October 2024 Plant Availability | |
|
In case you missed it, we became an employee-owned cooperative last month! This month we wanted to take the opportunity to acquaint you all with our small but mighty team by sharing some of our favorite plants and what we like about them 🙂
We hope you get some inspiration as we gear up for planting season, and enjoy getting to learn more about each of the folks that contribute to growing our amazing plants!
| |
|
Name:
Aaron
Role:
Retail Sales Associate
Plant pick of the month: Cercis occidentalis
They love it’s flowers and four season appeal!
They particularly like that it fixes nitrogen in the soil and can be grown fairly close to structures, providing cover from the sun in the heat of summer and allowing more light through windows in the winter as it drops its leaves.
| |
|
Western Redbud
Cercis occidentalis
Available in D-16 for $8.50, D-40 for $10.90, TB4 for $15.70, and 2-Gal for $30.25 each!
This deciduous shrub to small tree grows to 14 ft. tall. In the garden, this multi-trunked tree is a great choice for a perennial border or woodland garden. The large, rounded leaves have broad heart-shaped bases. New growth can be coppery red.
The attractive magenta flowers appear in late summer to fall when the foliage turns light yellow to red. The reddish-purple seed pods hang on the tree in winter.
Western redbud is native to dry slopes, usually next to a spring or seasonal creek, but in the garden, don’t overwater. Combines well when paired with ceanothus, Douglas iris, and coral bells.
| | |
|
Name:
Diana
Role:
Co-founder, Project Supervisor, & Board Member
Plant pick of the month:
Anemopsis californica
She chose this species because it’s a beautiful medicinal plant that reminds her of Laura, wetlands, and golden eagles <3
| |
|
Yerba Mansa
Anemopsis californica
Available in 4″ pots (25% off) for $5.93 each!
This deciduous perennial grows to a height of about 1 ft. and has beautiful white compound flowers in spring and early summer.
Being a marsh plant, it requires a warm position with shallow water or a wet muddy humus-rich soil. It also performs best when allowed to experience seasonal dryness. Will spread by red runners.
As a medicinal herb, the spinach-like leaves may be made into a poultice to reduce swelling.
| | |
|
Name:
Jesse
Role:
Propagation Manager & Board Member
Plant pick of the month:
Urtica dioica
It’s her all time favorite vegetable! It makes the best silky soup texture without needing cream, is great as a topping on pizza (her kid loves it too!) and she is always happy in the springtime during the nettle harvest season 🙂
| |
|
Stinging Nettle
Urtica dioica
Available in D-40 pots (75% off) for $2.42 each!
Stinging nettle is an herbaceous flowering perennial that thrives in full sun conditions, but may tolerate shade. If not in a moist area, it may need supplemental water through its first summer of establishment.
Stinging Nettle gets its name from the stinging sensation caused by the release of histamine & other chemicals via the hollow stinging hairs found on its leaves and stems. This plant has a long history of use as a source of medicine, food, and fiber.
A wonderful addition to CA native butterfly gardens as it supports the Red Admiral, West Coast Lady, and Milbert’s Tortoiseshell
| | |
|
Name:
Matt
Role:
Project Manager
Plant pick of the month: Erigeron glaucus
Matt likes seaside daisies because they have a nice view of the ocean 😉
| |
|
Seaside Daisy
Erigeron glaucus
Available in D-16 pots for $7.30 each!
This low-growing perennial (1ft. high x 2 ft. wide) loves coastal environments and has purple daisy-like flowers and attractive soft-green foliage. Good for a sunny perennial garden in areas with summer fog.
A great butterfly plant and provides a cool blue spot of color in a coastal garden. Mix with monkey flowers, Salvias, and Douglas Iris.
Seaside daisies have a long blooming period with flowers putting on a show from early spring through late summer. Dead-head finished flowers to encourage fresh new blooms.
| | |
|
Name:
Stephanie
Role:
Inventory Manager & Board Member
Plant pick of the month:
Artemisia douglasiana
Stephanie likes this one because it smells great, is easy to grow– she threw some in her yard a few years back and hasn’t touched them since…and they are thriving! She also likes the striking contrast in color between the upper and underside of the leaves, and she has fond memories of seeing it while backpacking as an outdoor educator.
| |
|
Mugwort
Artemisia douglasiana
Available in D-16 for $7.30 and D-40 pots for $9.70 each!
This herbaceous perennial grows 1-3 ft tall, and is a choice foliage plant. Its aromatic leaves are dark green on top and silvery beneath, which provides nice contrast. In the garden, use Mugwort in a lush, riparian setting.
This plant tolerates more shade and heavier soils than other Artemisia species.
Ethnobotanical uses include its use as a tea to soothe poison oak rashes. Though we haven’t tried this yet, this plant is also reported to produce lucid dreams when placed under your pillow or smoked.
Blooming period: June to October
| | |
|
Name:
Edwin
Role:
Potting Crew & Board Member
Plant pick of the month:
Heuchera sp.
Edwin likes the Heucheras because their leaf shapes remind him of prehistoric times 🙂
| |
|
Island Alum Root
Heuchera maxima
Available in 4” pots for $7.90 each!
Island Alum Root is a 2 ft. tall rhizomatous perennial with 3 ft. tall spikes of small pinkish flowers that hang from the ends of their delicate stalks in February – April.
This plant makes a great choice for edges in a shady border with its gorgeous broad leaves. It looks especially great mixed with yarrow and poppies! Also, this is an acceptable groundcover under evergreen oaks in California (just don’t water in the summer!).
This plant is drought tolerant.
| | |
|
Name:
Argelio
Role:
Potting Crew
Plant pick of the month:
Alnus rhombifolia
He really likes the leaf shape and overall form that this tree takes!
| |
|
White Alder
Alnus rhombifolia
Available in D-16 for $8.50, D-40 (75% off) for $2.73, D-40 for $10.90, and 5-Gal pots for $42.40 each!
This fast growing deciduous tree grows to 50 ft. tall and its crown reaches up to 30 ft. wide. Space > 40 ft. apart.
Excellent choice for a quick growing shade tree that is heat tolerant. Great for bird and butterfly gardens or creek-side erosion control, where the tree can be planted right next to the water.
Roots have nitrogen fixing bacteria. Indigenous uses of this plant include making arrows from the shoots and baskets from the roots.
| | |
|
Name:
Isabel
Role:
Potting Crew
Plant pick of the month:
Malva assurgentiflora
Isa likes the Island Mallow because it’s so pretty with it’s pink flowers!
| |  |
|
Name:
Susan
Role:
Retail Waterer
Plant pick of the month:
Malva assurgentiflora
Susan also picked the Island Mallow because “it grows fast and you get pink, pink, pink!”
| | |
|
Island Mallow
Malva assurgentiflora
Available in TB4 for $15.70 and 2-Gal pots for $30.25 each!
Island Mallow is a fast growing evergreen shrub that grows about 10 ft. tall and wide.
This plant produces hot pink, tropical looking flowers. It is an extremely fast grower and great for an informal hedge or specimen. It can also be trained as a small tree.
The long blooming season spans from spring until summer. Adapts to many soil types, but prefers good drainage. Unfortunately, gophers like this one as much as we do, so probably best to avoid if you have gophers nearby!
Previously named Lavatera assurgentiflora.
| |
|
Name:
Maggie
Role:
Employee Care Facilitator
Plant pick of the month:
Eschscholzia californica
Maggie chose poppies because the bees in her garden love them and their bright orange color makes her feel happy 🙂
| |
|
California Poppy
Eschscholzia californica
We’re out of stock of potted poppy plants, but we have the Mission Bells Poppy seed mix available in 2 gm seed packets for $5 each!
The mission bells poppy seed mix includes a range of colors such as red, pink, orange, and white.
California poppies are herbaceous perennial wildflowers and are our beloved California state flower. Blooms close at night and during cloudy weather to protect their delicate petals.
In the landscape, use in borders, bulb cover, in containers, massing/bedding, and in rock gardens.
Plants will re-seed – to avoid this simply remove the old flowers.
Blooms March to October.
| | |
|
Name:
Kai
Role:
Site Manager
Plant pick of the month:
Clematis ligusticifolia
He likes the flowers and especially likes how it looks as it emerges from dormancy at the nursery, climbing over the other plants like a blanket. “Vines for the win!”
| |
|
Virgin’s Bower
Clematis ligusticifolia
Available in TB2 pots for $7.30 each!
Virgin’s bower is an undemanding deciduous vine that can readily cover a dark fence or wall, or just trail through the nearby shrubs and trees in the garden.
This plant occurs naturally along streams, so plant in a wet place or irrigate in the garden. The flowers are white to off-white and are borne in large clusters.
| | |
|
Name:
Catherine
Role:
Assistant Retail Manager
Plant pick of the month:
Lupinus albifrons
Catherine is a fan of its soft silver foliage and delightful smelling flowers, plus she likes that it is so easy to care for (if you have sun and good drainage) and is structurally beautiful as a statement piece in sunny gardens!
| |
|
Silver Bush Lupine
Lupinus albifrons
Available in D-40 for $9.90 and TB4 pots for $15.70 each!
This easy to grow perennial shrub grows 3-5 ft. tall, is very drought tolerant, and has outstanding shimmering silvery foliage that forms an attractive, dense, compact mound. Plant in full sun with well-drained soil.
Terrific choice for a dry border or planting in a large container. Excellent for a low maintenance rock garden or parking strip.
Attracts bees, butterflies, birds, and is a larval host plant of the endangered Mission Blue Butterfly.
Long Bloom period (Spring to Summer) with large rich purple flowers. Fragrant and showy!
| | |
|
Name:
Valentin aka Don Vale
Role:
Potting Crew
Plant pick of the month: Quercus sp.
Don Vale is a fan of oaks because they are grand! They are so large he can see them across the hills each day, and he likes that they use very little water.
| |
|
Coast Live Oak
Quercus agrifolia
Available in D-40 for $10.90, TB4 for $15.70, and TP4 pots for $15.70 each!
This stately drought resistant evergreen tree grows 40 to 100 feet tall and has more wildlife associated with it that any other tree in California! Space > 35 ft. apart.
Several deep main roots tap groundwater if present to a depth of 36 feet and develop extensive horizontal root branches and a surface-feeding root system. Great for stabilizing a slope.
This tree has beautiful gray, fissured bark, and is a good choice for a shade tree.
Remember, it is important not to water oaks in the summer once established!
| | |
|
Name:
Teresa
Role:
Potting Crew
Plant pick of the month:
Grindelia sp.
She likes that they are strong, use only a little water, and attract hummingbirds!
| |
|
Hairy Gumplant
Grindelia hirsutula
Available in D40-o for $9.70 each!
This herbaceous perennial grows to 2 ft. tall.
It is not only beautiful with it’s late summer color, but it is also tough – a great plant for the drought tolerant garden.
Blooms profusely with large, golden yellow flowers in the late summer and attract nectar seeking butterflies, at a time when many other flowers have gone to fruit or sees.
| | |
|
Name:
Andrew
Role:
Retail Sales Associate & Admin
Plant pick of the month:
Eriogonum sp.
Andrew is a fan of buckwheats because he appreciates the geometric angles of their flowering stems and their use of very little water.
He most loves watching the bees, hover flies, butterflies, and sphex wasps create clouds of static-y movement around them. He feels like he’s giving the best banquet ever for our insect friends 🙂 “If you build it, they will come…”
| |
|
Naked Buckwheat
Eriogonum nudum
Available in D-16 for $7.30 and 1-Gal pots for $14.50 each!
This small, flowering, perennial shrub grows a basal rosette 0.5-1ft. high and tall (~3 ft. around here) leafless stems topped with rounded clusters of white or pale pink or yellow flowers in late spring/early summer.
An excellent choice for rock gardens!
This plant needs good drainage, but is otherwise very easy to care for as it is drought and heat tolerant, and likes full or nearly full sun (even tolerates summer afternoon sun).
Host plant for the Metalmark butterfly.
| | |
|
Name:
Kimmy
Role:
Retail Sales Manager
Plant pick of the month:
Artemisia californica
Sagebrush is one of her all time favorite scents! Most plants with silvery green foliage appeal to her, but she particularly loves the feeling of sagebrush’s soft wispy foliage, which she can’t help but to caress when she walks by it here at the nursery or out on hikes.
| |
|
California Sagebrush
Artemisia californica
Available in D-16 pots for $8.50 each!
This perennial shrub grows 3 to 4 feet tall and wide. Botanically, it is not a true sage, but its silvery foliage has a pleasing, sage-like fragrance.
California sagebrush looks great growing with sticky monkey flower in the garden. The plant can be cut back periodically to keep it more compact.
California sagebrush is the preferred nesting site of the federally threatened California gnat catcher, and quail love it.
| | |
|
‘Bee’ Well and happy planting from all of us at
The Watershed Nursery Cooperative!
| |
-
Sign up to receive announcements of our Plant Sales and Events
-
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook, where we highlight our plants with photos, fun facts, and gardening information!
- Call, email, or visit us for all of your California native plant needs 🙂
| |
(510) 234-2222 | sales@thewatershednursery.com
Open Tuesday – Sunday 10am – 4pm
Closed Mondays & holidays
| | | | |
