🚀 go-pugleaf

      frankm@resonex.com (Frank Muennemann) writes:
       : Re: landscaping with California Native Plants

In article <1992Mar4.235405.17341@morrow.stanford.edu> GC.SUL@forsythe.stanford.edu (Sullivan) writes:
>How do you get rural homeowners to think in terms of natives when
>landscaping?  Anyone have any ideas?

Drought and fire are good motivators, since natives are both
drought and fire resistant.  I have a "Darwinian" garden in which
plants I like that survive without much watering or care are
welcome to stay, all others die (as they ought to) when the rain
stops :-)  This heavily favors natives and keeps me from working too
hard in the garden.

Also note that some houses survived the Oakland fire last year
because their native landscaping was more fire resistant than most
"standard" exotics.

But seriously, I believe that a garden composed of natives is
cheaper to maintain (even if the plants are initially more
expensive and harder to find) than a garden of exotics.  Best of
all, you can forget about installing, maintaining, and paying water
bills for sprinklers.

There are lots of natives which have been "improved" through breeding to
be more amenable to landscaping.  Info is available from the Saratoga
Horticultural Society (Not sure of the name, but SURE it's in Saratoga,
CA), and there's also a booklet published free by the Santa Clara Valley
Water District.  The SCV's free booklet is oriented mainly towards water
conservation and wildlife support uses of natives, and the Horticultural
Society's booklet is mainly for homeowners.

Locally (Bay Area / Penninsula), some areas prohibit landscaping with
exotics (parts of Portola Valley).  As a result, most local nursuries
have a small collection of natives for sale.  The Yerba Buena Nursery on
Skyline Bld (415)851-1668 in Woodside has a superb collection of natives
suitable for landscaping, but it's at the end of a long, windy dirt
road.

ANOTHER NATIVE FAN!!! Good, good points.

Unfortunately, SAratoga HOrt moved from Saratoga, they are mow in
San Martin (south of SAn Jose)  Two other really great native
nurseries are Las Pilitas Nursery in Santa Margarity (near Paso
Robles) and Tree of LIfe in San Juan Capsitrano.

The most fascinating nursery I ever went to is Wintergreen in
Watsonville.  Unfortunately is is wholesale only.

A really great place to buy natives is the California Native Plant
Society spring plant sales.  Check with your local chapers.
Berkeley Botanical Gardens has a really neat spring sale, as the
CNPS sale at Merrit College in Oakland, and CNPS sale at Foothill
College in Los Altos.  I understand Santa Barbara Botanical garden
is having a plant sale the last weekend in March.  If Ranch Santa
Anna has a sale it would be well worth going to.  Oh, Theodore Payne
Foundation in Sun Valley is all natives too, and sells seed.

Sigh, I guess at some point I will post a list of all California
Native Plant Nurseries and seed sources.

One consideration in buying hybrids is they may taint the native
gene pools of various plants.  Purists will only plant species that
are native to their area!

Karen Sullivan (happily propagating Lake Co. natives)