Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

Gardening with Native Plants

In the Plant World, One-Size-Fits-All Is a Boring Approach

Written by Barbara Eisenstein, RSABG Horticulture Outreach Coordinator

Planters in Beijing [B. Eisenstein]

I have had the good fortune to visit several cities throughout the world in the past few years. My travels have taken me to Paris, Barcelona, St. Petersburg, Helsinki and Beijing. It is always surprising to me when I visit faraway places that the urban landscapes are all pretty much the same. Municipal workers are busy planting petunias, Madagascar periwinkles, begonias and cosmos in Beijing, Los Angeles, Paris and Minneapolis. During the fall, throughout the world, mums make their appearance.

Rarely does a region seek to distinguish itself by its own natural heritage. And when it does, this natural heritage is often defined by the recent past, rather than the natural environment that existed before European exploration. For many, the southern California landscape heritage is not one of California poppies, seaside daisies, clarkias, and coral bells, to mention a few of our showy annual and perennial native flowers. Rather many associate lush tropical plants, citrus and palm trees with our dry, Mediterranean climate. Occasionally more appropriate low-water use plants like lavender, rosemary and santolina, are used. Even these are not Californians, but rather European in origin. California lilacs, manzanitas, and toyons are rarely seen here, though they sometimes appear in England and other parts of Europe.

One of the reasons given for rejecting California native plants is the misconception that they are hard to grow. This is due in part to their remarkable adaptations to our unusual climate. They have developed many ways to survive the long, hot and dry period, while taking advantage of the rain during the mild, wet winters. These adaptations include summer dormancy, small light-colored leaves, and extensive root systems, some with deep, water-seeking tap roots, and others with roots that travel great distances fairly close to the surface. Though many plants are not summer dormant, most slow down during the heat of the summer. Most southern California gardens have an artificial environment that encourages summer growth. Through the addition of water and fertilizer we can grow plants from the wettest, tropical regions, year around. But we have created an environment unfriendly to many of our native plants and this has led to the unfortunate belief that California native plants are difficult to grow.

Native landscape [B. Eisenstein]

Another reason that California native plants are not more popular is the globalization of the horticulture industry. Just as clothing, food, and retail stores have taken on a one-size-, one-flavor-, one-look-fits-all model, the horticultural industry has developed a product line that does well in the humid, subtropical climate of the southeastern United States, the short summer growing season of New England and the long, dry summers of much of coastal California. Plants have been selected for their ability to accept all kinds of soil conditions. Supporting products like soil amendments and fertilizers further enrich the industry and assure that the engineered plants will succeed.

Just as growing conditions are standardized, gardening seasons are treated as though they are the same everywhere. Gardeners are bombarded with advertisements during the spring admonishing them to go out to plant their gardens and tend their lawns in order to be the envy of their neighbors. This approach fails to recognize climatic differences. Although in southern California we can garden year around, late fall and winter is the preferred planting season. By putting new plants in during the fall and winter, we take advantage of the mild, but cooler winter temperatures and the seasonal rains. Our native plants are adapted to this weather pattern, and need the winter months to establish themselves so that they can survive the hot, dry summer. Typical horticultural plants are often better able to survive spring planting, but only with the ongoing addition of water and fertilizer.

When visiting foreign destinations I enjoy eating local foods and observing local customs. I prefer small regional markets to the monotonous look of upscale shopping malls. Wouldn’t our visits be enhanced if people appreciated and displayed their own unique natural heritages? California is a remarkably beautiful place. Sample the diverse plant materials available to you from our native palette. Check our Garden Shop for native plants and resources on gardening with natives. Shop the Annual Fall Plant Sale at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden on the first weekend in November, where you can find thousands of our unique and hard-to-find California plants.