Gardening With a Wild Heart - Judith Lowry's Blog

By popular request, we are bringing back our longtime motto: A Plant is Not a Couch. Here's what we mean. Many customers, especially those new to gardening, seem victims of "plant anxiety." They want to know exactly what will do what and where. But gardening is not interior design, and the great part is, there are no absolute certainties. Gardening, especially the kind we promote, is about learning. A plant is alive, therefore full of surprises. And every gardener's situation is different, especially in California, land of the microclimate. Part of the fun of plant exploring here lies in the unexpected occurrences...

"In former times we gathered clover."-Carolina Welmas (Cupeno Indian), 1973 Once so common as to be an important food source for the indigenous Californians, the native clovers of California are now rarely seen. Once, they inhabited the bare spots between bunchgrasses, fixing nitrogen for the bunchgrasses with which they intertwined, or shared the wildflower fields with other annual wildflowers. Most are extremely attractive, both in flower and foliage, and quite varied. Low-growing, they make good "front of the border bloomers", and are delightful in containers.Normally, they are sown in the fall and bloom in early spring to mid-summer, but we...

More, Much More about Poppies There is much to say about the California poppy. One botanist from UC Berkeley found 70 different subspecies in different parts of California, each varying slightly from the others. The Jepson Manual, the most current California flora, lumps them all together, because they do cross and mingle characteristics. But losing the subspecies particular to different regions is a loss of biodiversity, and ALSO of possibilities for the native plant gardener.I used to wonder (frequently out loud) why so many orange poppies were found in my coastal region, where I knew the type was yellow with...

Which clarkias will you plant this year? Clarkias as much as any native California genus lend themselves to horticultural frivolity and play. Sturdy and tough, easy to grow, they are adaptable in containers, or to broadcasting in the ground. They reseed vigorously and can be sown throughout the year for bloom from May through October. We even once had Clarkia amoena growing in a container for over three years, coming to resemble a small blossoming tree with a semi-woody stem. In nature, different species of clarkias thread through the golden grasses on dry hills throughout California, their vivid colors intoxicating, and their...

As I roam the wildflower fields in the spring, I speculate that humans have an actual biochemical response to this phenomenon. I fancy that these beautiful flowers stimulate powerful bursts of serotonin, chemicals surging through the blood that allow the ignoring of painfully strong winds or baking heat or scratchy seed-laden socks, as we search and wander, continually amazed. The places that still sing this song of annual wildflowers are fewer all the time. They teach us what we need to know, so that wandering through wildflowers might happen at home too.The spring of 2010 was a particularly inspiring wildflower season, the...