By Lee Gordon Native Garden Committee
This is third part of a short series on some of our local native plants that are superb for our native gardens, but which are largely overlooked.
Willowy mints are already popular, judging by our chapter plant sales, but there needs to be at least one in every garden, native and otherwise! It is not because they are beautiful or striking mind you, they are not bad looking. Instead, willowy mint is a perennial herb that you will place next to a pathway where you can reach down and brush your hand through its leaves to enjoy their refreshing mint fragrance. Its May blooms look good, and it attract all sorts of native pollinators (another good reason we need them in every garden). Irrigated plants stay green year-round, and they bloom on and off all year long.
Willowy mints are remarkably easy to grow. Their native habitat is about as harsh as it gets, creeks in hot dry canyons that run water once or twice for every blue moon. Their harsh native habitat notwithstanding, they thrive in a broad range of garden conditions. I grow them without irrigation in a hot, dry site that mimics their natural habitat, and at another site that is permanently moist. My wife, Debbie, has one in her butterfly garden that is irrigated twice a week. Willowy mint will probably grow just fine in your garden. Water it well for a few months, then watch how it grows.
Willowy mints can cover 10’ x 10’ in the wild, but they are easy to keep to whatever size you want in a garden. In fact, willowy mints can form an unconventional ground cover. They grow about the same height as Baccharis ‘Pigeon Point,’ which is one of our most common ground covers. I use my hedge trimmer once or twice a year on my Pigeon Point, and you can do the same with your willowy mint. I have seen plants in the wild grazed to the ground by deer, and they were back to normal again the next year.
Another remarkable fact about willowy mint is that they are incredibly rare. They are at the top of the list of federally listed, and protected, rare and endangered species. Most of the world’s willowy mint grows on the Miramar Marine Base, or just next to it. I am part of a small team of friends who have the privilege of growing willowy mints and planting them in and near their preferred habitats. Hiking to the remote locations where our mints grow is more fun than a book of E tickets at Disneyland. We love the beauty and serenity of their isolated canyons.
Willowy mint may be rare in nature, but they are readily available for purchase locally.
Above: Willowy mint growing in an irrigated area (1” water/month) in an organic clay topsoil. One mint planted four years ago has multiplied into at least eight.
Below: Monardella viminea in full bloom in San Clemente Canyon, June 2017. In the wild, the bloom season runs JuneAugust, but in irrigated gardens they can bloom any time of the year.
Below: Willowy mint next to a seasonal creek fed by the street at the top of my hill. Other than rain and this runoff, this plant gets no supplemental irrigation. The soil consists of rocks, gravel, and sand similar to their natural habitat. Eight plants planted here six years ago are still vigorous, the largest now being greater than 3’ in diameter. As you can see in the photo, the summer heat has turned this plant crispy brown, just like willowy mints in their native habitat. This plant will turn green again in the next rainy season, and irrigated plants stay evergreen. Next up: Styrax redivivus (California snowdrop).