Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

California native plants: On screens and in gardens this week

Take virtual visits to native plant gardens April 17-24

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Kathy Morrison PUBLISHED APR 16, 2021

As much as we -- and the bees -- love California poppies, they are far from the only California natives that work well in a garden. Get inspired this week via virtual visits to native gardens and sites around the state. (Photos: Kathy Morrison)

California native plants have been here all along, boosting native wildlife and helping keep our climate healthy. We can return the favor by planting and enjoying natives in our gardens and protecting them in our parks and wildlands.

Starting Saturday, the state celebrates California Native Plants Week, and native plants get a special boost from, not surprisingly, the California Native Plant Society. Their one-minute kickoff video can be viewed here .

CNPS is promoting the week with the theme "Grow CARE Everywhere." The acronym stands for a four-branch approach to enjoying and preserving California natives:

-- Cultivate. Nursery partners and local CNPS chapters are offering special events, plant sales and discounts .

-- Act. Dudleya plants are among natives in danger -- in this case, from poaching by people who want to cash in on the succulent trend. CNPS notes that plant poaching is a serious problem that puts dozens of species at risk every year. The group is supporting Assembly Bill 223 to make Dudley poaching illegal. Read more here and while you're there check out the adorable Dudleya GIFs associated with the various chapters of CNPS.

-- Restore. Local chapters work to promote and protect native plants in their areas. CNPS has 35 local chapters across the state; information on the Sacramento Valley Chapter is here .

-- Enjoy. This is the one we can do from anywhere that has Wifi: Take a new 360-degree virtual tour of native gardens every day of the celebration week. Get inspired by visiting real-world urban and mountain gardens, botanic gardens, parks and wildlands all over the state. See CNPS' special page for the week for all the links and details.

Blue-violet flowers on a low-growing plant

This beautiful specimen of ceanothus grows in the UC Davis

Arboretum and Public Garden, which has many natives.

I also challenge my fellow gardeners to search out and plant at least one California native in their yards this month. These could range from tidy tips to blueblossom ceanothus, from coyote brush to Pacific madrone trees. Oaks, too! (C'mon, the squirrels do it all the time.) California poppy seeds, of course, are always a good bet.

Natives already know how to cope with the California climate -- including our drought years. And you'll be helping insects and birds, too, which depend heavily on native plants.

The nurseries in the area are increasingly tuned into the benefits of native plants, so don't be afraid to ask about the ones they carry. The UC Davis Arboretum sales are a great source for natives, too. Finally, check out this list at Calscape for ideas of native plants to grow.

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

GENERAL GARDENING

An article about gardening.

Keywords:

poppies Sacramento trees California natives oaks insects gardening birds native plants California Native Plant Society beneficials perennials flowers

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Flowers in My Back Yard Series

Aug. 25: Crape myrtles, Sacramento's unofficial tree of summer

Aug. 18: Pollinators adore scabiosa, aka pincushion flower

Aug. 11: Hardy hibiscus adds big tropical impact

Aug. 4: Dianthus a deceptively hardy flower

July 28: Naked Ladies put on summer show

July 21: Thank Luther Burbank for these long-lasting beauties (Shasta daisies)

July 14: How to keep hydrangeas happy

July 7: Grow these bright cosmos for bees and butterflies

June 30: Agapanthus adds blue fireworks to the garden

June 23: Easy-care gazanias fill those hot corners

June 16: Daylilies are perfect for water-wise gardens (and a lot more)

June 9: Grow coneflowers for pollinators -- and yourself

June 2: Sunflowers capture Sacramento's summer attitude

May 29: Are your roses going 'blind'?

May 26: Zinnias are the summer flowers every garden needs

May 19: Plant dahlias now for late-summer flower power

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?

Local News

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

Find our summer recipes here!

Sites We Like

Garden checklist for week of Aug. 16

During this break in the heat, feed your garden. Make sure to water before and after applying fertilizer.

* In the garden, direct seed beets, carrots, leaf lettuce and turnips.

* Plant potatoes.

* Harvest tomatoes, beans, squash, pepper and eggplants to prompt plants to keep producing. Give your plants a deep watering twice a week, more if planted in containers. Also, give them a boost with phosphate-rich fertilizer to help fruiting.

* Watch out for caterpillars and hornworms in the vegetable garden. They can strip a plant bare in one day. Pick them off plants by hand in early morning or late afternoon.

* Feed citrus trees their last round of fertilizer for the year. This will give a boost to the fruit that’s still small.

* Mulch can be your garden’s best friend – it conserves moisture while blocking out weeds. But don't let mulch mound around stalks, stems or trunks. That can promote rot.

* Camellia leaves looking a little yellow? Give them some chelated iron. That goes for azaleas and gardenias, too.

* Pick up after your fruit trees. Clean up debris and dropped fruit; this cuts down on insects and prevents the spread of brown rot. Then feed fruit trees with slow-release fertilizer for better production for next year.

* To prolong bloom into fall, feed begonias, fuchsias and container plants. Always water before fertilizing.

* Fertilize fall-blooming perennials, too. Chrysanthemums can be fed until the buds start to open.

* Prepare for a fall full of flowers by paying a little extra attention to your garden. Cut off spent blooms from roses, annuals and perennials, then give them a boost of fertilizer. Make sure to water plants before feeding. Roses will rebloom about six to eight weeks after deadheading.

* Indoors, start seedlings for fall vegetable planting, including bunching onion, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, radicchio and lettuce.

* Sow seeds of perennials in pots for fall planting including yarrow, coneflower and salvia.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

Taste Spring! E-cookbook