Here is a developing list of the existing native plant life here existing before we came to our home on Malum Ridge next to the Sierra National Forest near Oakhurst-Yosemite, CA.
One of the best ways to appreciate the park is to watch this Yosemite Nature Notes series. It’s produced by Steven M. Bumgardner, who has lived and worked in Sequoia and Yosemite Park for 20 years.
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…
As you come down the long driveway and round the corner to park, the lavender field is on the right on the bank above the house. This was an old gravel driveway which we changed to widen the curve. Some plants have drip…you can see the hose. Deer do not like lavender, it likes growing…
The difference between trash and junk I posted a picture of my terribly messy potting bench area on my FB page, Flea Market Gardening, and asked for help with what I should do with it. They posted tons of ideas and I’ve been working on it for the last couple weeks. Here is the “before”: Why…
Much about Miner’s lettuceIt may seem a weed in many California gardens, but you’ll find that miner’s lettuce, or Claytonia, is beautiful, useful and edible!
Claytonia parviflora is a species of wildflower in the Purslane family known by the common name Streambank Springbeauty or Miners’ Lettuce. It is very closely related to Claytonia perfoliata which is also commonly known as Miners’ Lettuce.
Mentioned in the Lewis and Clark Herbarium, a specimen of Claytonia parviflora was collected along the lower Columbia River probably in Columbia Co., Oregon, on 26 Mar 1806.
“The Claytonia perfoliata, a close ‘relative’ was discovered on the northwest coast of America, by Mr. Archibald Menzies, and introduced by him into the Kew Garden, in the year 1796, where it has maintained itself ever since, and whence it has been communicated to most of the Botanic Gardens in the kingdom.
Flowers nearly all the summer; and in a moist soil, not too much exposed, will sow itself, and the young plants will come up in the spring, requiring no other care than to prevent their being choked by more powerful weeds, or cut off by that destructive instrument the hoe. Our drawing was taken at Mr. Salisbury’s Botanic Garden, Brompton.” Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, 1811 *
Miner’s lettuce is the most recognizable wild edible plant now.
The genus, Claytonia, had been named for 18th century botanist , John Clayton**, by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. ‘Perfoliate’, means having a leaf with the base united around, and apparently pierced by, the stem.…
May Meadow In Fall of last year, I became tired of a field full of Filaree and embarked on planting a marvelous meadow of native wildflowers and grasses. The Filaree stickers are evil and they stick terribly to Maggie, our Corgi. Here are photos showing the progress and challenges, with the first wave of flowers blooming…
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…
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…
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…
Oh, Joy!
Dill is a versatile herb, one that I really use in cooking. First planted in 2005, I’ve never had to buy another plant. I love volunteers, but this is different! This monster dill has found a place it loves.
The Dill, looking somewhat Dr Suess-y
This dill seeded itself next to the potted mother plant, stashed there during Fall patio cleanup. When Tractor Man isn’t tractoring, he looks out this west-facing window and the wispy feathery leaves have been growing up this early Spring to peek in at him. They don’t call it weed for nothing.…
OK, there are conflicting accounts, but seeing as it is my blog, I will say that the Tractor Man got too close to my container plant.
Tractor hits old bucket
Tractor Man came in after the accident full of advice for me, primarily to keep my garden further away from his driveway. No defense is needed for my part, so I will decline to show the ‘before’ photos of the driveway and how close it is to the front garden.
Deciding to divide and set some of these babies free!
Since sempervivum divides easily and this old bucket container was very crowded before, the best solution was to deconstruct the relatively squashed ‘hens and chicks’ and spread them around throughout the garden. I didn’t count how many pieces there were, but it was a lot.…
Growing California Fuchsia is like hanging out a neon sign to a certain pollinator, namely hummingbirds! It also fills a need many native plant gardeners have of maintaining a colorful garden all year and Zauschneria fits that description. The red, red-orange, pink, or white blossoms — sized just for a hummingbird’s beak — open in…
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
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”. …
California Native Plant Week 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, Wednesday, is for the ‘Shasta’ Sulfur Flower. In Hardy Californians: a woman’s life with…
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.
“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 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.…
It’s California Native Plant Week and I’m profiling a different California native each day that is on my particular wish list.
The first is Coulter’s Matilija poppy, Romneya coulteri.
The flowers of the tall and dramatic Matilija poppy, Romneya coulteri, look eggish, growing atop an 8-12 foot plant. A perennial, this grey-green leafed California native, prefers dry, disturbed soil near road cuts and along rocky streams.
Matilija poppy, 7 inches wide, Shelter Cove, California
In my area, it’s found beside the Merced River along Hwy 140 going into Yosemite, but I’ve seen it in Monterey, CA in the median strips and planting areas along the roadsides and as far north as Shelter Cove, CA. In my neighbor’s garden, it grows rampantly with sprinklers going summer long and suckers madly, multiplying in all corners of the place.
Matilija poppy stands 8 feet tall or more
This photo was taken in Shelter Cove, CA where the Matilija (Ma-TILL-a-ha) grows wildly beside a gas station parking lot. Named for the Matilija River in Ventura County, CA, it was discovered in the 1860’s by Irish botanist, Thomas Coulter, who named it after his friend, John Thomas Romney Robinson, an astronomer. Coulter, collected and studied plants in Californa and Mexico.…
A wildflower experiment In my garden, I sowed a native California wildflower meadow. It was a very fun project and I learned a lot. Now, in another area of my garden I call “The Natural Meadow” I continue more experiments! See what I did! First of all, my objective here was to add very few…
Ceanothus ‘Dark Star’
