California Natives in the Mediterranean Garden
Hi everyone!
This week Homestead’s lead designer, Christian Cobbs is sharing a few of our favorite California natives for the Mediterranean landscape.
We love the tidy look that a Mediterranean garden delivers. Teucrium, Lavender, Santolina, and Little Ollies combined create a soothing tableau composed of mounds of greys, silvers, and greens that look fantastic year-round. Spring and summer bring a harmonious bounty of lovely shades of blues, purples, pinks, and soft yellows. However, we DO live in California, and it is important to support the native fauna, so we love to mix things up a little bit and bring some natives into the fold. Both plant communities are adapted to our Mediterranean climate in Northern California, making perfect bedfellows. Here are some we particularly enjoy:
Verbena lilacina 'De La Mina'. This plant is a cornerstone of almost every garden we create. It sports filmy, divided, green foliage and is covered for much of the year with umbles of purple flowers beloved by butterflies. It forms a spreading mound to about 4' across. It can be cut back to within a foot of the ground level when needed and bounces back quickly for another round of blooms. This beauty hails from Cedros Island off the coast of Baja California (technically not California, but part of the California Floristic Province). Provide full or afternoon sun, little to moderate water, and decent drainage for best performance.
Erigonum giganteum. This stunning buckwheat sports wide, intricate umbels of white flowers up to one foot wide in mid-spring, attracting a multitude of bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects. (Yay, pollinators!) The white flowers elevate the purples of Lavenders, and as summer carries on, the flowers mature to an orange-rust color, providing a lovely contrast. Use this one to add some drama to the backdrop. It looks stunning as a solitary specimen or planted in a bank. Happy near the coast or inland, it accepts most soil types (even clay given it is planted on a slope). Coming from the Channel Islands off the California coast, it is a little more frost tender than many California natives, but can handle temps down to about 20 degrees. It is useful even where it freezes out occasionally, as it grows very quickly and replacement is not a real deterrent.
Eriogonum grande rubescens. Another Channel Islands endemic, we use this buckweat frequently, albeit in a different application to the buckwheat described above. Low growing, the foliage tops out at about 1' high and the prostrate stems spread to about 3' wide. Starting late spring through fall, intricate branched inflorescences produce little vivid pinkish-red pompons of flowers coveted by pollinators. Plant near the front of the border or in the middle ground where they can mingle with lavender. Will self-seed where happy. Ok in sandy soils or even heavy clay.
Epilobium septentrionale. Every plant mentioned above offers a complimentary color to most of our Mediterranean friends, however, sometimes we like to turn up the heat. Enter: California Fuchsia. We love this plant not only for its glowing orange-red flowers that contrast so nicely with its silver foliage but also because it kicks off later in the season, putting on a good show from mid-summer into fall. The plants listed above are great for our bees and butterflies, but this one belongs to the hummingbirds. Low growing to about 6 inches tall and spreading by underground rhizomes, plant this one near the front of the border. Cut back to a couple of inches in late fall to rejuvenate for the following season.
Mimulus aurantiacus. One of the most common denizens of California's chaparral communities, the Monkey Flower comes in many different shades. In nature, the typical color is a soft apricot orange, however there are many varieties available ranging from white, to red, to cream to purple (and every combination in between). Two varieties we especially love are 'Fiesta Marigold' with a burnt red center and a picotee orange edge and 'Changeling' with a pinkish cream center that is flushed with red. Contrasts nicely with purples from Lavender and compliments the yellows of Phlomis, it is a perfect 2-3' tall and wide sub shrub that fits nicely into the middle of a border. Grows happily in full sun, but can handle quite a bit of shade, so is handy for those transitional spaces.
Thanks for reading this week! A special thank you to Rose and the good folks at Morningsun Herb Farm for sharing photos with us for this article. Morningsun also happens to be one of our go to sources for California natives (along with all of our favorite herbs). This fall they will be offering mail order/shipping nationwide, for those who can not make it out to Vacaville. In the meantime, don’t forget to keep up with our Instagram, where we post regular updates about Homestead: @homesteaddesigncollective If you have any questions about this week’s letter or any other relevant garden queries please feel free to reach out to me via email: hello@hdcgardens.com
Stefani