Sacramento Digs Gardening logo
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

Stock up now on native plants


'Howard McMinn' manzanita is an adaptable native shrub that tolerates clay soil. It will be among the plants for sale Sunday. (Photo courtesy Sac Valley Chapter, CNPS)

Sac Valley CNPS hosts annual fall sale and art market

It’s time to go native! Find a huge selection of tough and beautiful California native plants at Saturday’s annual Fall Native Plant Sale and Art Market at Shepard Garden and Arts Center in McKinley Park.

For one day only, the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society will host this event, set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 21.

The nursery stock offered for sale was grown locally by Cornflower Farms in Elk Grove, Elderberry Farms in Rancho Cordova and Hedgerow Farms in Winters.

Expect to find a lot of unusual varieties, ready to plant now. Elderberry Farms, which is run entirely by CNPS volunteers, plans to bring more than 110 native plant varieties including 10 different bulb species. Both showy and narrowleaf milkweed, a favorite of monarch butterflies, will be offered.

Elderberry Farms nursery director Chris Lewis, who also is coordinating the sale, listed a few of the varieties that will be available:

Manzanita: Whiteleaf, Dr. Hurd, John Dourley, Pacific Mist, Emerald Carpet, Howard McMinn and Carmel Sur.
California lilac (Ceanothus): Anchor Bay, Owlswood Blue, Yankee Point, Valley Violet, Skylark and Ceanothus cuneatus (buckbrush)
Buckwheat: Red, California and St. Catherine’s Lace.

September and October offer ideal planting weather for these California natives. Mild autumn weather gives them a chance to put down strong roots and get a head start on becoming “established,” a key factor in surviving future droughts.

A lot more than plants will be available at this event. Among the other featured vendors will be Wild Jules seed balls, ceramic artist Julie Clements of Clay Pigeon Ceramics and the artists of Coyote Brush Studios.


Comments

0 comments have been posted.

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Local News

Ad for California Local

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Strawberries

Find our spring recipes here!

Thanks to Our Sponsor!

Cleveland sage ad for Be Water Smart

Garden Checklist for week of April 20

Before possible showers at the end of the week, take advantage of all this nice sunshine – and get to work!

* Set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, radishes and squash.

* Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias.

* Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom.

* Plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* Smell orange blossoms? Feed citrus trees with a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden is really hungry. Give shrubs and trees a dose of a slow-release fertilizer. Or mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost.

* Start thinning fruit that's formed on apple and stone fruit trees -- you'll get larger fruit at harvest (and avoid limb breakage) if some is thinned now. The UC recommendation is to thin fruit when it is about 3/4 of an inch in diameter. Peaches and nectarines should be thinned to about 6 inches apart; smaller fruit such as plums and pluots can be about 4 inches apart. Apricots can be left at 3 inches apart. Apples and pears should be thinned to one fruit per cluster of flowers, 6 to 8 inches apart.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Weed, weed, weed! Don’t let unwanted plants go to seed.

Taste Summer! E-cookbook

square-tomatoes-plate.jpg

Find our summer recipes here!

Taste Fall! E-cookbook

Muffins and pumpkin

Find our fall recipes here!

Taste Winter! E-cookbook

Lemon coconut pancakes

Find our winter recipes here!