SMALLER NATIVES WITH DEEP ROOTS

YARROW

Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is a native North American plant that’s popular with pollinators and requires little maintenance. It is perfect for borders, ground covers, and open meadows. Yarrow has showy flower heads composed of many tiny, tightly-packed flowers rising above clusters of ferny foliage. The flowers may be yellow, red, pink, or any shade in between. Yarrow is pest-resistant, drought-resistant, attracts butterflies, and is excellent for cutting and drying. The plant is also an aromatic herb which has many healing properties.
 
 
 
 

CALIFORNIA ASTER

Coast Aster or California Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense), is a member of the Asteraceae (Sunflower) family. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, where it grows in many types of habitat, especially along the coast and in the coastal mountain ranges. It is perennial herb growing to heights between 40 centimeters and one meter and is great for a butterfly garden. The hairy leaves are narrowly oval-shaped, pointed, and sometimes finely serrated along the edges. The flower cluster holds aster flower heads with centers of yellow disc florets and fringes of many narrow light purple ray florets.
 
 
 

CALIFORNIA FUCHSIA

California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum), is beautiful species of willowherb, native to the California foothills and coastal areas. It is a perennial plant, notable for the profusion of bright scarlet flowers in summer and autumn – it’s usually the only native California plant in an area flowering at the height of summer. They tend to die back and go dormant in the winter. Other common names include California-fuchsia (from the resemblance of the flowers to those of Fuchsias), Hummingbird Flower, and Hummingbird Trumpet (the flowers are very attractive to hummingbirds).
 
 
 
 
 
 

MONKEY FLOWER

Monkey Flower (Mimulus guttatus) is native to the Western United States, and was naturalized in Britain in the early nineteenth century. In the U.S. it is found in a wide range of moist habitats, from coastal meadows and streams to steep slopes. Mimulus is one of the first flower essences developed by Dr. Edward Bach in 1928.
 
 
 
 
 
 

BUSHY POPPY

Bush poppy (Dendromecon rigid) is another native that needs barely any irrigation at all once established.
Beautiful bright yellow, poppy-like flowers cover the plant in spring. They can be propagated from cuttings taken in summer and are pest and disease free.