McCreary: Autumn planting goes native

Finally, October has arrived, too quickly for some but not soon enough for gardeners eager to put in the ground all those plants we’ve been holding!

It isn’t that we’ve been hobbled and physically kept from it or that we’re in any other way prevented from planting in summer. No, it’s just plain good sense to wait until fall to plant. And if nature’s age-old weather cycles can be trusted, the rains will follow.

Right in sync with our October planting schedule, the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society will once again hold its annual sale on the second Saturday — next week, Oct. 10. Sale hours are from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building across from the county fairgrounds in Santa Rosa.

This is the group’s 35th go-around of propagating natives and offering them to the public. If you’re looking for species that tolerate little water and feed birds, bees and butterflies, this is the place to find them. Volunteers will be on hand to advise you on selections of trees, shrubs, perennials, bulbs and seed growing. You can find the list of sale plants on the Milo Baker chapter website, www.cnpsmb.org.

The table of rare plants will go fast, so arrive early for the best selection. There will be some hard-to-find beauties there.

One of the rarest is a local native, Rincon Ridge ceanothus (Ceanothus confuses), a species classified as rare and endangered due mostly to loss of habitat through development. It grows naturally in a 10-year-old preserve off Fountain Grove Parkway where it and a rare manzanita (Arctostaphylos stanfordiana ssp. decumbens) are monitored and protected under the stewardship of chapter volunteers.

Stems and hollylike leaves of the Rincon Ridge ceanothus hover over the ground and are decorated with lilac-blue blooms between February and June.

Or you may prefer a different ceanothus, perhaps something quite the opposite such as Ceanothus Ray Hartman, which grows as a very large shrub 15 feet high and wide. It can be trained as a small tree to 20 feet and pruned to a narrower width.

[SUBHEAD_RAG_]Energetic groundcover

Gardeners looking for a long-blooming groundcover to fill a wide area might consider creeping aster (Aster chilensis Pt. St. George). However, as lovely as it can be — pale lilac daisies with yellow centers over soft green foliage — this tough but good-looking perennial should be avoided in small gardens since it has a reputation for taking over everything in sight.

Underground stems — rhizomes — spread vigorously while aboveground portions dominate whatever they encounter. Yet this aggressiveness can be an asset where a low bank cover is needed, especially near the coast, though growth is just as strong in hot inland sites.

Butterflies love the nectar produced over a 6-month or longer bloom period, and birds feed on seeds after flowers die back. Water is needed only a few times during summer.

[SUBHEAD_RAG_]California fuchsias

California fuchsias (Epilobium canum, aka Zauschneria californica) will be in good supply. Their nectar-laden, tubular blossoms that nearly cover the plant summer through fall are hummingbird favorites.

Fuzzy grayish foliage on the cultivar Calistoga is larger than on similar cultivars. This gives it a fairly lush appearance on stems 3 to 4 feet tall. Flowers are bright orange-red.

A much lower-growing cultivar with the non-descript name of UC Hybrid was selected by the botanical garden at UC Berkeley. Gray-green leaves are also smaller on this foot-tall plant that spreads to 3 feet wide and fills with scarlet blooms.

Yet another, Catalina, is different still. It bears pale silver leaves and bright red blossoms on a more shrublike, 3x3-foot plant.

All epilobiums should be pruned to the ground in winter; denser growth will emerge the following year. After the third year if plants expand too broadly, dig up sections for setting out in other spots in the garden or sharing with friends.

[SUBHEAD_RAG_]Familiar friends

There’s still a lingering belief that a garden of native plants is too sterile or too blah to be beautiful. But it simply isn’t true. Many plants offered at this native sale are the same ones we find in neighborhood nurseries and in luxuriant gardens throughout Wine Country.

Pacific Coast irises are some of the loveliest and most sought-after. Sages (Salvia) are highly valued for seasonal blooms as much as for deer resistance, nectar food for bees and hummingbirds, and for bearing seeds for other songbirds.

White and pink forms of native yarrows (Achillea) are familiar and easy perennials and manzanita shrubs and low groundcovers (Arctostaphylos) are good-looking year round. The list goes on.

If you miss this sale, visit any of our local native-plant nurseries that stock many of the same species. Mostly Natives Nursery, 27235 Highway One in Tomales, is once again holding a plant sale on everything throughout October with deep discounts on some items. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

Rosemary McCreary, a Sonoma County gardener, gardening teacher and author, writes the weekly Homegrown column for The Press Democrat. Write to her at P.O. Box 910, Santa Rosa, 95402; or send fax to 664-9476.