Dog Days of Summer

These are the dog days of summer. Named for the dog star Sirius, a particularly bright star that ancients believed added to the heat of the sun. In our Mediterranean climate this is the quiet time for our native flora, a time of rest and dormancy. There is plenty of beauty in a native or drought tolerant garden to admire in late summer. The spring flowering grasses are fading to wheat tones. The manzanita's sinuous branches are exfoliating exposing their smooth red bark, the buckeye leaves will fall revealing silvery bark and shapely silhouettes. Bundles of elderberries hang heavy and the Clematis are sporting their silvery feather-like seeds. California fuchsia are just beginning their show of red tubular flowers and the goldenrods are topped with wands of yellow flowers enticing bees and other pollinators. The colorful buckwheat flowers are aging, their colors deepening to darker shades of reddish browns.

The work in the garden can slow this time of year. A great time to observe and assess our plantings. A time to identify areas that might need some sprucing up or reworking. We have excellent availability now and this is a good time to stop by to get ideas and look at plants you may be considering for your garden. Check out our latest inventory for many possibilities.

Here are some new items available now:

We grow many cultivars of California fuchsias with their profusion of red tubular flowers. In stock now is the surprising Epilobium 'Summer Snow' with pure white flowers. Another unusual flower color in California fuchsias, available now is 'Marin Pink' discovered on Mt. Burrell in Novato, producing pink flowers. Epilobium 'Brilliant Smith' is back too, with it's green foliage and particularly large red flowers.

Along with the native beach strawberry and woodland strawberry we now have the non-native alpine strawberry available. Known as fraise de boise, this sweet perennial has deep green leaves and an abundance of little white flowers which give way to fragrant,tasty, red fruits. This strawberry does not produce runners and is best in part shade with regular water.

We grow a number of bunch grasses in the genus Muhlenbergia. Deer grass is getting lots of use in home and commercial plantings and is extremely adaptable. We also have Lindheimer's muhly, an elegant, large bunch grass with beautiful silver-grey blades and the pink muhly with it's haze of pink flowers. Back in stock is bull grass, another muhly with grey foliage and purplish flower stems. The muhlys tolerate heat, drought and deer.

Toyon, an evergreen shrub with clusters of small white flowers followed by showy red fruits in the winter is a popular item. In stock now is 'Davis Gold', a toyon cultivar which has yellow-orange fruits. We have found 'Davis Gold' to be particularly vigorous and disease free.

Thanks to the determination of our nursery manager Josh Williams, we now have a nice collection of native conifers. Besides the coast redwood we have incense cedar, bishop pine, grey or ghost pine, and grand fir. We have California nutmeg too, though it does not bear cones, it has evergreen needle-like foliage and fleshy egg shaped fruits.

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