California Native Plants in Summer
Here are the photos of many native flowers taken in month of August. We're a little later than much of California so for you these natives may be flowering in July, or even late June.I complied this group of photos by looking at the photos taken in August during the last decade. Most are from the Santa Margarita Garden.
In semi-alphabetical order by genus.
Red Shanks looks so delicate in the 100 degree heat. It grows from Big Sur to Baja.
Yerba Mansa grows in really bad soil types as long as it has regular water. This plant stops the big hat ladies in their tracks when they're wandering around complaining about the heat.
Western Columbine likes wet shade, Hummingbirds love.
Our form of Sierra Columbine has yellow flowers but the hummingbirds still like it.
Desert Columbine. is grayer and a little taller.
Narrowleaf Milkweed flowers for months attracting all sorts of strange insects and butterflies.
California Aster is another plant that flowers for months in a native garden and acts as a nectary for native bees.
Ragged leaf Bahia is just kinda of weird. A gray little plant that throws up a flower spike of yellow flowers.
Boykinia occidentalis Western Boykinia grows in moist woods.
Fairy Duster was planted in a spot of hot gravelly soil and seems to be doing fine.
California Morning Glory is a vive that flowers for months.
Purplish Morning Glory is a small little vine with big flowers.
Desert Willow flowers all summer, providing flowers and light shade for a desert or native garden.
Western white clematis climbs something and then flowers. So you can have a oak or Coffeeberry. with white flowers.
California Aster has sprays of little asters.
Seaside Daisy has a long flowering period.
Cape Sebastian form is a little tighter with same flower and also liked by butterflies. Excellent for a miniature native garden.
Wayne Roderick is a hybrid of Seaside Daisy.
Summer is the time for Buckwheats
The summer section of a native garden should have lots of buckwheat .
Native insects can bring a small garden alive. So many species of pollinators and predatorsinteracting before your eyes. So much more alive and intelligent than TV.
One buckwheat plant can have a hundred or more insects visiting and interacting at one time.
There are more than 100 species of Buckwheat native to California, here are a few.
Many of the predatorsof bees are also pollinators.
Ashyleaf buckwheat is a small shrub that has flowers the insects like.
Longstem Buckwheat is a buzz with life.
California Buckwheat is common throughout much of central and southern California.
Interior California Buckwheat grows along the desert edges. Shown here with Rabbit Brush
St. Catherine's Lace is a BIG buckwheat.
Red Buckwheat is a cute little perennial buckwheat with red flowers.
Kennedy's buckwheat is a flat little perennial with white flowers.
Cliff Buckwheat is one of the few plants that can grow on a coastal bluff or a native garden in Fresno.
Sulfur Flower likes gravelly soils.
Shasta Sulfur Buckwheat is slightly different.
Wright's Buckwheat creeps along the ground then flowers in a daze of pinkish white.
Apache Plume seems to tolerant of most native gardens.
Dwarf Flannel Bush is a small flannel bush with apricot sized and colored flowers.
Island Snapdragon makes a flat groundcover right next to the coast.
Big Leaf Avens is a strange little perennial with yellow flowers and little bur balls that can give the neighbor cat something to play with with he visits your garden.
Giant Gum Plant seems to be attractive to some people.
Hairy gumplant is a rather small perennial with a 2 inch yellow flower.
California Matchweed rooted in one of the hot greenhouse and went ape. It loves heat.
Cream Bush looks all touchy silly, but it gets no water, is in nearly full shade and it flowers every summer in our garden.
Menzies' Goldenbush, Isocoma menziesii
Bladderpod has been in flower for almost two years. It never stops.
Yawning Penstemon grows in full sun in parts of the Sierra, but it also grows in shade as we have it here.
Heart Leaved Penstemon is a climber that works on the shady fence of a native garden.
Whorl Leaf Penstemon grows in full sun or part shade and makes a very good summer show.
San Diego Pitcher Sage is a delicate plant that lives in a tough spot.
Cardinal Flower loves wet spots.
You may not see the flower on Blue Lobelia, but the insects sure do.
California Honeysuckle. likes to climb things.
Many Flowered Bushmallow has flowers on it from spring into summer.
Snapdragon Vine doesn't like frost, but does like heat.
Wishbone Bush makes a little mound of pink in early to mid-summer.
Scarlet Monkey Flower flowers from spring through summer. Likes water, hummingbirds like it.
Coyote Mint Smells!
Monardellas flower in late spring and summer. Their fragrance is similar to different brands of toothpaste.The Coyote mints grow in all of California except the desert. They are all used by butterflies and hummingbirds.
Butterfly Mint Bush is used by hummingbirds and Butterflies
Flaxleaf monardella flowers every summer.
I not sure that Coyotes roll in the Monardellas, or if they are both stinkers. They are both kinda cute though.
Taken in the garden.
Taken in the garden.
Red Mountainbalm is a favorite of hummingbirds.
Western Pennyroyal flowers throughout the mountains of Western United States.
Southern Monardella grows in the mountains of Southern California.
San Luis Obispo coyote mint is a fuzzy perennial with flowers that many butterflies, native bees and moths like.
Green Monardella is a very small Coyote mint for a small native garden.
Hookers Evening Primrose is a weedy native that is loved by black thumbers, hummingbirds
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Spinx Moths and Bushtits.
Desert Surprise is a really small Penstemon that grows in the desert.
Salt Marsh Fleabane likes wet spots.
This little Cinquefoil has bright yellow flowers.
Matilija Poppy is too big for most gardens. Eight foot tall and 10X15 ft. across is common.
Bladder-Sage is growing here in almost gravel.
Alpine Cleveland sage flowers for months. A great nectar source for wildlife. Quail love seeds.
Winnifred Gilman Sage is an old standby that flowers a little more at one time than Alpine Cleveland sage .
Salvia Celestial Blue has a magnificent flower.
Black Figwort is a flower for a bouquet.
Green Stonecrop is a little flat succulent.
Desert Senna has been easy here.
California Goldenrod is a common roadside plant.
Canada Goldenrod has big flowers that flower in summer and into fall.
Yellow Butterfly Weed is a common plant in the mountains. Grows fine in a garden.
Guirado's Goldenrod. tolerates salty or alkaline soils, full sun to part-shade.
Pink Hedge Nettle commonly grows along roadsides at the dripline of trees.
Bugle Hedgenettle is a is a side plant.
White hedge nettle grows in seasonal seeps.
Hedge Nettle will creep along in wet spots.
Short-spiked Hedge Nettle will grow in full sun, as long as it has regular water.
Common Snowberry creeps along into a little thicket.
Vinegar weed flowers in the dead of summer.
Western Vervain grows in open fields or in the garden.
Bert's California Fuchsia flowers in a tight mass.
Island California Fuchsia is large and upright.
Bush California Fuchsia is BIG.
White Leaf Fuchsiamakes a little gray mound, until it does this.
This is one of the California native garden tours showing pictures of native flowers.
A native garden in May (our spring)
A native garden in fall or early winter
California native flowers in a winter garden.
A native garden in May (our spring)
A native garden in fall or early winter
California native flowers in a winter garden.
Most summer mornings there is a party going on at several of the bird baths. This seems to be a normal daily ritual.
It will probably take a minute to load.
It will probably take a minute to load.
There are many other pages that show life in a native garden.
Native Plants attract Hummingbirds
California Birds
Sages
Birdbaths
Native Plants attract Hummingbirds
California Birds
Sages
Birdbaths
