GOING WILD WITH NATIVES: These Natives Add Long Lasting Color To Your Garden
- k-england
- Apr 1
- 6 min read
By Susan Lewitt, for Let’s Talk Plants! April 2025.
These Natives Add Long Lasting Color to Your Garden
Want more beauty in your garden, and plants that support biodiversity?
“Incorporating long-blooming California native plants into your garden is crucial. Beyond their appeal and adaptable qualities, they serve as vital food sources for wildlife, especially during our typically arid summer and fall seasons. These plants also act as hosts for butterflies, moths, and various pollinators. Whether enhancing borders, butterfly and bird gardens, or container displays, they bring enduring beauty to your outdoor space. Moreover, many of these species are known for their rapid growth and ease of cultivation.” (WWW.CNPSSD.ORG)
One such species, De La Mina verbena, Verbena lilacina ‘De La Mina’, is a fast-growing shrub reaching about 3 feet tall by 4 ft wide. It is lightly sweet fragranced, with lavender and purple flowers that may be seen year-round. Although it is evergreen, it may be semi-deciduous in the summer. If you grow it in a container, it will be easy to locate it in full sun to partial shade. In the ground, it needs medium draining loamy soil and may need to be watered a couple times a month during the summer once it is established. Make sure not to overwater it. Its care is moderately easy, and it may be trimmed lightly in the summer to keep it more compact. Also remove any dead flowers to encourage more new blooms.
For additional pleasant fragrances in your garden, along with a beautiful long blooming plant, Fragrant Pitcher Sage, Lepechinia fragrans is an excellent choice. This moderate to fast growing shrub can reach about 5 feet tall and 5 feet wide. It is evergreen with its attractive sweet-smelling, lavender and purple flowers that show off spring through fall. This plant that can be used as a hedge; will also grow with Island Alumroot, Santa Cruz Island Gooseberry, Ribes thacherianum, Catalina Island Gooseberry, Island Ceanothus, Ceanothus megacarpus var. insularis, Summer Holly, Comarostaphylis diversifolia ssp. planifolia, Tree Poppy, and Oak species, as native companions. It is found in Chaparral communities, in ravines, and on rocky slopes. It does well in full sun to partial shade, in slow, medium, or fast draining soil with adequate moisture. Prune with caution especially with the older woody growth which should be only minimally trimmed. Water once a month in the summer once established.
Would you like some attractive yellow and orange flowers blooming in your garden in the spring? Palmer’s Indian Mallow, Abutilon palmeri, is a shrub that can quickly get to 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide, or it can be kept a bit smaller. It is suitable for container gardens and it should be kept in full sun. It is easy to care for requiring only a once-a-month summer watering once established in fast draining dry rocky soil. For looks, deadheading is advised and pruning will keep this shrub more compact. Consider planting it with native trees such as Palo Verde, Parkinsonia spp., Ironwood, Olneya tesota, and Smoketree, Psorothamnus spinosus. Creosote Bush, Larrea tridentata, Desert Lavender, Condea emoryi, Desert Agave, Agave deserti, Ocotillo, Fouquieria splendens, Brittlebush, Encelia farinosa, Desert Scrub Oak, Quercus cornelius-mulleri, Yucca species, and various cactus species may also be planted along side of Palmer’s Indian Mallow. Its natural community is the Creosote Bush Scrub, and it is also found in desert transition chaparral.
Desert Globemallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua, will give you a splash of red, orange, lavender or pink in the winter and spring, with its pleasing bowl-shaped flowers and fuzzy leaves. This shrub will swiftly grow to about 5 feet tall, and 4 feet wide. It can be grown in containers in full sun. Watering once a month in the summer once it is established should be sufficient. It should be planted in fast draining desert soil that is alkaline, sandy, or clay. To avoid it getting woody, prune it after it blooms. It is found in desert and semi-desert areas, in plant communities including Creosote Bush Scrub, Joshua Tree Woodlands, and Pine Juniper Woodland. Palo Verde, Parkinsonia spp., Ironwood, Olneya tesota, Pinyon Pine, Pinus monophylla, Smoketree, Psorothamnus spinosus, Joshua Tree, Yucca brevifolia, and California Juniper, Juniperus californicus are trees that make good companions. Also, it may be grown near other native plants: Desert Holly, Atriplex hymenelytra, Creosote Bush, Larrea tridentata, Desert Lavender, Condea emoryi, Desert Agave, Agave deserti, Ocotillo, Fouquieria splendens, Brittlebush, Encelia farinosa, Desert Scrub Oak, Quercus cornelius-mulleri, Yucca species, and various cactus species.
Wooly Bluecurls, Trichostema lanatum, is a pleasantly fragrant shrub with attractive fall winter and spring flowers that are blue, lavender, and pink. It is a fast-growing evergreen reaching about 5 feet tall and 10 feet wide. Pick a sunny to partial shaded location with fast draining soil that could be eroded gabbro (coarse-grained, magnesium- and iron-rich, igneous rock formed from the slow cooling magma, or sandstone, and somewhat similar to decomposed granite). Once this plant is established, a once-a-month summer watering should keep it happy. The following native plants make good companions for Wooly Bluecurls: California Sagebrush, Artemisia californica, California Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum, Bush Sunflower, Encelia californica, Sticky Monkeyflower, Mimulus aurantiacus var. pubescens, Eastwood Manzanita, Arctostaphylos glandulosa, Mountain Mahogany, Cercocarpus betuloides, Big Berry Manzanita, Arctostaphylos glauca, Hoaryleaf Ceanothus, Ceanothus crassifolius, Purple Needlegrass, Stipa pulchra, Chaparral Yucca, Hesperoyucca whipplei, Chamise, Adenostoma fasciculatum, Mission Manzanita, Xylococcus bicolor, Black Sage, Salvia mellifera, Coast Live Oak, Quercus agrifolia, and Blue Oak, Quercus douglasii.
There are many Penstemons, approximately 17 species according to Calscape, occurring in San Diego. These come in a variety of colors. One easy to acquire species is Showy Penstemon, Penstemon spectabilis. This fast-growing perennial herb can reach about 4 feet tall, and 4 feet wide showing off its charming blue, pink, and purple flowers in winter and spring. Locate this plant in full sun with any type of fast draining soil. It is moderately easy to care for, requiring only a once monthly summer watering, once established. Good companion plants for Showy Penstemon include Sagebrush, Artemisia californica, San Diego Viguiera, Bahiopsis laciniata, California Encelia, Encelia californica, Buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum, Manzanita spp., scrub oaks, and various annuals such as California Poppy. In the wild, this plant may be found in Coastal Sage Scrub and Chaparral communities, on slopes that are a little rocky, and also on dry flats.
All these species, along with most of the companion species, are readily available at many nurseries, including local nurseries, and the California Native Plant Society, San Diego (CNPSSD) Chapter’s October native plant sale. Local native nurseries may be found listed in Calscape (calscape.org/california-nurseries). The species highlighted in this article are favorites with native plant landscapers because they are attractive and support many native fauna species. The Anicia Checkerspot is one that is supported by Showy Penstemon.
There will not be a CNPS garden tour this year, but we are already making plans for a great tour in 2026. The tentative dates are April 11, and 12, 2026 and the area that is being considered is south San Diego (South Bay which includes, but is not limited to Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, and National City). If you have a garden in the South Bay area that is 60% or more native plants, and at least 3 years old, please consider being part of the 2026 CNPS garden tour. Then take pictures of your garden in bloom, lots of pictures! For CNPS 2026 garden tour participation information, please go to:
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