Question! What are your favorite California native plants for the garden?
I am helping a community farm's native plant propagation project and I'm working on our wishlist. We're at the northeastern end of the Bay Area, so stuff from our region is best but anything from CA is worth consideration.
These are to be put out for sale to the general public, most of whom are not very familiar with the concept of native plants and are easily turned off by things that look funky or have specialized needs. Which is too bad, because funky/weird special plants are my favorites!
Edibility and fragrance are good bonuses that will add appeal. We don't want things to be stuck in pots for too long, natives suffer if they don't go in the ground and start developing deep roots pretty quick.
Is it totally the wrong time in the year to be starting any annuals from seeds? I dunno, so I'm focusing mostly on perennials for now.
I'll edit my list, in alphabetical order by scientific name:
Achillea millefolium, common yarrow is good and standard.
Aristolochia californica, the California pipevine, is totally funky but a big must since it's the only food for pipevine swallowtail caterpillars-- at the nursery where I used to work, we always had a waiting list for these because they're so slow to propagate.
Asclepias fascicularis, narrowleaf milkweed-- obvious pick for monarchs
Asclepias speciosa, showy milkweed
Camassia quamash, blue camas was a staple food for the First Nations people and the flowers are nice but I never see it in the nurseries-- I hear it's pretty easy to grow, any reason not to try for this one?
Ceanothus, I don't know why this stuff gets called California "lilac" because it doesn't smell a darn thing like lilac, very popular though
Clinopodium douglasii, yerba buena is a nice minty groundcover
Dicentra formosa, the western bleedingheart, is one of my favorite plants ever, so elegant!
Eschscholzia californica, California poppy
Epilobium canum, California fuschia
Erigeron glaucus, seaside daisy-- especially the compact Wayne Roderick form is popular
Eriogonum fasciculatum, California buckwheat
Eriogonum latifolium, seaside buckwheat
Eriogonum umbellatum, sulphur buckwheat is the bright yellow one
Erythranthe cardinalis, scarlet monkeyflower is one I see a lot
Fragaria chiloensis, beach strawberries I've been digging up from the yard and potting whole flats of em
Heuchera sanguinum, coral bells, has very attractive low foliage and tall flower spikes
Heteromeles arbutifolia, Toyon is a bit on the large side for our purposes but such an attractive and important habitat plant I want to carry a few
Iris douglasiana we've already got on hand
Lonicera ciliosa, orange trumpet honeysuckle, could be a good alternative to the invasive Japanese one
Monardella villosa, coyote mint smells very strong and has nice flowers
Penstemons, gosh there's so many which ones??
Prunella vulgaris, selfheal is a useful herb found all over the place
Ribes aureum, the golden currant, is edible and nice.
Ribes sanguinum, the red flowering currant is a popular one all over the world, so that's an obvious pick.
Salvia apiana, white sage is one I'd like more people to grow at home and stop overharvesting from the wild
Salvia clevelandii
Salvia mellifera, black sage
Salvia spathacea, hummingbird sage is quite attractive and has a fun pineapple sage flavor
Sisyrinchium bellum is charming and most nurseries with natives carry it
Symphyotrichum chilense, pacific aster we've got I've been digging it up where it jumped into the walkway and potting up a lot
Verbena lilacina is a nice fragrant one I'm fond of
Vitis californica, the native grape might be good-- although the hybrid Roger's Red is the version preferred by a lot of customers