A look at lovely native California grasses

<p>Sunny day after sunny day, enough rain to soften the soil … how perfect for planting California natives in your gardens. Shrubs such as ceanothus and manzanitas, toyons and spicebush … native clematis vines to drape over fences … perennials of buckwheat, hummingbird sage and California goldenrod.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>Your favorite nursery should be carrying many natives. Get them in 4-inch pots or gallon size. They will quickly adapt to your native soil and spread their roots in search of nutrients. By spring, they will be ready to bloom forth.</p><p>Native grasses are wonderfully drought-tolerant and make beautiful specimen plants, a small meadow or can be inter-planted with perennials. Karl Foerster, a German horticulturist, said, “Grasses are the hair of Mother Earth.”</p><p>Lawn grasses reproduce by underground stems, or rhizomes. The ornamental grasses are clumping, or bunch grasses, and gradually expand, often reproducing by seed. Most of our native grasses will not run rampant in your garden or escape into the wild and become invasive. Caution: There are several exotic, non-native grasses that have become holy terrors. Take a ride out to Bodega Bay and the surrounding coastal Highway One. You will see acres of pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana and C. jubata) gone wild. It is rapidly taking over the habitat that was home to our beautiful native buckwheat, seaside daisy and sea thrift. As gardeners, we can complain vociferously to nursery managers that still sell the dreadful plant.</p><p>Another grass that is invading wildlands is the crimson fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum) from Africa and Asia. Nurseries still sell it, advising us to cut off the seed heads. How many of us would remember to do that before they escape? The best advice is to not purchase any grasses from other lands.</p><p>Deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) is one of my favorites. It can get quite large, so give it room. Purple needle grass (Nasella pulchra) makes a nice meadow grass, inter-planted with native wildflowers and bulbs such as the purple brodiaeas, white or yellow mariposa lilies (Calochortus venstus) or purple Ithuriel’s spears (Tritelia laxa). The festuca grasses, such as California fescue (Festuca californica), are cool-season grasses and come up green through the tan dry-season leaves. It makes a nice groundcover among oaks and bays, or can be placed as a stand-alone specimen. Give it sun or partial shade. Red fescue (Festuca rubra) is found in moist habitats below 9,000 feet and south through the coastal ranges. Planted in full sun or light shade, it can be clipped with a mower or string trimmer. Most native grasses are disease- and pest-free, and need no fertilizers or mowing. An occasional haircut is all you may consider.</p><p>If you have a moist spot in your yard, try wire grass (Juncus patens). It forms tight clumps of very upright, blue-green stems, topped by brown bracts and flowers. It loves water, but will get by with occasional watering and full sun.</p><p>Coast melic grass (Melica imperfecta) is another good, cool-season, bunch grass. With a bit of water, it will stay green year-round. Or you can let it go on to its pretty tan, dormant color. </p><p>There are many grasses to choose from. Two authors have written and photographed extensively about California grasses. They are John Greenlee and Rick Darke. The pictures and text will help you decide which are best for your situation.</p><p>——</p><p>You just can’t predict what they’ll eat! One of the squirrels that lives in the oaks in my yard hopped over to a small remnant Shasta daisy plant. He cut off a stem at the base, and with it held like a rose in his teeth, scurried a few feet away, and sat with tail curled over his back. He slowly munched the leaves off the stem as if he were eating corn on the cob. I thought squirrels ate seeds only; I had never seen them precede their protein feasts with a salad course!</p><p>I often wonder what it is in leaves that attracts wildlife. The deer came through the garden lately and left a small, volunteer sunflower plant totally denuded of buds and leaves. He left me with a stem! And the lesser goldfinches continue to shred the sunflower leaves. Gardening for wildlife is always surprising and fascinating. </p><p>——</p><p>The upcoming California Native Plant Society Milo Baker chapter meeting is on Nov. 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Luther Burbank Art & Garden Center in Santa Rosa. It features information on the lower Pitkin Marsh in Forestville and on Sonoma Land Trust conservation activities. Call April Owens at 331-2070 for more information. </p><p><i>(Judy Brinkerhoff has been studying native plants for more than 20 years. She writes two other Sonoma County gardening columns. E-mail her at joodbrink@com cast.net.)</i></p>