place. After ten years here and five years since the house was built, I have thought I knew all the…

After her car could go no higher, Lester Rowntree would be accompanied by burro or mule.

Lester Rowntree, a hardy Californian

Why do they do it? Not for fortune or fame–few outside native plant circles know who they are.  People like Lester Rowntree, a plant explorer extraordinaire, who traveled the length and breadth of California to find and record the locations and characteristics of California native plants simply lived for this ‘doing.’ When’s the last time you thought…

Foothill Penstemon, vivid and bright

It’s California Native Plant Week and I’m profiling a different California native each day that is on my particular wish list. If you live in an area considered Mediterranean, you’ll be able to grow these, too. Today’s plant is Foothill Penstemon.

Foothill penstemon, Penstemon laetus

Foothill penstemon, Penstemon laetus

Maybe because blue is a favorite color, maybe because I had not grown penstemon much in the past and maybe because it is a penstemon first seen and purchased at a favorite nursery, I fell hard for Foothill penstemon, Penstemon laetus, also called Mountain blue penstemon or Gay Penstemon.

The genus, Penstemon, or Beard-tongue, is a common garden perennial, offered in so many colors and cultivars, but in California the native penstemons are nearly as varied. Penstemons normally have one large, sterile, furry stamen that pokes out to attract pollinators to the other four smaller fertile stamens (the name Penstemon means “Five Stamens”). “Laetus” means “bright” or “vivid”. …

Blue-eyed grass, a native gem

It’s California Native Plant Week and I’m profiling a different California native each day that is on my particular wish list.  Today is a favorite, Blue-eyed grass.  

Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium bellum
Western Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium bellum

“Out of the clover & blue-eyed grass
He turned them into the river-lane;
One after another he let them pass,
Then fastened the meadow-bars again.”

Driving Home the Cows
by Kate Putnam Osgood,
b. 1860

Blue Eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum

Blue Eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum is a primitive iris

Blue-eyed grass or Western blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium bellum, is native to California and other areas west of the Sierra Nevada. A perennial meadow wildflower related to the iris family, it hides among the other grasses until the clear blue flowers appear in April or May.…

California Buckeye, always one season ahead

… or, how I discovered Buckeye ‘bulbs’. California Buckeye, Aesculus californica, is always ahead of the season,…first to leaf out in late Winter, first to lose its leaves in summer, surprisingly, making it look quite dead in Fall.  Always one step ahead…and that’s how to identify it! The buckeye was the first tree that piqued my…

How Peckinpah Mountain got its name

After establishing our home on  Malum Ridge, looking out onto Peckinpah Mountain, I heard from neighbors about the  logging history in our town of North Fork, CA.  I became curious about the Peckinpah name and being a bit of a history buff, I decided to dig a bit further. This is what I found. Peckinpah Mountain rises 6000…

Discovering and identifying the Oracle Oak

Discovering new natives I have always loved the names of plants. I don’t know why, but I must know what a plant name is and then look up all the information I can find on it. This property of ours, in the Central California foothills has given me lots of plants to identify and apparently, after ten years here there…

Firewise Landscaping in the Sierra Foothills

When landscaping in a fire risk area, like the Central Sierra foothills of California, you normally have to keep a hundred foot fire safe barrier around your home.   There is quite a bit of research done concerning plants that ignite slower and burn slower.   First, protect your property by grooming the branches and brush 10 feet…