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Friday, October 26, 2018

Propagating California Native Plants




This is the URL to get the PDF book on propagating California Natives from Santa Ana Botanical Gardens.  This text was referenced in today's talk! 

Follows are the handouts, if you didn't get them in class.

A Reading List for California Plant and their Propagation



Assembling California (Annals of the Former World); McPhee, John, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publishers, ©1993 A small and quick read that is as delightful as it is informative. Find out about the soils of the California Floristic Provence and how they 'call the shots' for many of the plants we have in this part of the world. It's fascinating!


California Native Plants for the Garden; Borstein, Carol, Fross, David and O'Brien, Bart, Cachuma Press © 2005 I was around at this books' publication and it really caused a storm – the photos of California plants put to creative use in glossy photographs made this book fly off the shelves! It really is a delightful and colorful addition to those gardens using plants native to California.


California Plants, A Guide to Our Iconic Flora; Ritter, Matt, © 2018 Pacific Street Publishing; A concise guide with many color photos! A foreward from the Goveror, Edmund Brown! Newly in print so it has more up to date plant names. Good photos make identification of plants a cinch.


California Plant Families; Keater, Glenn, University of California Press, © 2009 Keator is one of the more prolific botanists on the scene at this time, and this is written with authority – Illustrations by Margaret J. Steunenberg, and beautifully done. Definitely a must have if you are really getting into Californian plants.


Complete Garden Guide to the Native Perennials of California; Keator, Glenn, Chronical Books, © 1990 I got my copy when it was rumored that it was no longer published – those rumors came true a few years later, but I know you can buy used copies of this marvelous book from used book outlets. As above, this is hand-illustrated with detailed drawings and is definitely a keeper.


Gardening with a Wild Heart; Lowery, Judith Larner; University of California Press, © 2007 Not a book of facts and figures, but a story of California Natives and a woman's love for them. When I first started in California Natives, I was ordering seeds from Larner Seeds and this is the woman we meet on these pages. Lowery's wonderful measured point of view comes thru on a variety of essays that include discussions of wildflower gardening, the ecology of native grasses, wildland seed-collecting, principles of natural design, and plant/animal interactions.

Seed Propagation of Native California Plants; Emory, Dana; Emory was the plant propagator for the Santa Barbara Botanical Garden in the 1950's. There was no book on propagating California Native Seeds, and it was Emory's job to do just that. So Dana Emory wrote the book. It was never meant for publishing, being just the notes year after year that were accumalated. If you're looking for a thriller, this aint it. However, even though somewhat dated, it is a resource and if you can find one, it belongs on your shelf. The only one for sale I found writing this was priced at $143.52!


A List of Cismontane chaparral plant species

In Central and Southern California chaparral forms a dominant habitat. Members of the chaparral biota native to California, all of which tend to regrow quickly after fires, include:

  • Adenostoma fasciculatum, chamise
  • Adenostoma sparsifolium, redshanks
  • Arctostaphylos spp., manzanita
  • Ceanothus spp., ceanothus
  • Cercocarpus spp., mountain mahogany
  • Cneoridium dumosum, bush rue
  • Eriogonum fasciculatum, California buckwheat
  • Garrya spp., silk-tassel bush
  • Hesperoyucca whipplei, yucca
  • Heteromeles arbutifolia, toyon
  • Acmispon glaber, deerweed
  • Malosma laurina, laurel sumac
  • Marah macrocarpus, wild cucumber
  • Mimulus aurantiacus, bush monkeyflower
  • Pickeringia montana, chaparral pea
  • Prunus ilicifolia, islay or hollyleaf cherry
  • Quercus berberidifolia, scrub oak
  • Q. dumosa, scrub oak
  • Q. wislizenii var. frutescens
  • Rhamnus californica, California coffeeberry
  • Rhus integrifolia, lemonade berry
  • Rhus ovata, sugar bush
  • Salvia apiana, white sage
  • Salvia mellifera, black sage
  • Xylococcus bicolor, mission manzanita




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