“Cut & Go” Floral and Plant Arrangements Using San Diego Native Vegetation

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Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman’

By Caroline Harrod, CNPS member and volunteer with Mt. Helix Park’s Habitat Restoration Team

Follow Caroline at her YouTube Channel, Growing San Diego

TO SEE MORE FLORAL BOUQUETS & DISCOVER SEASONAL NATIVE PLANT SUGGESTIONS VISIT THIS COMPANION ARTICLE: California Natives for Flower Bouquets by Season by Christine Hoey

Need to brighten anyone’s day or make a friend? It’s always easy to do with a bunch of fresh flowers! You might be thinking, why would I not use the more common term bouquet? According to MerriamWebster.com, bouquet is just the French word for bunch. On a side note, my husband calls floral arranging “fiddling with flowers.”

To keep floral and plant arranging fun, let’s use the “cut & go”method. Everyone is busy these days, so make this event as effortless as possible and just have fun with the process. Keep yourself moving and creating to complete your task, and to ward off over-thinking. Following are three things to consider:

How to begin

• Walk the yard and select what catches your eye.

• Cut in the morning.

• Cut with a sharp tool.

• Place cuttings in water immediately (consider taking a

  pail of water with you).

• Select a decorative container for your arrangement,

  such as a vase, mason jar, pickle jar, beer bottle, pitcher, bucket, drinking glass, etc.

Things to consider when choosing your cuttings

• What evergreen cuttings from bushes or trees would fill out the arrangement?

• What colorful long-stemmed flowers, berries, fruits, or dried foliage do you want to showcase?

• What is thriving in your yard and will last a few days or a week in an arrangement?

• What do you want your arrangement to accomplish?

• What container are you going to place the foliage in?

How to make an arrangement or floral design in less than 5 minutes

• Well....it always takes a bit longer, but can beaccomplished! Just have fun!

• Is the arrangement going to be placed inside or outside? Cut long stems and think big for the outside; inside has lots of sizes to choose from, so keep your arrangement in proportion to the space you want to fill.

• Cut the branch or stem on a slant; the plant will absorb water better that way.

• Start at the center and work outward from your container. Just make it as quickly as you can—there are no mistakes!

• From ikebana to the grocery store bouquet, there are all sorts of styles and recommended ways to design—I prefer the bunch from a child’s hand.

Photo, flower bouquet and artwork by Caroline Harrod

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Easy-to-Grow Natives to Plant This Fall: Purple Chinese Houses and Blue-Eyed Grass

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© 2010 Calscape

By Susan Lewitt, CNPS-SD Garden Committee member

Did you by chance sow any annual native flower seeds this fall, and were any of them Purple Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla)? You still have time here in our area. It is recommended to sow Purple Chinese Houses seeds in late fall directly on the surface of finely raked, medium-to-rich, moist soil. Space seeds 12-18 inches apart and expect germination within 10-30 days. You can also start seeds in peat pots in a sunny area and transplant them when they are 6 inches tall.

Purple Chinese houses are in the genus Collinsia (Family: Plantaginaceae), which has 30 species and varieties native to California, two of which are indigenous to my Clairemont and Mira Mesa neighborhoods: Collinsia heterophylla and White Collinsia (C. concolor), which is a rare variety attractive to native bees growing to 1 1/2-feet tall with bluish-purple and white flowers in spring.

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© 2010 Calscape

Purple Chinese Houses can easily be found at native plant nurseries and CNPS native plant sales. It also grows to around 1 1⁄2-feet tall, with blue, purple and lavender flowers appearing in winter and continuing into early summer. This species does well in shade or sun, and its habitat includes meadows, disturbed places, seeps and ponds, and it is also a fire follower. Although any type of sandy, loamy, or clay soil will work, this native plant does best in rich loamy soil. It is perfect for butterfly and bee gardens and thrives under oaks and with native ferns, as well as with Clarkia spp., Sisyrinchium spp., and other native annuals. It is found in areas below 1,000 meters throughout California, except in the deserts. Purple Chinese houses require minimal water once established and will easily reseed, giving you many seasons of beauty.

An easy-to-grow perennial to consider is Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum), which occurs in California in meadows, moist grass-covered areas, woodlands up to 8,000 feet in elevation; in chaparral and coastal sage scrub communities and the margins of wetland/riparian areas; and on forest floors of yellow pine forests and foothill woodlands.

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© 2010 Calscape

Blue-eyed Grass may look like a grass, but it is actually an iris (Family: Iridaceae). Growing usually 1 foot tall, it may reach as high as 2 feet. The small purplish to bluish, and occasionally white, flowers bloom from January to July. This perennial goes dormant in the summer to prepare for the next growing season.

Blue-eyed Grass grows best in level places with loamy, moisture-holding soil, topped with deep organic mulch. It may need some watering in dryer summers, even though it is dormant. Blue-eyed Grass multiplies through self-sown seeds and can also be propagated by dividing its rhizomes.

This deer-resistant groundcover works well in butterfly gardens, but not in mass plantings by itself. Use this plant for borders, rock gardens, and wildflower meadows. Companion native plants that work well with blue-eyed grass include California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), Lemonade Berry (Rhus integrifolia), Blue Wild Rye (Elymus glaucus), California Brome Grass (Bromus carinatus), Deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens), Junegrass (Koeleria macrantha), Meadow Barley (Hordeum brachyantherum), Purple Needlegrass (Stipa pulchra, aka Nassella p.), Thingrass (Agrostis pallens), Douglas’ Sagewort (Artemisia douglasiana), California Sagebrush (Artemisia californica), Spiny Rush (Juncus acutus), and Soft Rush (Juncus effusus).

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Helping Your New Plants Get the Best Start

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By Tish Berge, CNPS Garden Ambassador

So you’ve selected your native plants, picked them up, brought them home, and now the fun begins: planting!

Native plants have very different requirements from non-native plants. For example, they don’t want or need soilamendments and they need different care in order to get established. However, some aspects of planning your native garden remain the same, like picking the right location for a plant based on sun exposure, mature size, and companion planting. This article covers:

• Learning about your plant

• Preparation and digging the hole

• Watering: during planting, after planting, and the first year

Learning About Your Plant Let’s start with the similarities. You’ll want to learn all about your plant, what it needs, and what it may become. You’ll need to know a few basics about your plant to make sure you pick a location in your yard that will help your plant thrive. At a minimum, it is very helpful to understand how much sun the plant requires, whether it does best on a slope or in a drainage area, how big it will get, and how much water it needs. In addition to that, you may want to explore what plants it likes to be near, also called companion planting. One wonderful resource for finding this type of information is Calscape (www.calscape.org), which provides a plant description (size, form, growth rate, dormancy, flower color/season), wildlife supported, landscaping information (sun, soil, and moisture needs), and information on the natural setting and climate for this native. Other considerations include whether the plant drops litter and/or berries and proximity to areas where a “messy” plant may be less desirable. One example is Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), a lovely plant that produces berries for the birds, but some of those berries will drop to the ground and could stain concrete. Another is a Laurel Sumac (Malosma laurina) that naturalized in my yard, but is near the neighbor’s pool – not the best when it drops its flowers.

Preparation Now, on to the unique qualities of planting natives. This article is based on (a) information from the CNPS website (https://www.cnps.org/gardening/prepping-and-planting); (b) information I’ve gathered over the yearsby attending the CNPS-SD seminars; (c) experience from planting in my own yard; and (d) information gleaned from books and nurseries. As you can imagine, there are many sources.

Digging the Hole  In preparing to plant your native, you’ll want to dig a hole (okay, I admit, maybe that belonged above in the “similarities” paragraph), and the hole will be sized as follows: twice as wide as the container and half again as deep. So, if your plant is in a gallon container, you are looking at a hole that is about 16 inches wide by 9 inches deep.

Watering During Planting Now, if you were to simply place the plant in the hole at this point and backfill with soil, the dry soil would leach any moisture from the plant and the plant would die. To prevent that and to provide a good start to your plant, you’ll need to fill the hole with water and let the water drain. I like to do this twice to make sure the area surrounding where the new plant will be placed is moist and will not steal water from the plant. While the water is draining from the hole, also water the potted plant itself and work on berms. Berms are concentric rings around the planting hole that divert anyrain or irrigation to the plant. I’ve been practicing with the Tree of Life method of having two concentric circles, but have had success with just one in the past.

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Here is a picture of a planting from last fall’s sale, a Cleveland Sage from a 1-gallon pot, with two concentric rings.

Watering After Planting Once the plant is placed in the hole, gently backfill the dirt (this will be dry dirt excavated from your original hole), being careful to keep the crown of the plant above the waterline so as to avoid crown rot. Then water deeply again. Yes, I know you already watered the hole, but now there is dry soil next to your tender new plant, and we don’t want it robbing your plant of moisture. As a final step, add mulch to hold moisture in the soil, being sure again to keep the mulch away from the root crown.

Watering the First Year  Although most natives are drought tolerant once established, they need some help in the beginning. During the first 3 months after planting, keep the root ball moist but not soggy. If there is rain, you may not need to water at all, but if there’s no rain (and depending on the weather), you may need to water 1 to 2 times per week in the first few months. After those first few months, you can back off to watering every 2 to 3 weeks if there is no rain. This type of extra care is needed in the first year to get the plant established. After that point, it may need no additional water, but each plant’s needs vary, and there are many different opinions on supplemental water for natives–way too much to cover in this article. For more information, see: https://www.californianativeplants.com/PDFs/Watering-Native-Plants.pdf 

Now, about managing expectations. Not all of your new plantings are going to make it. But have faith and be patient. Here is the same plant after its first summer. It has struggled a bit, but it is alive and healthy.

Enjoy your new plants, and remember: “There are no gardening mistakes, only experiments” – Janet Kilburn Phillips.

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Stabilizing and Beautifying Steep Slopes

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Ranunculus californicus and Sidalcea malviflora

By Lee Gordon, CNPS-San Diego Garden Committee member

My house in Scripps Ranch backs up to a steep hill with a slope about as steep as it gets. Soon after I arrived 35 years ago, the homeowners association above ours proposed cutting down all the native shrubs on the hill above our property and replacing them with ice plant. I wrote a letter to them explaining that the roots of the native shrubs on the hill hold the soil together to help maintain slope stability and that killing the shrubs and replacing them with ice plant would weaken the hillside and possibly lead to catastrophic landslides—with my house right in the path! The association understood and dropped the subject. Around that time, my association cleared a brush management zone at the base of the hill. They routinely weed-whipped this zone every year for the next 25 years. Shrubs grew 6 inches in the rainy season, only to be whipped down to the ground every summer, producing an unpleasant and unattractive grassland of non-native Ripgut Brome (Bromus diandrus).

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Hillside in September 2009, fresh after weed whipping

I got tired of looking at this eyesore hillside, so about a decade ago, I killed the grass with a post-emergent herbicide (Clethodim) and stopped the yearly weed-whipping. Shrubs that had hung in through 25 years of mistreatment, with long- established roots, now grew quickly. Since large areas remained open, I started planting native shrubs in the gaps. To find native plants I liked, I walked around natural open spaces in the surrounding neighborhoods. I also began to irrigate the area monthly, each time depositing around 1 inch of water. This work of planting and irrigating has transformed the hillside in 10 “short” years.

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The view in September 2020 from the same place as the 2009 photo. Shrubs in this photo include Woolly Blue Curls (Trichostema lanatum), Mission Manzanita (Xylococcus bicolor), Hollyleaf Cherry (Prunus ilicifolia ssp. ilicifolia), Scrub Oak (Quercus dumosa and Q. berberidifolia), and Woolyleaf Ceanothus (Ceanothus tomentosus).

Our local native shrubs provide superior slope stabilization because of their tough, extensive, and deep roots, most of which are within a foot or so of the soil surface and reach out far beyond the shrubs’ drip lines. Attesting to this is a 27-foot tall scrub oak with a 10-inch-diameter trunk growing higher up the hill about 75 feet from a well-watered grass lawn, which has enabled it to grow far larger than scrub oaks elsewhere on the hill. Extensive horizontal webs of native roots hold the critical top layer of soil together to maintain the hill’s stability.

Hollyleaf Cherry (Prunus ilicifolia ssp. ilicifolia)

Hollyleaf Cherry (Prunus ilicifolia ssp. ilicifolia)

I trim the shrubs on the hillside into tree form by pruning the limbs closest to the ground. This not only makes the plants look better, but also makes it easier to maintain the ground under the shrubs, improving fire safety. Pruning branches at the bottom also spurs the plants to add growth at the top. I have been surprised at how quickly these shrubs have grown. In the next 10 years, I expect many to become 20- to 30-foot tall trees.

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Scrub Oak (Quercus berberidifolia)

This Scrub Oak (Quercus berberidifolia) was 3 feet tall in 2009 and is now 19 feet tall and 27 feet wide, a growth rate of 1.3 feet/year. Most of the scrub oaks on this hill grow more slowly, but they still grow become small trees in a decade.

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Late Bloomers

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Epilobium canum Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File/Epilobium_canum_%27Everett%27s_Choice%27_kz3

By Don Rideout, Gardener

Although spring is peak bloom time, both in gardens and in the wild, it’s good to have some later bloomers to feed pollinators and delight plant lovers. Here are just a few to consider if you are starting a new garden or adding to an existing one.

California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum), pictured above : This is a very popular garden plant that is readily available and easy to grow. There are a number of varieties, and the choice is mostly a matter of personal preference. The flowers are red and tubular, which hummingbirds love. It begins blooming in late July or August, then goes dormant when colder weather arrives. Cut it back hard at that time and it will regrow from the rhizome in spring. It spreads readily by the rhizome and also by seed, so give it room and be prepared to control it if needed.

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Salvia clevelandii Photo: Public domain

Cleveland Sage (Salvia clevelandii): Both beautiful and fragrant, this one can’t be beat, and there are numerous cultivars and hybrids to choose from. Blue flowers appear in May and last through
August. It is highly drought tolerant and requires well-drained soil; water no more than once a month in summer. Hummingbirds and insects love it. Give it plenty of room to reach its full size. It can be deadheaded or cut back as desired.

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San Diego County Viguiera Photo: Laura Camp https///www.flickr.com/photos/24284031@N00/8502864142

San Diego County Viguiera (Bahiopsis laciniata): This member of the sunflower family generally starts blooming in spring and continues into September, providing lots of nectar for butterflies, native bees, and other pollinators. It is highly drought tolerant and typically needs watering no more than once a month in summer. It can be deadheaded or cut back as desired.

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Eriogonum fasciculatum Photo: Jonathan Coffin https///www.flickr.com/photos/73431753@N00/14292028904

The Buckwheats (Eriogonum spp.): With many species to choose from, there is a buckwheat for every garden. All are consistent late-season bloomers that attract numerous pollinators. California Buckwheat (E. fasciculatum) is the most common in our local wildlands. Ashyleaf Buckwheat (E. cinereum, a Channel Islands native) and Sea Cliff Buckwheat (E. parvifolium) can bloom from late spring into fall near the coast. Other Channel Islands natives include Santa Cruz Island Buckwheat (E. arborescens) and St. Catherine’sLace (E. giganteum). Sulphur Buckwheat (E. umbellatum), the most colorful of all buckwheats, isn’t a true San Diego native, but it grows well here and features vibrant yellow flowers. All these buckwheats are highly drought tolerant but can handle once-a-month summer watering.

For more information on growing these plants and others, see Calscape.org or Calflora.org .

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The Botany Bill - In Congress Now

By Peter St. Clair, CNPS-San Diego Legislation Chair

The United States House of Representatives and Senate have commenced committee and subcommittee hearings on two bills, H.R. 1572 and S. 2384, introduced respectively in the House and Senate, that would build federal staff, research and funding capacity in botanical sciences and commercial use of native plant materials. The bills share a common title: Botanic Sciences and Native Plant Materials Research, Restoration and Promotion Act.

The legislation would also mandate greater use of native plant materials by the Department of the Interior (including BLM), the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense. The bill would create a cooperative grant program with federal funding to states, local government and their non-profit partners for actions that would prevent rare plants from becoming endangered.

CNPS and Cal IPC are among the 100 national supporters of this bill. Work on the bill started in 2015 with Chicago Congressman Mike Quigley and support from the Chicago Botanic Garden. The Senate sponsor is Mazie Hirono, with support from the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Numerous Representatives including Mike Levin from San Diego and both our Senators are co-sponsors.

What can CNPS members do to help move this bill through Congress?

Visit the web site built in support of the bills: https://botanybill.weebly.com

Contact your Representative and ask if they will consider becoming a co-sponsor. Rep. Susan Davis is not on the list. Rep. Juan Vargas is not on the list.

Contact Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and ask that she use her authority to move the bill through committees and subcommittees.

Contact Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Sen. Joe Manchin of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and ask them to move the bill through hearings.

The 2019/2020 session of Congress has produced bipartisan legislation on conservation that has been signed into law by President Trump. Aside from very nasty disagreements on regulation (NEPA and Endangered Species), funding for conservation such as in these bills, has been an area of bi- partisan cooperation.

It is difficult to pass laws and obtain budget authority for conservation at all levels of government. By their very nature, conservation efforts deal with a broad range of activities. With these two bills, the pathway lies between Agriculture, Natural Resources, Defense, and Appropriations (for funding for scientific staff, research and grants).

KNOW YOUR RARE PLANTS: Chaparral Nolina (Nolina cismontana)

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By Fred Roberts, Rare Plants Botanist

Chaparral Nolina is one of our larger and easily recognized rare plants. It is a robust perennial, with a thick woody underground base or a short woody trunk, with a dense crown of long, often arching, grass-like leaves as much as a meter long and with finely serrate margins. The inflorescence consists of a single scape, typically 1.5-2.0 meters tall, dressed with short, narrowly triangular bracts that are progressively smaller higher on the stem, and topped with a candle flame-shaped inflorescence of relatively small, cream-colored flowers. The plants are dioecious (male and female flowers on different plants). The flowers are in dense clusters, and the fruits are rounded, dry and inflated three-parted capsules a little more than a centimeter long.

Overall, Chaparral Nolina is suggestive of Chaparral Hucca (Hesperoyucca whipplei), with which it is often confused with when plants are not in bloom. Chaparral Yucca, however, lacks any sort of woody trunk or underground mass, and the leaves are rigid and are tapered from the base to a narrow spiny tip that is sharp to the touch (and will prick unassuming hikers in the legs and arms) while Chaparral Nolina leaves are generally flexible and the tips are longer, brown for several centimeters, and the ends are generally not all that sharp to the touch. In bloom, the small size of the nolina flowers, in addition to their high density, makes it easy to separate the two plants. The flower on Chaparral Nolina is typically less than a centimeter wide while in chaparral yucca, the flowers are large, fleshy, 3-6 cm long, and the fruit of chaparral yucca is generally longer than 3 cm.

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One usually finds Chaparral Nolina growing in clusters of plants, patches or rings of clones, whereas Chaparral Yucca rosettes are solitary, or perhaps in groups of 2-4. When in groups, they can usually easily be separated by the lack of a woody base and the leaf shape.

Of the three other Nolinas species in San Diego County, only Dehesa Nolina (Nolina interrata) is found fairly close to Chaparral Nolina in the vicinity of the I-8. Dehesa Nolina lacks any above ground trunk and has leaves that are a pale blue-green as compared to more of an olive green for Chaparral Nolina.

Chaparral Nolina is found primarily in central northern San Diego County on gabbro soils along the San Diego/Riverside County border east of the I-15 south to the vicinity of Pala; an isolated site in northwestern Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base; Hellhole Canyon; and a relatively large population found on Viejas Mountain in South County. It is found mostly in Chamise Chaparral and Nolina Scrub. Overall, the species ranges from the Transverse Ranges of Ventura and Los Angeles County south into northwestern Baja California, Mexico, from about 100 to 1,270 meters.

Historically, Chaparral Nolina was lumped under Parry’s Nolina (Nolina parryi). In a 1988 thesis, Jim Dice proposed that plants from the coastal slopes, with shorter scapes and trunks (or without trunks), and narrower leaf bases represented a separate species. The 1993 edition of the Jepson Manual included a brief shout-out under the entry for Parry’s Nolina stating “±coastal plants from WTR (Ventura Co.) and n & w PR that are smaller throughout (exceeds) with n=19, are an undescribed sp.” Chaparral Nolina was formally described by Jim Dice in 1995, so it is a relatively recent addition to the flora of San Diego County.

Jim Dice, in his 1988 Master’s thesis, expressed conservation concerns for this plant. Especially in the 1980s and early 1990s, most of the populations were found in the foothills and mountains ringing the Los Angeles Basin and as much as 80 percent of all known plants were on Orange County’s expansive Irvine Ranch where large swaths were within proposed planned communities and tollway projects. The species was quick to earn a CNPS 1B rank shortly after it was formally described. Today, it carries the California Rare Plant Rank of 1B.2. The risks to the species have diminished with time. While the tollways were built, many of the extensive Irvine Ranch projects eventually became part of Orange County parks. At the time of Jim’s thesis, chaparral nolinawas only known from a few sites near Pala and on Viejas Mountain in San Diego County, and it has since been found in other areas, though mostly in small isolated sites beyond.

So, one obvious feature is missing from my write up. Which family does the genus Nolina belong to? I would usually mention that casually in the opening sentence. It is a bit unclear just where Nolina belongs exactly, and you can tell this by the history of which family the plant has been stuffed into in various floral treatises. iNaturalist for example (following the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew’s “The Plant List”,which in turn relies on the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) IV arrangement) would have you believe this is a glorified asparagus, a member of the Asparagaceae. Itdoesn’t seem California botanists are quite ready for that. Mostly we are still following Jepson II, which treats Nolina as a member of the butcher’s broom family (Ruscaceae). Noteveryone agreed on that treatment either. In Jepson I, Nolina was just one of many members of the Liliaceae and there are California botanists that still follow that (though their numbers are thinning!). Interestingly, the Jepson I treatment is consistent with the original 1923 Jepson Manual treatment, but then, Liliaceae was the go-to bin for a lot of lily relatives throughout much of botanical history. Munz, in his 1959 and 1974 Flora of Southern California, considered it a member of the agave family (Agavaceae) –this is what I grew up with it as. Anthruser Davidson, in his 1923 Flora of Southern California placed Nolina in the Dracina family (Dracenaceae). And this is just the diversity of homes Nolina has had in the California floras. Whether it is a butcher’s broom, agave, lily, or glorified asparagus, it is a very cool plant.

Photos by Fred Roberts

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Woolly Bluecurls (Trichostema lanatum)

By Bobbie Stephenson, Newsletter Editor

Woolly Bluecurls naturally occurs in the coastal chaparral on the dry slopes of the Coast Ranges from Monterey and San Benito Counties of California, south to Northern Baja California. Woolly Bluecurls gets its common name from the colorful (white to purple) woolly hairs that cover the stems and calyces. It also has woolly white hairs on the undersides of the narrow aromatic leaves, which are shiny green above.

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Photo: Dick Culbert, https://www.flickr.com/photos/92252798@N07/27289259804

This highly fragrant, small evergreen shrub or sub-shrub in the Lamiaceae (Mint family) likes full sun and blooms from spring to summer.

The bloom period can extend into fall with a little supplemental summer watering, but only give it summer water if the soil drains well. Woolly Bluecurls makes a great cut flower; note the long silky recurved stamens on the flowers in the photo to the left.

Do not amend the soil or fertilize heavily.

The petals are fused to form a slender tube. Nectar at the bottom of the tube is accessible only to long-tongued pollinators like hummingbirds, large bees and the long-tongued larger butterflies.

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SEED COLLECTION 4: Seed Germination & Propagation Technique Overview

A “Hindsight is 2020” Series

By Justin Daniel, CNPS-San Diego President & Field Trips Chair and Grower & Collector

For part 1 click here For part 2 click here For part 3 click here

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Now that the summer heat has set in and collecting season is winding down near the coast, a packet of harvested and cleaned seeds may have made its way into a cardboard box in a drawer or been pinned to a board for easy perusal. The next steps are to plan out what to do with these seeds–the fall months aren’t far off. Late fall to early winter is an excellent time to start the seeds outdoors, concurrent with the onset of cooler temperatures and the first rains of the season.

Let’s consider first what the seeds would have done had they not been collected. For many, birds, insects, and mammals might have made a hearty meal of them. During lean times, itisn’t uncommon to come across coyotescat consisting mostly of manzanita berries. Many seeds have blown across the mesas and valleys, floated downstream and lodged in sand or mud, gotten knocked into nearby rocks or shrubs, or carried tangled in fur across open spaces, or snugly placed in a wood rat larder. Some seeds will get burnt as a wildfire flares across the land. Wherever they get caught up, they lie in wait as the temperatures heat up during the day and cool down overnight, the humidity vacillates, and the elements take turns employing entropy. As time passes, the days and nights cool and the fall rains turn into winter storms. Snow and frost cycles in the inland foothills and mountains; grass and mosses turn open areas green again over the winter nearer to the coast. At some point when all the conditions fall into alignment, the dry seeds take in enough water to send out an exploratory primary root and thus a seedling sprouts.

When germinating native plant seeds, the best way to get them to sprout is to mimic those natural conditions, usually while trying to do so in an artificial or disturbed setting. Much time and study have been put into learning to propagate native plants, but there is still a lot left to learn. One way to germinate seeds is in situ, sown directly in the area that you would like them to grow. While this works well in many cases, like with our California Poppy, other times it may seem like a waste of seed. Waiting two or three years might not work for everyone, but that’s how some species propagate naturally. A lupine seed (not all) often needs a slow thinning of the seed coat in order for water to penetrate and trigger the embryo into action. Others will languish on the ground, never breaking dormancy.

For all species, research their known requirements first as a successful technique for one species may not work with another. The Calscape website has a section on Propagation for many species. Where no information can be gathered online or found in the resources below, the data may have to be created. I highly recommend the work done by CNPSRiverside Chapter’s own Arlee Montalvo and Forest Service’s Jan L.Beyers; articles are listed at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jan_Beyers2 . Another great reference is Seed Propagation of Native California Plants by Dara E. Emery, 6th edition 2011.

If you’ve bought seeds from CNPS-SD, the packet will have suggested methods on getting them to germinate. Much of that info comes out the links and books here. Remember that if seeds require treatment, the germination rates and survival of seedlings is often lower than for those that require none. Also bear in mind that germination rates fall every year a seed is kept in storage, as embryos eventually die during extended dormancy. Most seed older than two or three years is usually not worth paying full price for, if it is purchased at all. Over five years, the seed may be a waste of time and resources. Short-lived seeds are usually not available for sale at all. Salicaceae (often expires in hours) and Fagaceae (weeks) are families notorious for having a limited shelf life of their seeds and acorns. As always, exceptions exist.

Choose soil appropriate for the type of plant intended to be grown. Most natives do well with a mixture of 1 part potting soil, 1 part cactus and succulent mix (or decomposed granite for inland species), and 1 part equal portions of vermiculite, coir fiber, and/or peat moss to balance out water retention with optimal drainage rate. I like to add in some native soil to inoculate the mix with mycorrhizae, moss spores and microbes. Be careful on the native soil source since this method can introduce weed seeds and pathogens you do not want. A discussion on soils and soil biota will be articles for another newsletter.

No Treatment vs. Treatment

Whether sown in a deep flat, a nursery pot, or started on a clean, damp paper towel or agar plate, the temperatures and access to water ought to be consistent, and if possible, recorded. Always label the seed sown along with important dates! Some species need specific temperature ranges or hours of light, so if you’re experiencing trouble with some that don’t need treatment, try mirroring the natural seasonal conditions of the species’ native range in the months after starting the seeds. This may require some creativity and ingenuity. Using heat lamps or greenhouse frames, strategic placement in the sun, or use of crushed ice as a means of watering, are among methods that often work. Most of the time, at least some germination will occur in a normal backyard garden setup with daily care and consistent watering cycles.

Special treatments are needed to get better (or any) results when the regular sow and watering method fails. Thick seed coats, nutlets, pods, or cones often open up when pummeled, cracked, burnt, frozen, slowly dissolved with rain and minerals, or quickly dissolved in the stomach of an animal. Others are triggered by temperature or special conditions. Those in the nursery trade have found reliable alternatives to recreating natural conditions.

Stratification

Many seeds require a dormancy period of weeks to months where they sit in set temperatures. A small handful of montane and subalpine species need a cycle of temps below freezing. A small refrigerator/freezer combo is often the easiest way to do this. Some innovative people with enough space start seeds in starter trays inside the fridge and report better germination rates by doing so. Warm and cold stratification are used on a species by species basis, though most seeds prefer temperatures around 52°F/11°C, then germinate when the temps rise above 72°F/22°C after a period of a few months.

Scarification

For pummeling and cracking, some physical friction is needed. Using a file, sandpaper, gravel in a tumbler, or tools like a vice or pliers, help quicken the ability for water to get to the embryo and cotyledon. Some trial and error will be needed to examine how much force is enough or too much. Check the location of the embryo by dissecting a seed and go slow with the first few.

Hot Water

When placed in recently boiled water (180° to 200°F/82°C to 93°C) and left to soak and cool overnight, the hot water kick starts the germination process by quickly expanding and softening the seed coat. Most Ceanothus seeds and larger seed like peas and wild cucumber have better rates using this method. This is often combined with other treatment methods, especially liquid smoke (below) and stratification.

Fire, Charate, Liquid Smoke, & Dry Heat

Each of these techniques triggers fire followers by bringing the seed to a temperature or state where germination inhibitors are neutralized. If you are using fire, the technique can vary from species to species, but it is always an interesting practice to explain to the neighbors (and hopefully not the fire department) what you are doing. Non-combustible boxes and trays lined with aluminum foil do thetrick if you don’t have a grill, fire place or fire ring. Pine needles are often plentiful, and can be used; this is one way to recycle a dried out Christmas tree. Charate is a mix of dry ash and charcoal and little bits of unburnt plant material left over from a burn. Liquid smoke (unflavored) performs an equivalent action of charate and the remainder of the liquid smoke has an added benefit of being usable in marinades and BBQ afterwards. Few species need this type of treatment and consistency is hard to replicate, so bringing seeds to a high temperature in an oven and allowing them to cool in a mix of charate may work too.

Acid Treatment & Other Chemicals

Hearkening back to coyote’s lunch at the beginning of this article, some seeds of fruits, nuts, and berries do best when processed in a short ride through strong acids, such as through an animal’s gut. There are a few commercially available acid compounds that the layman can pick up from the pool maintenance shop or general store that affect seeds this way. Timing and temperature are as important for the species as the strength of the acid, so be sure to follow every precaution before attempting any type of chemistry with strong acid. Sulfuric acid would be the most dangerous, and it comes in different concentrations as a drain cleaner. Muriatic acid/diluted hydrochloric acid is slightly less acidic, but also requires precautions. Gibberellic acid can alternatively be used as a hormone inducer for germination and is considered a solid choice, though the price per gram can be daunting. If home chemistry withcaustic chemicals isn’t for you,naturally acidic soils are formed with a deep layer of native mulch and hummus, watered in with rain water that forms carbonic acid out of the atmosphere. Species that need this type of treatment often grow out of iron rich soils that naturally oxidize and release ions, especially as other plant roots interact with soil chemistry.

Light and Darkness

Finally, some seeds are photosensitive and require light to germinate, others complete darkness. For light sensitive species, sow on the surface under a clear plastic or glass cover that allows air flow in and water vapors out. Germination is triggered when the requisite hours per day of direct sunlight are met. For darkness, top the sown growing medium with a thick layer of natural mulch or leaves to be sure the light is kept from the seeds.

Getting seeds to germinate is a process that is as rewarding as it is at times frustrating. Personally, I’ve found on occasion that some seeds only germinate after recycling the soil into a new batch the next growing season, where they come up alongside another equally desired plant. In any case, now that there are seedlings, keeping them alive is a whole other story. Keep an eye out for future articles on native plant nursery trade skills and secrets, talk with your friends at the nurseries, and especially talk to each other!

If you are able and interested, please consider joining the Propagation Committee as we use tried and true methods, as well as experimentation, with our favorite native plants. Email propagation@cnpssd.org to get on the mailing list.

Cheers!

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SEED COLLECTION 3: Targeting Genera

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A “Hindsight is 2020” Series

By Justin Daniel, CNPS-San Diego President & Field Trips Chair and Grower & Collector

For part 1 click here For part 2 click here

We’ve gone over the quick, simplified discussion on ethical collecting practices to seed collection and processing methods for California Native plants in general over the past two months. Hopefully, anyone following along to this point has a number of favorite species in mind and likely already have the dried fruit or pods in a paper bag or have sorted and labeled the lots. If not, remember that leaving a collecting trip empty handed is not a bad thing in the grand scheme of things.

For species like California poppy you might have at this point realized they are both simple to collect and also surprisingly explosive (dehiscent). Dried fruits of Eschscholzia californica may ‘pop’ in your hand when you pull them off the stalk, scattering seeds everywhere and leaving you with the curled carpel ‘straw’. Once you get the mature green to browning pods into a loose paper bag to let them dry, you’ll find out over the next few days that they pop in the bag and do most of the sorting for you. Every year at this time, my dog becomes suspicious of all paper bags, eyeing them warily for the next pop. Once the bag finally calms, pour out the seeds through a colander and you have California poppy seeds ready to be stored in a cool, dry place, sown directly outside for next year, or shared with your neighborhood.

Below, fruit types are used to group genera and families that have similar collection and treatment methods. Where genera or families are not listed below and where exceptions apply, there are many great resources to help narrowyour focus. If the links below don’tprovide the answers you are looking for, become a member of the San Diego CNPS discussion group and join a wonderful community eager to answer questions. As a science based organization, your research, stories, pictures, and volunteer hours contribute mightily to our goals of better documenting and educating our neighbors about the intrigue and benefits of native flora. Here are some more great rabbit holes:

https://www.inaturalist.org/

http://www.sdplantatlas.org/

http://tchester.org/plants/index.html

http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/plants/plantsystematics/studentresources/PlantSystematicsLinksStruwe2011.pdf

https://www2.palomar.edu/users/warmstrong/termfr1.htm

To help differentiate and identify Families, and to focus then down into genera, follow this great guide:

http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/plants/plantsystematics/studentresources/Struwe_50MajorTempPlantFamilies2016.pdf

If you cannot find seed on a healthy plant during the correct season, it may mean it is a male plant. Do your research and keep looking!

Dry, Hard Pods & Capsules

Some of the simplest seeds to collect are easy to find pods that dry on the plant. The fruit waits through the summer until winter storms, high winds, ravenous birds, or a periodic brushfire cracks them open. Snip or carefully break the cyme of the dry pods into a bag with site data and pics already noted. Avoid any that are molded, holed, or already ripped open by birds since these are likely to contain spores or insect larvae. Carefully check for worms, mites, ticks, spiders, and caterpillars, which are common. Processing is usually done with a mortar and pestle or by rubbing the pods vigorously between rubber soled sandals to break the pods and release the seeds when they are too tough for gloved or bare hands.

The dry pod producing plants are some of the most popular landscaping and nectar producing native plants and include (in no particular order): snapdragons (Antirrhinum), larkspur (Delphinium), beardtongues (Penstemon), bush penstemon (Keckiella), bee plant (Scrophularia), bladderpod (Peritoma), bignonia (Chilopsis), liveforever (Dudleya),

deerweed (Acmispon), ocotillo (Fouquieria), blazing star (Mentzelia),miner’s lettuce (Claytonia), paintbrush (Castilleja), monkeyflower (Diplacus), columbine (Aquilegia), oceanspray (Holodiscus), cottonwood (Populus), alum root (Heuchera), tobacco (Nicotiana), thornapple (Datura), violet (Viola), creosote (Larrea), cocklebur (Xanthium) & blue eyed grass (Sisrynchium).

Papery & Dehiscent Pods & Capsules

The main difference between hard pods and papery, thin seed pods is the texture and thickness of the pericarp. A few hard pods have mechanisms that“explode” when conditions are right.Timing is important with these genera and families because the mature seeds are only available for a limited period. Heat, herbivory, rain, wind, and dry conditions are factors for these fruits that trigger release of their seeds nearly all at once. Plan to check on and collect these within three to four weeks after blooming ends and always prior to a forecast for high wind or rain events. It may take extra visits, but if too late,you’ve likely missed the season entirely for that location. You may collectmature pods that haven’t opened yetand dry them in a paper bag, though the greener fruits will yield fewer mature seeds. Some genera are included here with samaras that fall away easy, like maple, often into a stream or pond. Some, like agave and yucca, produce fruits that are targets for larvae and may take all summer to dry completely. Others have seeds that easily fly away on parachute tufts, like milkweed. Others simply open when with the lightest touch, making collecting them a delicate exercise. Thankfully, once collected, these require very little processing or easy processing to clean them.

These include onion (Allium), milkweed (Asclepias), mustards (Brassicaceae), catchflys (Silene), morning glory (Calystegia), spurge (Euphorbiaceae), locoweed (Astragalus), buckbrush (Ceanothus), fairyduster (Calliandra), redbud (Cercis), lupine (Lupinus), pea (Lathyrus), palo verde (Parkinsonia), clover (Trifolium), vetch (Vicia), flax (Linum), mallow (Malvaceae), sand- verbena (Abronia), ash (Fraxinus), monkeyflower (Erythranthe), evening primrose, fuschia, & suncups (Onagraceae), peony (Paeonia), poppy (Papaveraceae), gilia (Gilia), maple/elder (Acer), iris (Iris), lilies (Liliaceae), orchid (Orchidaceae), brodiaea/blue dicks (Themidaceae), agave (Agave), yucca (Hesperoyucca), & beargrass (Nolina).

Cones

These gynosperms are fairly forgiving on timing since seeds can take months to several years to develop. Collectingdry cones from the tree isn’t always necessary, but preferred since dropped cones are immediately available for predation on the ground. Caution is advised in cases like Pinus coulteri, asthe cones are known as ‘widowmakers’for their ability to maim or kill when they drop from a great height. Cracking the dry cone is best done with pliers, but some open easier when placed in a low fire or allowed to dry in a low heat oven for a few hours or sunny windowsill for a few months. Use a solid box for these if taking the whole cone to avoid dropping pine sap.

Genera: pine (Pinus), juniper (Juniperus), cypress (Hesperocyparis), & cedar (Calocedrus).

Dry Berries / Drupes

These fruit dry with little fleshy interior tissue (mesocarp), though they are covered by a skin (pericarp) like a berry. Collect when the fruit changes color to bright red or yellow-orange. When pressed and rolled between the fingers, the skin tears and the seeds fall away, often neatly. While these genera can be processed while still wet, waiting until these are fully dry helps to avoid odors, astringent juice, and extra workseparating the seed from the ‘chaff’material. Many of the following genera also should be approached with caution given the spiny leaves in barberries, prickles on roses, and poisonous compounds found in most nightshades. Use appropriate gloves. The color of these berries entice natural herbivory by birds, so acid treatment can helpwith breaking dormancy, though I’ve found that isn’t required.

Genera: Barberry (Berberis), dogwood (Cornus), silk tassel (Garrya), wild rose (Rosa), & nightshade (Solanum)

Stone Fruit

Stone fruit here are nearly identical to dry berries and drupes except that the genera within Ericaceae have stones / nutlets that are either fused or free (a diagnostic characteristic). The seed resides protected within the hard shell that requires special treatment like heat/fire or acidic conditions to break dormancy. It is possible to speed the process by manually cracking the stones, but you will lose many viable seeds in this manner. These ‘seeds’ aremost often sold as untreated, intact nutlets. Collect when bright red or brown. Withered fruit is fine to collect, but difficult to process.

Genera: Manzanita (Arctostaphylos),mission manzanita (Xylococcus), & summer holly (Comarostaphylos).

Fleshy Fruit & Berries

These genera and families listed below have seeds covered by moist fleshy tissue and a thin skin or leathery rind,and here you’ll find the most delectablenative fruit. Not all are edible, despitetheir cousins being found on grocer’sdisplays. Collect by hand or tongs when ripe. These are separated from dry fruits because they are much easier to process while wet. Forming a mash under water and straining the pulp away does wonders to separate these seeds. Gloves and sometimes tongs and masks are best used to harvest and process these. A small amount of liquid soap helps the washing process, though the separated seed should be completely rinsed and allowed to dry completely afterwards. Caution ought to be taken when harvesting bush rue / spice bush since it contains phytophototoxic oil compounds that develop a rash on sensitive skin when affected areas are exposed to the sun.

Genera & families: Cactus (Cactaceae), hackberry (Celtis), honeysuckle (Lonicera), snowberry (Symphoricarpus), gourds (Cucurbitaceae), gooseberry (Ribes), coffeeberry (Frangula), lemonade & sugarbush (Rhus), redberry (Rhamnus), strawberry (Fragaria), toyon (Heteromeles), cherry/apricot/almond

(Prunus), blackberry (Rubus), bush rue (Cneoridium)*, desert thorn (Lycium), ground-cherry (Physalis), grape (Vitis), palm (Arecaceae).

Asters
The massive family of Asteraceae contains just over 100 known genera within San Diego County alone. The compound inflorescence produces copious amount of dry nuts per head and many have a light fluff attached (pappus), which helps them to disperse in the wind. Exceptions here are bur-sage/ragweed (Ambrosia) and cocklebur (Xanthium), since they are treated better under other type descriptions here.

Collect the seeds after the head has begun to dry and the seed pulls freely from the receptacle. Place all of it into a large paper bag. Tarplants and other glandular species are sticky, so thin gloves are recommended duringharvest. Separating the ‘seed’ fromthe chaff can be done with a light mashing between the hands to allow the fluff and seeds to fall into a bowl or tray. Blowing the collected mess with the correct pressure helps to separateit, though you’ll have to experiment onwhat works best. Many final seed products will contain chaff as an unavoidable byproduct. Static electricity can help the process along by rubbing a plastic sheet with a cloth to create a charge. Overall, astersdon’t need a wash for cleaning, butthey will need to be free of larvae and mold.

Acorns & Hard Nuts

These are staples of the ethnobotanical diet, loved by people and squirrels alike. Collect when mature and dry on the tree by hand or basket, or when green but has signs of changing color. Picking them up off the ground results in more failures given they are attacked by insects, mold, and rodents quickly after falling. The few that survive on the groundcreate more trees naturally, so it’s bestto leave these alone unless the ones on the trees are simply too difficult to reach. Toss those acorns that have visible holes or float to the top of a shallow bath. For walnuts, remove the leathery rind, which should easily split from the nut by hand with little effort when ready for planting. Jojoba contains a waxy oil found to be very useful as a commercial product and the seed inside is edible with cooking.

Genera: Oaks (Quercus), walnut (Juglans), & jojoba (Simmondsia).

Loose to compact achenes and grains

This last category is a bit of a catch-all, but are collected and processed in the same manner. The important things to remember when collecting and processing these families and genera is that some contain poisonous compounds, skin and mucus membrane irritants, spiny/Velcro-like inflorescence parts, and/or strong residual odors. All will leave an awful mess after processing. Borage family often has fine hairs. Celery family are often poisonous, difficult to ID, and can have obnoxious burs. The monocots here are particularly tough to ID, especially without all the parts of the plant.

Collect the whole inflorescence stalk (cyme) or panicle in the field when dry. Use caution on those like pitcher sage as the seed can easily be knocked free and lost if handled too roughly. Test a cyme in your glove or hand by gently crushing the lot and sifting for seed. During processing, nearly all can be lightly crushed with gloves or hands or between two rubber sandal soles to make a dry aggregate that frees the seed from any attachments. The correct pressure is species specific, especially with grains. Screen the mixture to separate the fine dust and irritating fluff, seeds, sticks, and remaining flower parts. A magnifying glass is very useful for determining if the processing is working effectively on species that produce very small seeds, like spineflowers. A vacuum, mask, and moist towels are quite handy if processing indoors. For those seeds with tails, you can break the tails off by hand, but they fall away easily enough when gently crushed too.

Genera & families: Celery/carrot family (Apiaceae), sage (Salvia), borage family (Boraginaceae), saltbush (Atriplex), goosefoot (Chenopodium), pitcher sage (Lepechinia), mountain mint (Monardella), bluecurls (Trichostema), ragweed (Ambrosia), skullcap (Scutellaria), wishbone bush (Mirabilis), sycamore (Platanus), linanthus (Leptosiphon), buckwheat (Eriogonum), spineflower (Chorizanthe), virgin’s bower (Clematis), mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus), chamise & redshanks (Adenostoma), bedstraw (Galium), willow (Salix), vervain (Verbena), sedge (Cyperaceae), rush (Juncus), grass (Poaceae), & cattail (Typha).

Please share your findings and help toround out collecting knowledge. I’veleft out uncommon genera for thenursery trade, so if you don’t seesomething you are looking for, as a Genera or Family, please ask! The more we know as a Society, the more we can refine our efforts to reduce waste all around.

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Hooker’s Evening Primrose (Oenothera elata ssp. hookeri)

By Bobbie Stephenson, CNPS-SD Secretary and Newsletter Editor

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Stamens PC: Bobbie Stephenson

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Basal rosettes PC: Bobbie Stephenson

The range of Hooker’s Evening Primrose in the wild is along the coast from San Francisco south through San Diego and into northern Baja. Reddish wand-like stems up to 5+ feet high hold the 2- to 4-inch wide yellow flowers at their tips. This biennial starts as a basal rosette and grows rapidly when it is ready to bloom.

A couple of years ago a seed germinated (I don’t know where it came from) amongst some day lilies that persist next to my house. I let it grow and last year it bloomed and spread seed into my front yard. Many of them germinated and this year I have a lot more plants to enjoy (my yard is not yet filled with plants). A chapter member says he planted a package of seed several years ago, they all germinated, and now he has to weed some of them out each year. Another chapter member asked me to please advise homeowners of the aggressively spreading nature of Hooker’s Evening Primrose, so be forewarned. I am not overwhelmed with them yet, so I guess one person’s bane can be another person’s boon!

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Stems PC: Bobbie Stephenson

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A 9-foot reach for the sky PC: Joseph Sochor

Hooker’s Evening Primrose tends to grow in moist wild places, but can be somewhat drought-tolerant, especially in the garden. Many seed-eating birds, such as Lesser Goldfinches, enjoy the seed.

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