beautiful

California native plants are quite beautiful, such as our bulbs and bulblike plants, which often look ethereal. Others exhibit a more subtle beauty as they go through their seasonal cycles, such as our perennial bunchgrasses. They may be dry and dormant as summer extends into fall, but then come back to life when the rains come. They aren't artificially kept lush and green all year long as is typical of most gardens; using native plants reflects the natural cycle of California.

There is more than just the sights of California's natural beauty that you can introduce into your garden. You can introduce the most wonderful of scents too. Scents are probably even more evocative of a walk through nature than what you can see. Some plants permeate the air around them with their unique fragrance, like the Cleveland's sage and coyote mint. Others like to actually have their leaves rubbed before sharing their sweet scent, such as the yerba buena and hummingbird sage. The desert willow and Western azalea have fragrant flowers. There are popular non-native plants that grow very well in water-wise gardens, like the wonderfully fragrant rosemary and lavender shrubs. Imagine planting these alongside a California sagebrush and several native sages. Besides a hummingbird and butterfly garden, you can grow a scent garden at the same time!

What is also satisfying is having the opportunity to do your own little part in preserving nature. Whereas early settlers planted plants that were a reminder of home, small familiar patches amidst a vast and wild California, now the scales have turned the other way where large areas of open space are being replaced by landscaping that has little to do with the natural climate. The least we can do is use native plants in our built environments.

Being that gardening with native plants is a way to help preserve the beauty of California, it is important not to damage any native plant populations by taking them from the wild. Part of the fun and shared experience of gardening with natives is in obtaining your plants. As gardening with natives has grown in popularity, so have sources for obtaining plants become available. There are nurseries that sell natives. You can purchase plants, bulbs, and seeds by mail order. Certain local chapters of the California Native Plant Society hold annual sales of native plants. Native gardening tours often offer plants at selected locations. You can visit local botanical gardens to see native collections and perhaps purchase plants. I have even found many of my plants at the local community college, whose horticulture department holds plant sales in both the spring and the fall.