but what would aunt barbara like?

A little over a week ago we went up for a long weekend to visit Aunt Barbara in LA’s San Fernando Valley. The Theodore Payne Foundation, one of the Southland’s major sources of California native plants was only half a dozen freeway exits away. I’ve mail-ordered seeds from them but I’d never been to the nursery. Midsummer isn’t high planting season. Visiting to buys plants might not be the best idea. Still, alright, you know where this is headed…

Barbara was busy with a friend, but John and I took the trip to Sunland, the community situated near where the Valley reaches toward the Los Angeles River and meets the San Gabriel Mountains. Urban sprawl quickly gives way to large, dusty lots. Manicured landscaping starts to fade away as the look and smell of the foothills blows in from the east. What a great location for a native plant nursery.

The perky Baja fairy duster, looking a lot like many Australian plants Southern Californians are used to seeing
The Matilija poppies were past their peak, but there were still a few around

Late July isn’t high season for native flowers. The last of the season’s Matilija poppy flowers (Romneya) appeared here and there on the nursery grounds and Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica) provided some blooms next to the parking lot. (Interestingly, according to the Tree of Life Nursery, Theodore Payne–the person, not the foundation–was responsible for discovering and introducing the ‘White Cloud’ cultivar of Romneya that is so often grown.)

Something else that was blooming: Dendromecon harfordii

Also in bloom: Salvia pachyphylla with its gorgeous pink bracts against the violet flowers

A little trail leads to the little rise of land overlooking the nursery. The sign points to “Wildflower Hill.”

This time of year it’s pretty much California Flat-Top Buckwheat Hill, which isn’t at all a bad thing. It’s a subtle and gorgeous plant. But if you came expecting Butchart Gardens, well you’d be disappointed. Of course, if a taste of wild California is what you’re after, this is your place.

Of the three retail native plant nurseries I’ve been to over the last several years, this one is probably the wildest and the least “garden”-like. There are pockets with benches and picnic tables, but the main narrative here is that you’ve stepped over the edge into wilderness. Shut your eyes and you hear birds everywhere. Look away from the buildings and you could easily feel that you’re farther than four blocks from the suburbs. (By contrast, San Juan Capistrano’s Tree of Life Nursery feels the most nurtured, tended and garden-like. The Escondido branch of Las Pilitas Nursery falls somewhere in between.)

We were staying with Aunt Barbara, and I wanted to go back with a couple plants that might fit comfortably into her garden, both in the way it looks and the way she waters it. To give you a taste, here’s a shot of her front walkway.

…and here’s another shot at the Payne Foundation grounds, of the beautiful spires of spent sage against the browning landscape. This kind of scene gives me a real sense of nature’s subtle cycles, but I had a feeling Aunt Barbara wouldn’t go for it. What plants would reconcile the deep divide?

The short list of the nursery’s many selections included seaside daisy (various cultivars of Erigeron glaucus), bush snapdragon (Galvezia speciosa), California aster (Aster chilensis) and maybe even one of the California fuchsias. Barbara mentioned loving the flowers of Matilija poppy, but that’s a plant purchase I think a person needs to make for themselves, after they’ve seen how vigorous it can be and how un-cottage gardeney it starts to look this time of year.

The winners?

The only flower on the Venegasia carpesioides that I picked out for Barbara. I wished that it had a few more.

Canyon sunflower (Venegasia carpesioides) and the ever-popular Penstemon Margerita B.O.P. I planted them before we left, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they A) survive, and B) show Barbara that there are some natives that would fit easily into her California cottage garden. What other plants would the rest of you suggest for all the Aunt Barbara’s out there? What plants would you pick that could mix fairly easily with existing garden borders and bloom much of the year?

And some of the flowers on the Penstemon Margarita B.O.P.

11 thoughts on “but what would aunt barbara like?”

  1. Another native enthusiast! Hello from the woodlands of Wisconsin.

    I’ve been delving more and more into native plants for our area — discovering the best places to purchase along with which plants are designer-friendly.

    You wouldn’t believe the unique plants we’ve got — such as Leadplant (Amorpha canescens) and Rattlesnake Master (Eryngium yuccifolium).

    Although Rattlesnake Master tends to get quite tall (and mine was leaning menacingly by late summer), I think Leadplant has such a beautiful texture that it would be useful in many Midwest gardens.

  2. Barbara had best be careful…once she’s fallen under your influence, she may find herself going native. I can see a sprinkling of California poppies punctuating that border, but maybe in your climate they would take over?

  3. I think a few nice grasses of the riparian persuasion would work out nicely and add some structure to that side strip. Something dainty would be best, not Juncus patens, please….

  4. But what would Aunt Barbara like, BWWABL, sounds a little like WWJD. Margarita BOP seems like a good gateway plant; it’s a hard plant to dislike. Asters and California fuchsias are more committing, less safe for dabbling. I don’t know that sunflower.

  5. What about Sysrinchium bellum? They’d love the extra water. Erigeron also seems like a good choice, but I wonder if the Penstemon would crumble under the weight of Miracle Gro (sorry to be snarky, but it does look like it might play a role in this garden!) Checkerbloom or Armeria maritima might also work. Perhaps one of our native lilies? Oooh, this is fun!

  6. Heidi, it’s great to connect with another native plant fan! I don’t know the amorpha, but rattlesnake master is one I’ve really admired in the books. It’s a really photogenic plant and looks like it’d be even better in real life. The midwest prairie seems like it was a big inspiration to the 90s strongly-European New Perennials movement. Even if the philosophy hasn’t caught on with everyone, it’s nice to see more of these plants being known to the people that have them in the woods nearby.

    Ricki, I am trying my hardest! It’s late for poppies to look good here, but I think they’d be a perky addition for the spring. They’re easy to sneak in wherever there’s a bare spot. They reseed, but not too annoyingly for me.

    TM, I almost bought some fiber optic grass, which I think would thrive in the wetter flower borders and look great with the annuals. I happen to love Juncus patens, as heavily used as it is, partly because it’s a good size and so structural without requiring the water other rushes do. But I think it’d be too architectural and domineering for these beds.

    Jean, I haven’t grown Baja fairy duster but I’ve liked it every place and time I’ve seen it. It’s only a California native if you mean the California floristic province and not California proper, but it’s more of a nearby plant than some of the Northern California woodland denizens that we grow as “native” plants.

    Ryan, BWWABL! Yeah, I like how it sounds…a good mantra to keep in mind when I’m trying to find good transitional plants. I agree that the fuchsia would be more of a commitment, especially during the times of year it doesn’t look like much.

    Christine, it was fun, for sure, but I also felt so much pressure. If these plants fail, will she give up on natives altogether? I found a spot near a bearded iris for the penstemon–far enough away from the heavily amended soil. Sysrinchium bellum is a great suggestion. It isn’t fantastic all the time, but has the grace to withdraw into the shadows when it’s done performing. And Payne had a bunch of different cultivars.

  7. Like you, I’d definitely put a penstemon at the top of the list. I’ve never grown Penstemon ‘Margarita B.O.P.’, but my choice would be its close relative, Penstemon heterophyllus ‘Blue Springs.’ (This was, in fact, the first native plant I gave to my parents, who are sort of my version of Aunt Barbara – they own a house with actual wilderness on the property and are thus fairly amenable to wild-looking plants, but basically only because it would cost too much to install sprinklers; they are not really familiar with the merits of native plant gardening. I also gave them a California fuchsia and the seeds of several other plants, including Sisyrinchium bellum and Cercocarpus betuloides, but none of the seedlings survived.)

    I’d give Aunt Barbara Linum lewisii, and if she has a shady spot, Heuchera maxima. If she has room for some new shrubs, I’d give her Ribes aureum, Cercis occidentalis, and Malacothamnus fremontii.

  8. Ryan is on the right track, I think. Good choices. Everything about natives is a reflection on who we are and what we are doing here. This has more artistic and creative power than anything I have worked with in a very long time.

    Lending a hand to Mother Nature to do what was intended and to dress it up a bit is irresistible.

  9. Nice suggestions. I think seaside daisy is also a good cottagey flower. Aunt Susan just needs to know that you have to cut certain of these flowers hard back – she may not be into the appreciation of browns that we native enthusiasts get into, but cutting back keeps things tidy till the next growth and bloom season. Shasta buckwheat, Eriogonum umbellatum polyanthum, may be nice too – bright yellow pompoms that last quite a while. But it can easily get overwatered. Mimulus guttatus is a bit like impatiens in its garden behavior perhaps – haven’t grown it myself but it grows wild in the wet shady spots here. I love the wildflower walk shot, and how wild the nursery is – and what different plants occur in the sunny south.

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