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IN THE FIELD: Corte Madera Mountain

By Tom Oberbauer

Back in January of 1978, I hiked up onto Corte Madera Mountain with a friend, Tom Scott (now with UC Berkeley and UC Riverside), who had been studying Golden Eagles in San Diego County. Bald Eagles were wintering at Corte Madera Lake. After postponing the hike due to rain, that was a good rain season, we drove out to Corte Madera Lake, which was accessible because Tom Scott had a key, and we hiked up the north side of Corte Madera Mountain on a little used trail. The trail climbed through a woodland of mostly coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia), but also Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri), as well as Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi). It was foggy going up and the view was obscured.

IN THE FIELD: Corte Madera Mountain
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In The Field: The New Santa Fe Valley Trail

By Jürgen Schrenk

Recently, the new Santa Fe Valley Trail, connecting the San Dieguito River Park’s Del Dios Gorge Trail with the Lusardi Creek Preserve, was opened to the public. The beginning of the trail took us through fields of Menzies’ Goldenbush (Isocoma menziesii var. menziesii).

In The Field: The New Santa Fe Valley Trail
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The Desert a Month after Monsoonal Rains

By Jürgen Schrenk

After yet another week of waiting for the temps to go down watching our Monarch production and limiting our walks to local parks, I was worried that I might completely miss the monsoonal “spring” in the desert. So, I went on a quick drive along S-2

The Desert a Month after Monsoonal Rains
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CNPS-SD Helps With Rare Plant Surveys

By Justin Daniel, Vice President, Rare Plants Co-chair

With vaccinations allowing more contact outdoors and a workload a year behind, it's been a busy time a few of us to help some of our fantastic environmental conservancy organizations around San Diego County by assisting them in their rare plant surveys. The following are glimpses into some of the recent surveys. Come along for the ride and reach out to support our partners, too!

CNPS-SD Helps With Rare Plant Surveys
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The Mount Laguna Surprise

By Tom Oberbauer

…The next week, I drove up and hiked to the location I visited in December and sure enough, the display of Platystemon californica (above) was pretty amazing. Sheets of color extended across the slopes leading into the center of the meadow. I spent some time attempting to photograph and create video of the breeze gently shaking the small flowers. From this location, the view of the meadow ranges across its full length, extending more than three miles in the distance to the south. Laguna Lake also contained a good level of water reflecting the blue sky, apparently left over from the previous two good rainfall seasons. I attempted to capture the view of the flowers with the lake and end of the meadow in the distance. The breeze and the movement of the flowers in this manner always reminds me of when I was a child and my family visited Estes Park in Colorado and we observed alpine wildflowers…

The Mount Laguna Surprise

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IPCC 6 and Other Issues

By Frank Landis, Conservation Committee Chair & Rare Plants Co-chair

This month’s column is a mix of issues big and small.

First, a note to myself as much as to everyone else living in a high or very high fire hazard zone: Haul out your evacuation plan. Check it, update it as necessary, and test it out. Tis the season. Mine lives as a checklist on a clipboard on a nail in my bedroom. If you’re in fire country and don’t have one of these, make one. You can find advice from San Diego County or CalFire easily online.

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Summer Focus

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By Susan Krzywicki, landscape designer of “Native Gardens…Green Living” and Native Garden Committee member

As we pull into mid-summer, the garden focus is diffused over a wide array of plant activity. Bees are buzzing, some plants quiet down, and you can start to look forward to what the fall plantings will be. Time to look around and note seasonal differences, places that need refreshing, and holes that develop. Besides the reliable bloom of our Cleveland sages (Salvia clevelandii), here are some other garden choices local to our area.

I Can Dream, Can’t I?

By Frank Landis, Conservation Committee Chair & Rare Plants Co-chair

A short August daydream, for once. I thought I’d contemplate what San Diego might look like in 2035 if we actually manage to decarbonize our county in the next 14 years, as the Board of Supervisors hopes to do.

That means, as a start, few or no fossil-fuel powered cars. Every vehicle on the road will be electric. There will be more mass transit. The coaster train will run through a new tunnel that goes under Del Mar and out through…um, to be determined, but the old rail bed will be parkland crumbling onto the beach below.

CNPS-SD Helps With Rare Plant Surveys

CNPS-SD Helps With Rare Plant Surveys

By Justin Daniel, Vice President, Rare Plants Co-chair

With vaccinations allowing more contact outdoors and a workload a year behind, it's been a busy time a few of us to help some of our fantastic environmental conservancy organizations around San Diego County by assisting them in their rare plant surveys. The following are glimpses into some of the recent surveys. Come along for the ride and reach out to support our partners, too!

Native Plant Species Stories

By Kendra Saad, Programs Co-Chair

Acmispon glaber is one of the cheeriest and elegant native plants. Commonly known as deerweed, it has thin, bright green, gently arching, knee-high stems that are covered in small, bicolor yellow-red flowers for several months of the year. It looks delicate, but it is built tough. Its stems barely move when hefty bumblebees visit. The Kumeyaay used Acmispon glaber stems to make walls for their structures.

Converging Crises

By Frank Landis, Conservation Committee Chair & Rare Plants Co-chair

“Unprecedented changes in climate and biodiversity, driven by human activities, have combined and increasingly threaten nature, human lives, livelihoods and well-being around the world. Biodiversity loss and climate change are both driven by human economic activities and mutually reinforce each other. Neither will be successfully resolved unless both are tackled together. This is the message of a workshop report, published today by 50 of the world’s leading biodiversity and climate experts.”

This showed up in my mailbox a couple of days ago, and you can read it yourself at https://www.ipbes.net/events/launch-ipbes-ipcc-co-sponsored-workshop-report-biodiversity-and-climate-change.

While I’m still digesting the report, I’ve got the deadline from this column to make. So…

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The Mount Laguna Surprise

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The Mount Laguna Surprise

By Tom Oberbauer

…The next week, I drove up and hiked to the location I visited in December and sure enough, the display of Platystemon californica (above) was pretty amazing. Sheets of color extended across the slopes leading into the center of the meadow. I spent some time attempting to photograph and create video of the breeze gently shaking the small flowers. From this location, the view of the meadow ranges across its full length, extending more than three miles in the distance to the south. Laguna Lake also contained a good level of water reflecting the blue sky, apparently left over from the previous two good rainfall seasons. I attempted to capture the view of the flowers with the lake and end of the meadow in the distance. The breeze and the movement of the flowers in this manner always reminds me of when I was a child and my family visited Estes Park in Colorado and we observed alpine wildflowers…

The Problems with “Locally Native”

By Frank Landis, Chair Conservation Committee

Or as my 80-something mother and CNPS Fellow Betsey Landis said when I told her, “Not that again.”

Yes, that again. Right now, we’ve got some people who arepushing to get hyper-locally focused on native plants. What this means is that they want only plant seed sourced in particular parks or watersheds planted in those locations. The notion is that these plants have evolved in that location over evolutionary time spans, so if you move them they won’t do so well, so you need to grow the seeds near where you harvested them, and, and...

And breathe. First off, consider that there are 7,000-odd plant species in California. Some of them are very odd indeed, and some are not. While there is some evidence that some rare plants are worse off if moved, that’s definitely not true for all species, and it’s not clear that it’s even true for most species.

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Designing a Biodiverse Food Garden

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Designing a Biodiverse Food Garden

By Christine Hoey, Co-chair of the Native Garden Committee and a native plant enthusiast

Summertime is fast approaching, and you may be wondering how to make your vegetable and fruit garden more productive. Hands down, the answer is to create a California native habitat nearby. Native plants and trees attract pollinators such as bees, birds, butterflies, hoverflies, wasps and more, which in turn pollinate your fruit trees and vegetables. Research shows that a biodiverse native habitat next to a food garden, can increase crop production by 18 to 71% depending on the crop (Bartomeus et al., 2014). This means more than enough fresh produce for you with extra to share!

The Common Sunflower Can be Uncommonly Fun

Common Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) Photo: Public domain

By Sue Jackson

While driving down the road in the summer months, one can see common sunflowers (Helianthus annuus) growing in waste areas, typically in a drainage ditch. They always look like they are having fun, blowing and growing every which way. During the fall, a few years back, we stopped along the road and gathered some dried flowerheads. The following year, in early spring, I planted the seeds. A spot was selected where the rain drains from the driveway — conditions similar to the ditch along the road.

Later that summer we were rewarded with very tall, prolific flowering plants. They were watered close to the ground only a few times after the initial planting to avoid mildew growth. Besides being a nice cut flower, the whole bed was a real “WOW!”coming down the driveway. Guests stopped to take their picture next to them.

The fun continued as the flowers formed seeds. A favorite pass time became watching all the goldfinches who perched on the heavy seed heads, bent over, and pulled out the seeds. As the summer went on, these annuals got kind of scruffy looking. The flower stems were cut to make a dried bouquet that was hung outside the window. And so, the entertaining goldfinch show continued on the dried flower bouquet. What remained on the bottoms of the plants was pulled out, and it went in the green waste bin.

Lots of fun for little effort!

Sue lives in Fallbrook near the Santa Margarita River Preserve. The trails through the valley serve as her inspiration in planning a native chaparral garden that blends into the wild.

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Vegetation vs. Plant Communities, and Why It Matters

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By Frank Landis, CNPS-SD Conservation Committee Chair

Just to be different, I thought I’d go back to my roots as a plant community ecologist and explain why I dislike that particular label so much. I will be going into what the words plant community and vegetation mean, and why vegetation community is such an ugly and ill-thought neologism.

First, vegetation: it simply means all the plants in a defined area. That’s what Julie Evens (my former lab mate and now CNPS Fellow) maps for CNPS, and I’m glad she does. Plant community also means all the plants in an area, but it comes attached to a rather problematic and disproved theory that I will describe below.

The third term I will add is ecosystem, which means all the organisms in a particular area, plus their abiotic environment. This may seem to be a non-sequitur, but if this is new to you,you’re probably going to raise one of some very commonobjections. Most of those objections actually refer to ecosystems, not plant communities. Please keep this in mind. Plant community and vegetation refer only to plants.

Rare Plant Conservation for 2021

Rare Plant Conservation for 2021

By Frank Landis, CNPS-SD Conservation Committee Chair

I’m in a weird headspace at the moment. Supposedly, I should be thinking about how to recruit people to do rare plant surveys in 2021, despite the abysmal rain and general paucity of plants. On the other three hands (I recruited my wife to help), I’m doing conservation, so the question of “how to get interested citizens involved in rare plant science takes on a rather...different perspective. So, let’s go with it. You, dear reader, want to get involved with California rare native plants. What should you do?

First, you need to understand the scope of the problem. According to Jon Rebman of SDNHM, San Diego County has around 1,700 native plant species (this is species, not subspecies or varieties, and not non-natives. Add that all in and the count goes over 2,700). According to the CNPS rare plants inventory, around 290 of those species are in some way sensitive, 16 are listed as rare threatened or endangered, and over 200 are listed as CRPR list 1B or 2B, meaning they could be listed as threatened or endangered in California.

But wait, it gets worse. At 1,700 native species, San Diego County has more native species than the state of Hawai’i. Or either of the Dakotas. Or even Alaska, for that matter. At 4,207 square miles of land, we’re not quite 200 square miles bigger than the Big Island of Hawai’i (4,028 square miles). And while the Big Island is home to around 185,000 people, San Diego’s home to over 3,338,000 people, or not quite 20 times the population density.

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Baja Plants for San Diego Gardens

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Baja Plants for San Diego Gardens

By Don Rideout, Native Plant Gardener and CNPS Volunteer

Our warming climate is expected to force a number of species to either adjust their ranges or face extinction. This could mean that plants from Baja that are currently uncommon in San Diego County may in the future be more appropriate for our region. Several Baja plants are already popular in many gardens for good reason: they tend to be extremely drought tolerant, hardy, and beautiful. There are lots to choose from. Some are well-known, while others are more obscure; some are found north of the border while others are Baja endemics. Not all of these are from the California Floristic Province, but all of them are good choices for San Diego gardens. There isn’t space to list them all or give too many details here, but if you’re interested in any of these, click on the green title of each plant to visit the Calscape link. Here are a few to consider for your garden.

One Year Later

By Frank Landis, Conservation Chair

In a sense, this is a dual column, because in addition to conservation I will be talking about one of my other roles, which is as our chapter delegate to the CNPS Chapter Council (CC). But mostly it’s about one year into the pandemic and climate change.

As I write this, I’m getting deluged with media stories about how “life will be getting back to normal soon,” how dealing with the pandemic was “like everyone being in prison,” and so forth. And I get it. A lot of businesses will do better, and a lot of people will do better, if we get out more, drive more, and spend a lot more. And I have no intention of belittling the very real pain many people went through, especially those who are suffering lingering effects of COVID-19 or who lost loved ones to the virus.

But I have to be the person who points out that pre-pandemic “normal” wasn’t very good. As I sit here, looking at less than four inches of rain this year, I’m reminded, as hopefully we all are, that we’ve got maybe nine years to get our greenhouse gas emissions well down towards zero, or things start getting a lot worse than they are now.

Whiskey is for Drinking...

By Frank Landis, Chair Conservation Committee

For whatever reason, this month seems to be about water issues. The big one, which those on the CNPSSD Discussion Group have already seen, is a proposal to run a pipe from Imperial to San Diego. I’m not sure when the idea first surfaced, but it’s been mostly associated with Jim Madaffer, a director of the San Diego County Water Authority, and it has been around since before 2017. But as with all creeping projects in our area, it’s surfacing again.

The idea is for San Diego to become “water independent” by getting water directly from the Colorado River. Well, directly from Imperial Irrigation District, meaning directly from the All American Canal. The problem is they are trying to solve is not that San Diego doesn’t get water from the Colorado River via the IID (we do), but that it flows through pipes controlled by the Metropolitan Water District, whom our Water Authority has issues with.

The outline of this “crazy idea” (per Madaffer, https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/science- environment/pipe-dream-bring-colorado-river-water-san-diego-re-emerges/) is to pump water from the All American Canal, up over Anza-Borrego State Park, through the Cuyamaca Mountains (Madaffer is purportedly partial to the idea that Elon Musk’s Boring Company would drill this tunnel, because he’s a Musk fan), using 47 miles of canals, 39 miles of pipeline, and 47 miles of tunnel, for a mere five billion dollars. Probably we’d need to build a billion-dollar desalination plant, too, because Colorado water is the effluent from many saline farms upstream.

Being Pro-Science

By Frank Landis, Chair Conservation Committee

This is one of the harder columns to write. No, I haven’t been through a personal tragedy, it’s just that the mess that started January 6th makes it hard to write about local environmental politics. The NGO Global Witness regularly reports on how many environmentalists were assassinated worldwide. In 2019, 212 people lost their lives doing some version of what I do for CNPSSD. I’m glad we live in a country where I can be active in local politics, trying simply to speak for the plants, and not worry about being arrested, assaulted, or disappeared. It’s unsettling to realize that this is more a privilege than a right, that it doesn’t come for free, and that quite a few people in this country want otherwise. Hopefully, when you read this in a few weeks, it will be all over except the trials, and we’ll be trying to work out a new normal where the politicians actually deal with COVID-19 and climate change.

That said, there are a lot of local issues, including one last big development in Escondido that you’ll hear more about as the spring progresses. That development is Harvest Hills, formerly Safari Highlands. Since the Escondido city council is now majority-Republican, we can expect it to come up for a vote (and probably litigation) later this year. It’s yet another leapfrog sprawl that impacts rare plants and animals, puts the people who would live there in heightened wildfire danger, and contributes to climate change. To paraphrase MLK, I have a dream that one day we won’t have to deal with these anymore, because developers will have found something better to do for a living. But that time is not yet.

There are other issues on the horizon. Unfortunately, all of them overshadowed by probable financial shortfalls inflicted by the pandemic. There’s a lot to do, and it’s unclear how it will allget done. When you see the list of things new leaders want done, remember this.

High on that list is the County Climate Action Plan. We can hope this will actually reduce emissions, but getting there will take some hard decisions. The big issue is that the County needs to reduce emissions within its own borders. Generally, that means some combination of getting everyone to drive less (our major emissions category), use less gas to do everything else, build differently, and figure out ways to get carbon out of the air, all inside the county. This last has doomed the last few CAPs, because it was always easier to assume that we could pay someone else to take care of our carbon for us while we went on with business as usual.

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A Salvo of Salvia

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By Teresa Everett, California Native Plant Garden Educator

If you have been on any of our CNPS native garden tours or have hiked through our local hills, mesas, or valleys, you have no doubt seen (and smelled) California’s magnificent blooming sages. If you have visited any nurseries, you have also noticed the wide variety of sages on the display tables—so many, in fact, that it can be overwhelming. How do you choose which sage is best for your garden? The following is a quick primer on the sages of California. California is home to 17 of the world’s 800-plus sage species. Because several of our California species will naturally hybridize, horticulturalists have used this reproductive malleability to create dozens of cultivars and hybrids for garden use. These horticultural varieties range from 7-foot-tall shrubs to ground-hugging forms only a few inches high. The silvers, grays, and greens of their foliage, plus the long-running show of flowers that come in a spectrum from white to pink to mauve to scarlet to purple to indigo to sky blue, make the California sages a must-have in your garden palette.

California sages are lovers of dry areas and thus thrive in low-water landscapes. They are found along our coasts, across our inland valleys, up into the Sierra Nevada foothills, and out into parts of our deserts. Most sages tolerate clay soils very well, the exceptions being the desert species. The vast majority of sages thrive in full sun, but there is a species, the hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea), that will light up the shadiest section of your garden with beautiful hot pink flower spikes. Sages do very wel lin some of a garden’s most difficult areas, such as dry, sunny slopes or rocky, clay soil.

All sage species are in the mint family (Lamiaceae). The scientific name of the sage genus, Salvia, is based on the Latinword meaning “to heal” or “to save.” Sages are treasured by cultures worldwide for their medicinal and culinary uses. The common culinary sage seen in grocery stores is the Mediterranean species, Salvia officinalis, but all of our California sages can be used in cooking as well. Each species has its own flavor profile, with some much stronger than others. Most people like to cook with either black sage (Salvia mellifera) or Cleveland sage (Salvia clevelandii). The mild hummingbird sage adds a delicate sweetness to food or drink recipes. White sage (Salvia apiana) has been quite important in indigenous Californians’ blessing and cleansing ceremonies. California’s native peoples have also made tea from sage leaves to cure illness and have toasted and ground seeds to make gruel. The“rediscovery” of the health benefits of chia (Salvia columbariae) seed has led to a recent resurgence in the popularity of incorporating this seed into a well-balanced diet. Honey harvested from beehives situated near areas covered with white, black, or purple sage is particularly delicate and flavorful.

Sages are also a very important food source for California wildlife. Sages bloom from late winter until late spring and into the summer, depending on the species. The flowers contain high-quality nectar and therefore are absolute magnets for hummingbirds, butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. After the blossoms set seed, they are also a feast for seed-loving birds, such as goldfinches, quail, sparrows, juncos, and towhees. Just remember to not deadhead all of the dried flower stalks so the birds can eat their share of seed! While sages are very attractive to birds and insects, deer and rabbits fortunately find them unappealing; the pungent odor of the leaves, which we and the birds and bees find so inviting, acts as a repellent to mammalian browsers.

In the garden, sages prefer full sun and good drainage, although hummingbird sage prefers partial to full shade. When first establishing your sages, you will need to water them every 7 to 14 days throughout their first year or so, to keep their root ball slightly moist but not wet or soggy. Once they are established (having doubled in size), you will need to ease back their watering to about once a month. If you are growing straight species, use the drier side of these suggestions and give them a break from watering in July, August, and September. The hybrids and cultivars have been developed for more refined garden tastes, and established plants can tolerate a watering every 2 to 4 weeks to keep them looking fresh. Also give the hybrids and cultivars a summer break, with sparser watering in the dormant months. Sages do not appreciate any fertilizers or soil amendments; they like our native soils just the way they are and rely on their relationship with the fungal friends on their roots and in our soils to extract all of the nutrients they require.

When researching varieties to use in your garden, pay close attention to mature size, as you should not prune more than one-third of your plant back at a time. Dead-heading sages after they flower will keep them looking neat but generally does not encourage a re-bloom. They can also be tip-pruned to keep them dense and pruned around the perimeter to limit their spread. Pruning back the plant by one-third in the plant’s quiettime (late summer) before they start pushing new growth in the fall works quite nicely as long as you do not cut into the thicker, woodier stems. Sometimes you can prune back almost 50% of the plant if it has exuberant growth from the previous spring. If you have a many-year-old sage with a nice, established root system, but it looks like it could do with a complete makeover or be replaced with a younger, denser plant, you can try a makeover first by cutting it back to just 6 to 10 inches off the ground and letting it re-sprout. One of my favorite blogs—Weeding Wild Suburbia—has nice articles on pruning young sages and pruning older sages to learn more.

So, now that you’re ready to plant some sage, how do you select which ones to bring home from the nursery? Here is a quick rundown of some favorite sages that you will find in nurseries, along with links to plant descriptions.

But first some quick definitions:

Straight species: those found naturally growing in the wild.

Horticultural selections: naturally occurring variation of individual plants within a species that are brought into cultivation.

Hybrid: a natural or cultivated cross between two or more species.

STRAIGHT SPECIES AND THEIR HORTICULTURAL SELECTIONS

WHITE SAGE

White Sage (Salvia apiana)

  • Beautiful silver-blue foliage, white flowers on tall flower stalks. Local to San Diego County

  •  4′-8′ high, 6′ wide

Compact White Sage (Salvia apiana var. compacta)

  • 3′ high, 3′ wide

  • Smaller, more compact form that fits well into a home garden

BLACK SAGE

Our most common salvia in the coastal sage shrub community. Highly aromatic and shiny dark green leaves and very pale blue flowers.

Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) Local to San Diego County

  • 5′ high, 5′ wide

  • Light blue to white flowers

Terra Seca Black Sage (Salvia mellifera ‘Terra Seca’)

  • 1′ high, 6′ wide

  • White flowers

Jade Carpet Black Sage (Salvia mellifera ‘Jade Carpet’)

  • 1′ high, 5′ wide

  • Lavender flowers

PURPLE SAGE

Fuzzy gray-green leaves with light purple to lavender flowers. All are excellent on slopes.

Purple Sage (Salvia leucophylla) - Local to San Diego County.

  • 5′ high, 7′ wide

  • Light pink to lavender flowers

Amethyst Bluff Purple Sage (Salvia leucophylla ‘Amethyst Bluff’)

•    10′ high, 15′ wide

•    Lavender flowers

Figueroa Purple Sage (Salvia leucophylla ‘Figueroa’’)

•    4′ high, 6′ wide

•    Lavender to pink flowers

Point Sal Purple Sage (Salvia leucophylla ‘Point Sal’)

•    2′ tall, 8′ wide

•     Pinkish purple flowers

CLEVELAND SAGE

Most aromatic of all the sages. Gray-green leaves with newer growth having reddish stems. Lilac-blue to blue-violet flowers.

Cleveland Sage (Salvia clevelandii) - local to San Diego County

•    4′-5′ high, 5′-6′ wide

•    Light purple to lavender flowers

Aromas Sage (Salvia clevelandii ‘Aromas’)

•    4′ high, 4′ wide

•    Lavender flowers

•    Highly aromatic

Winnifred Gilman Cleveland Sage (Salvia clevelandii ‘Winnifred Gilman’)

•    3′ high, 3′ wide

•    Electric bluish-purple flowers

Alpine Cleveland Sage (Salvia clevelandii ‘Alpine’)

•    3′ high, 5′ wide

•    Blue flowers

SAN MIGUEL MOUNTAIN OR MUNZ’S SAGE

Small, rare sage found only in south San Diego County. Petite dark green leaves and pretty blue flowers. Looks dainty but is as tough as nails. Good on slopes.

San Miguel Mountain Sage (Salvia munzii) - local to San Diego County

•    3′ high, 3′ wide

•    Crystal blue flowers

Emerald Cascade Munz’s Sage (Salvia munzii ‘Emerald Cascade’)

•    1′-2′ high, 2′-3′ wide

•    Blue flowers

CREEPING SAGE

Flat, spreading sage found on dry slopes in the understory of larger chaparral shrubs, oaks, pines, or other trees. Does best with some light shade. Gray-green foliage. 

Creeping Sage (Salvia sonomensis) - local to San Diego County

•    1′ high, 5′ wide

•    Periwinkle blue to almost white flowers

HUMMINGBIRD SAGE

Shade lover that will slowly spread to form a colony.Large arrow-shaped leaves are fuzzy and have a wonderful fruity smell. Flowers appear on stalks that rise up well beyond the foliage. A perfect plant for the dry shade conditions under oaks.

Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spathacea) - local to northern coastal San Diego County

•    1′ high, 3′ wide

•    Magenta flowers

Powerline Pink or Giant Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spathacea ‘Powerline Pink’)

•    3′ high, 6′ wide

•    Dark pink flowers

THE DESERT SAGES

The desert sages of California are very tough and can take extreme drought, heat, and freezing temperatures. Their feet, however, cannot handle anything but well-drained soils.

Desert Purple Sage (Salvia dorrii)

•    3′ high, 3′ wide

•    Deep blue flowers

Mojave Sage (Salvia mohavensis)

•    2′-3′ high, 2′-3′ wide

•    Sky blue flowers

Mountain Desert Sage (Salvia pachyphylla) - local to San Diego County

•    2′ high, 3′ wide

•    Two-toned deep rose and blue flowers

HYBRIDS

GROUNDCOVERS

Bee’s Bliss Sage (Salvia ‘Bee’s Bliss’)

•    1′-2′ high, 6′ wide

•    Lavender-pink flowers

•    Cross of Cleveland Sage and Purple Sage (S. clevelandiix S.leucophylla)

Dara’s Choice Sage (Salvia ‘Dara’s Choice’)

•    1′-2′ high, 4′ wide

•    Lavender flowers

•    Cross of Black Sage and Creeping Sage (S. melliferax S.sonomensis)

Rubin’s Baby Sage (Salvia ‘Rubin’s Baby’)

•    1′high, 3′ wide

•    Lavender flowers

•    More compact than Dara’s Choice

•    Cross of Black Sage and Creeping Sage (S. melliferax S. sonomensis)

Gracias Sage (Salvia ‘Gracias’)

•    1′ high, 6′ wide

•    Lavender flowers

•    Cross of Cleveland Sage and Creeping Sage (S. clevelandiix S. sonomensis)

SUB-SHRUBS

Allen Chickering Sage (Salvia ‘Allen Chickering’)

•    5′-6′ high, 5′-6′ wide

•    Lavender flowers, gray-green foliage

•    Prolific bloomer

•    Cross of Cleveland Sage and Purple Sage (S. clevelandiix S. leucophylla)

Whirly Blue Sage (Salvia ‘Whirly Blue’)

•    5′ high, 5′ wide

•    Large, deep violet flowers

•    Flowers are larger and a deeper shade of purple than Aromas and Allen Chickering

•    Cross of Cleveland Sage and Purple Sage (S. clevelandiix S. leucophylla)

Pozo Blue Sage (Salvia ‘Pozo Blue’)

•    4′ high, 4′ wide

•    Violet-blue flowers

•    One of the most adaptable of sages

•    Cross of Cleveland Sage and Purple Sage (S. clevelandiix S. leucophylla)

Celestial Blue Sage (Salvia ‘Celestial Blue’)

•    4′-5′ high, 4′-5′ wide

•    Two-toned intense blue and pink flowers

•    Cross of Cleveland Sage and Mountain Desert Sage (S. clevelandiix S. pachyphylla)

Calamity Jane Mounding Sage (Salvia ‘Calamity Jane’)

•    3′ high, 4′ wide

•    Light blue flowers

•    Cross of Black Sage and Purple Sage (S. melliferax S. leucophylla)

Hybrid Desert Sage (Salvia mohavensis hybrid)

•    3′ high, 3′ wide

•    Cobalt blue flowers

•     Cross of Desert Purple Sage, Mojave Sage, and Cleveland Sage (S. dorriix S. mohavensisx S. clevelandii)

Vicki Romo Sage (Salvia ‘Vicki Romo’)

•    3′ high, 3′ wide

•    Light lavender flowers

•    Cross of White Sage and Cleveland Sage (S. apianax S. clevelandii)

As you can see, there is a salvia for every gardener’s taste and every garden condition in a water-wise landscape. Take this list along with you when you next visit a nursery or CNPS plant sale to select the right sage for your garden. Then plant, water, and wait for the birds and pollinators to arrive!

Teresa Everett is a native garden educator and native plant enthusiast. She has been a CNPS member since 2012, a member of the Gardening Committee and her home was on the CNPS-SD 2018 Garden Tour. Teresa has worked for Moosa Creek as a retail sales and gardening specialist and wrote for their blog “Creekside Chat” until 2018. She has also given many presentations on native gardening at nurseries, gardening clubs and conservation organizations.

Trusts

By Frank Landis, Conservation Committee Chair

Happy (?) New Year. I’m writing this on December 14, so there’s a lot I don’t know about, like the dinosaurs returning to forage on the beaches over Christmas, or whatever-it-was that just happened. That attitude is 2020 in a nutshell, and hopefully pandemic humor will soon become as passé as my normal sense of humor. Joking aside, I don’t expect the pandemic restrictions to ease up as rapidly as any of us might hope. Pessimistic, yes, but there’s going to be a frustrating in-between time when we can super-spread a lot of misery if we try to renormalize too fast. Please stay safe and be careful, so that later on you’ll bearound to tell stories about what you went through.

News and the lack thereof: As I write this, the due date for filing litigation on Otay Ranch Village 13 is Friday. So, there’s notmuch I can say on that topic.

As for Otay Ranch Village 14, there’s a lot I could say, and rather more I can’t. The important bits are Thank You! And It’s Not Over.

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California Natives for Flower Bouquets by Season

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By Christine Hoey, Garden Committee Co-Chair

TO READ HOW TO CREATE FLORAL BOUQUETS, VISIT THIS COMPANION ARTICLE: “Cut & Go” Floral and Plant Arrangements Using San Diego Native Vegetation by Caroline Harrod

Plant now for next year’s bouquets! Below are a few California native plant/tree favorites for creating unique flower bouquets by season. “Foundation” natives can be used year-round and will provide structure as well as color and texture to your arrangements. 

Lemonade Berry (Rhus integrifolia)

Winter: Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), Lemonade Berry (Rhus integrifolia), Ceanothus, Manzanita (Arctostaphylos), Snowberry (Symphoricarpos), Golden Currant (Ribes aureum), Elderberry (Sambucus), Gooseberry (Ribes), Baja Fairy Duster (Calliandra californica), Blue Field Gilla, (Gilia capitata), Bush Sunflower (Encelia californica)

Showy Penstemon (Penstemon spectabilis)

Summer: Buckwheats (Eriogonum spp.), Island Snapdragon (Gambelia speciosa), Coyote Mint (Monardella villosa), Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri), summer-blooming sages (Salvia spp.), Golden Yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum), Beach Aster (Erigeron glaucus), Chuparosa (Justicia californica), Wood Fern (Dryopteris arguta), Red Monardella (Monardella macrantha), and Monkeyflower (Diplacus/Mimulus spp.)



St. Catherine's Lace (Eriogonum giganteum)

“Foundation” Natives: Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), Wood Fern (Dryopteris arguta), Torrey Pine (Pinus torreyana), Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), Lemonade Berry (Rhus integrifolia), Big Basin Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), ‘Canyon Prince’ Wild Rye (Elymus condensatus ‘Canyon Prince’)

Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) & Bush Sunflower (Encelia californica)

Spring: Spring-blooming sages (Salvia spp.), Penstemon, San Diego Sunflower (Bahiopsis laciniata), Bush Sunflower (Encelia californica), lupine species (Lupinus), iris species, Clarkia species, Phacelia species, Bush Mallow (Malacothamnus), Sugar Bush (Rhus ovata), Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla), Golden Yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum), California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri) & California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

Fall: Fuchsia (Epilobium spp.), California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum; dried rust-colored flower heads), Single-leaved Skunkbrush (Rhus trilobata, now Rhus aromatica var. simplicifolia), Roger’s Red Grape (Vitis ‘Roger’s Red’), Coyote Bush (Baccharis), Coast Goldenbush (Isocoma menziesii), and Monkeyflower (Diplacus/Mimulus spp.)


Invite nature inside and happy flower arranging!

Photos, flower bouquets and artwork by Caroline Harrod