Summertime finds the nursery reaching full capacity. We have an excellent selection of trees, shrubs, vines and perennials. Check our latest inventory for a complete list of availability.
In the garden, the exuberance of spring fades as we move into summer. Besides tending to watering, weeding, and trimming back to freshen or enhance, many gardeners are cruising now, focusing on other activities. Summer often reveals areas that need work or enhancement in our gardens. Perhaps you have an area that needs a little something. Enough flowers for your pollinators? Plants that provide nectar for hummingbirds and seeds and fruits for birds?
We have an excellent selection of habitat enhancing plants in stock now.
Members of the sunflower family are mainstays in the summer garden. The long blooming, open faced daisies make perfect platforms for bees and butterflies to perch and work the excellent sources of both nectar and pollen. The seeds that follow are relished by birds.
Natives such as seaside daisy, asters, yarrow and woolly sunflowers are always buzzing with pollinators. We have a new woolly sunflower, Eriophyllum lanatum 'Siskiyou' that is exceptional. Vigorous, low growing, gray-green woolly foliage is the perfect foil for the cheery two inch golden-yellow daisies. We have a number of different selections of seaside daisy including a hybrid called Erigeron 'W.R.', which is especially durable and a good choice for hotter interior gardens. Another group of bee favorites are the perennial sunflowers. We have California native species as well as a couple of species from the eastern half of north America (Helianthus hirsutus and Helianthus 'Sheila's Sunshine'). They are willing growers and perform beautifully on clay soils. Besides their pollinator attracting blossoms, their seed are relished by birds. Our crop of Helenium bigelovii hails from seed collected at the historic Pitkin Marsh, a unique botanical area between Forestville and Graton. The spreading gum plant, Grindelia stricta var. platyphylla is another native, durable, floriferous member of the sunflower family that shines in the summer garden with it's abundant bright yellow daisies that attract a wide array of insects.
The buckwheats are showy summer bloomers for the dry garden and are renown for their wildlife value. The flowers are highly attractive to a wide array of insects providing nectar and pollen to bees and butterflies. The seeds appeal to birds. We have a number of Eriogonums in stock now including a new prostrate form of the California buckwheat, Eriogonum fasiculatum 'Warriner Lytle' from the Theodore Payne Foundation.
No discussion on plants that attract pollinators would be complete without mentioning the Sages. We grow many, both native and non-native. All are magnets for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds. In the native category we have a good supply of Salvia 'Bee's Bliss', hummingbird sage, Sonoma sage and Allen Chickering Sage. Non-natives include the cultivars 'Hot Lips', 'San Carlos Festival', and 'Purple Ginny', all easy to grow and super floriferous. We have a nice crop of Salvia darcyi, with its large red flowers that the bumblebees and humming birds love. The native sages are very drought tolerant and the non-natives are quite thrifty in their water needs, except for the water loving bog sage, Salvia uliginosa. It does not require a bog but likes regular water. Does great on heavy clay soils. We love this sage for its summer-long bloom period of azure blossoms that attract pollinators. Come autumn the goldfinches move in for the copious seed.
Coyote mint appeal to bees and butterflies and we have three forms to offer. The robust Monardella villosa 'Russian River' and smaller Monardella villosa 'Soulajule', as well as an inland form from Sonoma County.
Two more bee magnets to mention. The native Scrophularia californica, commonly called bee plant lives up to it's name with an abundance of tiny reddish flowers beloved by bees. The foliage is a larval food source for the Variable Checkerspot butterfly. Calamintha nepetoides is a non-native mint family member. It forms a small shrublet of fragrant minty foliage. Summer brings a haze of tiny white flowers highly attractive to bees.
The California fuschias are well known for their appeal to hummingbirds. We have a wonderful collection of cultivars ranging from forms that grow in low mats to as much as one yard tall. These perennials spread by underground roots to form large patches. Drought tolerant, but appreciate an occasional deep watering and perform beautifully on clay soils. Though mostly shades of orangey-red we also have a white and a pink flowering form.
Specials and Sales
No matter how we try it is inevitable that we will over produce plants from time to time. In an effort to find gardens for this overproduction, we offer selected plants at a significant discount of half off. Summer is a time you are very likely to find specials at the nursery. Stop by to check out the latest Need to Get Planted Sale. Right now we have a number of native perennial bunch grasses in four inch pots at half their usual price.