Blue blossom (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus var. thyrsiflorus) is emblematic of our coastal California gardens and post fire successional plant communities. This magnificent large-scale, fast growing shrub also known as California lilac is hard to miss. The bloom is happening right now. On a walk through local gardens or in an open space area burned within the last 10 Read more…

Indian lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) is a wide spread annual common to coastal and mountainous regions of western North America. Typically seen cloaking the forest floor in cool moist places after the rains begin, it then dries up as the rains depart. During late summer and fall you will see no sign of the plant. Indian lettuce is Read more…

Each year at Thanksgiving time I enjoy the flaming foliage on the ‘Roger’s Red’ grape. This locally popular vine was originally wild collected by Roger Raiche in Sonoma County in the fall of 1983. Initially Raiche guessed it to be a variant of the California wild grape Vitis californica. The dominant fall color on the wild grape Read more…

With autumn equinox rapidly approaching we are deep into our natural cycle of summer drought. Many of the plants in the wild are in a dormant state, taking a pause as the soil in most non-wetland areas has dried out completely. Long gone are the spring wild flower displays, the native bulbs are but a memory, hillside Read more…

Looking into the blue elderberry outside my window is a great antidote to reading the news on my computer. There may be journalistic integrity in what’s written there on the screen but the news in the tree is much more engaging. Here at home there are all manner of streaming distractions, but then out of the corner Read more…

According to local restorationist Glen Schnieder  “the native cobweb thistle (Cirsium occidentale) is one of the great beauties of the drying time.” I’d have to agree. I took a side trip out to his project(s) at Skyline Gardens in mid-June to sit with the glorious magenta blooms in the afternoon light. As I perched on the ground Read more…

The longest day of the year is rapidly approaching and our dry season is firmly upon us. Grasslands have flushed green, flowered and been pollinated by the wind. Many of the colorful wildflowers of spring have bloomed sending out their signals to be pollinated by some busy insect or bird. And now at the tail end of Read more…

In search of inspiration this spring I visited a few very special spots for wildflowers. Luck has been with me and pretty much everywhere I turned a botanical show was just popping off. For me the best medicine to feeling out of sorts has always been to go out into the world away from the busy town Read more…

Frenchie, a year around resident Anna’s hummingbird, sits on top of our 10 year old buckeye and watches all of the comings and goings at Oaktown Native Plant Nursery. We could call him the nursery’s spirit animal being small in size but energetic and focused. A few years back, a pink flowering current Ribes sanguinium v. glutinosum Read more…