Note:  This is the third in a three-part series on native plants that have proven successful on the author's property along the Lindo Channel in Chico.  The previous articles discussed large trees, small trees and large shrubs. 

California Wild Rose, Silver Lupine, and California Fuchsia are all smaller shrubs that provide flower color and foliage interest while also offering food and habitat for wildlife in our area.

California Wild Rose (Rosa californica) is native throughout California, except for the high Cascade Range and the high Sierra Nevada. It is a deciduous, thicket-forming shrub growing four to eight feet in height, with prickly, arching stems. One to two-inch fragrant pink flowers appear from mid-spring through summer.

If planted in dry light shade, California Wild Rose needs no supplemental irrigation, but if planted in full sun, extra water will be necessary. It is adaptable to many soil types, and is useful as a barrier plant and soil stabilizer. Any all-purpose plant food will keep it healthy, flowering, and attractive all year.  It is immune to mildew and rust.

California Wild Rose provides excellent nesting and shelter habitat for songbirds and attracts butterflies. The flowers support many pollinator species; after bloom, wild rose hips persist on the plant and are an important food source for birds and mammals.

Silver Lupine(Lupinus albifrons) is a perennial which quickly grows to three feet, then slowly reaches up to five feet. Flowers are very showy and fragrant, appearing in blue spikes on a white-silver bush and blooming from spring into summer.

Plant Silver Lupine in full sun with good drainage and some water (performs best on the dry side).  This plant prefers well-drained soils with a pH of 6 to 8. The life span of Silver Lupine is about six years; plants fix nitrogen and will often reseed, forming small colonies. This makes it a good choice for erosion control or planting on a rocky slope.

Silver Lupine is a specific host to the Mission Blue Butterfly.  It also attracts other butterflies, bees, and birds (including quail).  It is deer resistant; but it is important to note that Silver Lupine is toxic to livestock.

California Fuchsia (Zauschneria californicum or Epilobium canum)is a low-growing shrub with bright orange to red flowers and gray or green leaves. This plant grows where there is extra moisture in the winter and spring, with the soil gradually drying through fall. California Fuchsias prefer a cool but sunny location, but will tolerate part shade or hot sun with moisture. Summer watering is necessary the first year. By pruning or mowing established plants in winter, the shorter varieties will stay very low at three to six inches high, otherwise growing to two feet.  Plants will spread three to six feet across and boast hundreds of bright red one- to two-inch flowers from late summer to fall.         

California Fuchsia tolerates many soils (pH 6 to 8), likes good drainage, and tolerates seasonal flooding and high foot traffic. Good rock garden selections are ‘Select Mattole' (silver), ‘Brilliant Smith' (bright green), and ‘Everett's Choice' (gray). ‘Catalina', ‘Route 66', and Z. arizonica, can be used as seasonal hedges. ‘Hurricane Point', ‘El Tigre', and ‘Kristin Jacob' can be used as short all-season hedges—lightly prune these varieties, but do not mow them.  Fertilize hard-pruned plants after growth resumes in spring.

California Fuchsia can seed abundantly and be used to stabilize banks; it can sometimes become invasive.

This plant is a magnet for hummingbirds and also attracts bees.  It will tolerate deer damage, and is bothered by very few pests unless grown in large numbers.

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at (530) 538-7201. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us Hotline webpage.

Note:  This is the second in a three-part series on native plants that have proven successful on the author's property along the Lindo Channel in Chico.  The previous article discussed large trees; the final article in the series will cover smaller shrubs. 

Western redbud, California buckeye, Toyon, and California flannelbush are all plants in this category that attract pollinators, provide interest over several seasons of the year, and can be grown in a number of different gardening environments. They are especially effective planted in groups for repetition of form, and can create informal hedges or provide a backdrop for smaller plants.

Western redbud (Cercis occidentalis) is native on dry slopes of the coast ranges and Sierra Nevada foothills to 4500 feet and eastward to Utah (usually situated next to a spring or seasonal creek). It is a deciduous, multi-trunked shrub or small tree with a long life span, growing two to three feet per year and reaching six to twenty feet over time. Magenta flowers appear in February to April before the leaves, and last for two to three weeks. The leaves are kidney-shaped and bluish-green; they can provide a lovely garden backdrop for summer-blooming plants, and turn yellow in fall. Reddish-purple seed pods hang from the branches in winter. The bushes are impressive in groups.

Western redbud likes full sun, and will grow faster if given some summer water. It will tolerate clay soils and soils with lime or acid (pH levels 5.5 to 8). It can provide good stabilization along a ridge or bank.  The roots perform the useful role of fixing nitrogen. A good winter chill is necessary for good flower set. The flowers and young pods are edible; the plants will self-seed.     

Western redbud attracts hummingbirds, goldfinches, butterflies, and bees (including leaf-cutter bees) to its flowers. It is deer resistant, and resistant to oak root fungus. While generally pest-free, Western redbud is susceptible to caterpillars and scales, and to crown and root rot.

California buckeye (Aesculus californica) is found in a variety of environments, including coastal sage scrub, mixed-evergreen forest, riparian (alongside rivers & creeks) and central oak woodland communities. It is a long-lived deciduous small tree, normally growing to 15 feet (occasionally up to 39 feet), with multiple trunks. Showy white six-inch scented flower spikes appear in April to May, after leafing.

California buckeye will grow in conditions ranging from partial shade to full sun, and it is drought tolerant but needs regular water during the first few years. It will tolerate clay and serpentine soils (pH 4 to 8) and seasonal flooding, and is useful as a slope stabilizer. In the garden it will drop leaves early (going summer dormant) if it gets dry; otherwise leaves will drop in the fall.  

The nectar of the California buckeye attracts hummingbirds, native bees and butterflies.

California buckeye is poisonous to livestock, Asian honeybees, and fish. Its seeds are toxic unless processed.  It is deer resistant.

Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia).  Also known as Christmas berry, Toyon is native to much of California. It is a multi-stemmed evergreen shrub to small tree with white flowers in summer and red berries in winter. Toyon can grow quickly to six to eight feet high (sometimes reaching as high as 20 feet) and four to five feet wide. Toyon makes a good screen or specimen plant.

While Toyon likes full sun, it can tolerate full shade, and will grow in a variety of soils (pH 5 to 8), and can help stabilize a ridge or bank. It is drought tolerant after a few years, but will tolerate some water if drainage is good. 

Toyon attracts a wide range of pollinator insects including native bees, pollinator flies, and butterflies. Winter fruit attracts cedar waxwings, towhees, finches, flickers, grosbeaks, bluebirds, robins, thrushes, mockingbirds, quail, tanagers, warblers and sparrows. Often the ripe berries ferment before they are eaten, so birds may get a little tipsy. Mammals, including coyotes and bears, also eat and disperse the berries.

Toyon is susceptible to fire blight and root rot if over-watered.  Over time, it will become deer resistant.

California flannelbush (Fremontodendron californicum) is native to a number of California plant communities. This evergreen shrub grows quickly to five feet (and can eventually reach up to 20 feet). Showy yellow flowers, three inches across, appear in spring.

California flannelbush likes sun to part shade. It is drought tolerant and needs no summer water but must have good drainage, preferring well-drained (sandy) soils (pH 6 to 8) near natural drainage channels (placement along the top of a riverbank is ideal.

California flannelbush attracts bees and butterflies, has few pest problems, and is deer resistant.

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at (530) 538-7201. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us Hotline webpage.

 

 

Fall is an excellent time to plant trees and shrubs.  The soil is still warm, so roots will have time to establish themselves long before the punishing heat of next summer arrives.  If you are thinking of planting a large tree, here are several to consider.  They all flourish on land next to Chico's Lindo Channel.

Also known as Sandy Gulch, the Lindo Channel is a seasonal waterway that serves as a flood control channel.  The soil has significant percentages of sand and cobble, further enhancing summer dryness.  Since moving beside the Channel in 1991, I have established a drip irrigation system to help establish native plants on the bank.

Large trees are highly effective features in a landscape, but are also useful in creating a high canopy so that a variety of plants (including shade plants) can grow underneath, and in providing substantial habitat for wildlife.  Western Sycamore, Oregon Ash, Big Leaf Maple, and Valley Oak do well in the Lindo Channel environment.

Western Sycamore

Western Sycamore (Platanus racemosa)also commonly known as California sycamore, California plane, and Aliso, is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in canyons, floodplains, and along streams. They are also often found next to drier habitats such as chaparral, valley grassland, mixed woodlands or evergreen forests.

Because their roots go down, not out, if given enough water, they are good trees near patios or in urban environments. They grow quickly (up to 30 feet in five years). Eventual height can reach 115 feet, but more commonly 65-85 feet, with a trunk diameter up to three feet. The trunk generally divides into two or more large trunks, each splitting into many branches. The bark is multi-colored, with splashes of white, pinkish gray and pale tan. The older bark becomes darker and peels away. Leaves are up to 10 inches wide. After a good rain, the leaves produce a fresh, earthy scent.

Western Sycamore trees are deciduous, with leaves turning yellow and orange-brown in the fall. Flowers are one-inch spheres that become seed balls. Western Sycamores are tough and easy to grow: they will tolerate a wide variety of soils and pH levels and prefer full sun, but they do need a lot of water.

They are important hosts for Western Tiger Swallowtail and other butterflies, hummingbirds, finches, waxwings, and pine siskins. Hummingbirds use the down from stems and leaves to line their nests. They are deer resistant trees, but are susceptible to anthracnose fungus (leaf blight) if it rains when leaves are expanding. The disease causes disfiguration of the leaves in mild cases and leaf loss in severe cases.

For more information on Western Sycamore, see Calscape-Western Sycamore.  

Oregon Ash

Oregon Ash (Fraxinus latifolia)is found from the southern coast of British Columbia, west of the Cascades in Washington and Oregon, to the coast ranges and Sierra Nevada of California.

It grows quickly to 75 feet in height and 16 to 30 feet in diameter. Long-lived and easy to care for, this tree likes moist to wet soils, including heavy soils near streams, lakes and in flood plains, in sun to partial shade. It also grows on sandy, rocky, and gravelly soils in riparian areas (near river banks) or areas with seasonal flooding. Foliage turns bright yellow in fall.

Seeds are single samaras (fibrous wings of papery tissue), with long wings (up to two inches) borne in large, drooping clusters on female trees. These are eaten by birds and small mammals, while the foliage provides sustenance for the larvae of pale swallowtail, two-tailed swallowtail, and western tiger swallowtail butterflies.

Oregon Ash trees are susceptible to caterpillars and scales, anthracnose, root rot, rust, sooty mold and verticillium wilt.

For more information on Oregon Ash, see Calscape-Oregon Ash.

Big Leaf Maple

Big Leaf Maples (Acer macrophyllum)are native to western North America, mostly near the Pacific coast, from southernmost Alaska to southern California, and also thrive inland in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. They are found in riparian areas in hardwood forests and dispersed through relatively open canopies of conifers, mixed evergreens, or oaks.

Growth is very fast at first, to 50 to 65 feet, eventually reaching up to 160 feet with a trunk diameter of 12 to 36 inches. The 4-to-6-inch clusters of greenish-yellow flowers appear with leaves in the spring. Leaves are 6 to 12 inches across. In fall, they turn gold to orange-yellow.

Big Leaf Maple trees are long-lived. These are good native trees near lawns; they need lots of water for the first year or so. They are not as tolerant of wet soils as ash trees and can be drought tolerant in their native range. Tolerant of soils with serpentine and clay; will survive (though not at best) in sandy soil.

The seeds, buds and flowers of Big Leaf Maple are a favorite food of many small mammals and birds. Speciesassociated with Big Leaf Maple are evening and blackheaded grosbeaks, goldfinches, pine siskins, warblers, vireos, bushtits and kinglets.

For more information on Big Leaf Maple, see Calscape-Big Leaf Maple.

Valley Oak

The Valley Oak (Quercus lobata)is native to riparian areas of the Central Valley, the valleys of the Sierra foothills, and the coast ranges of California. The fastest growing (3 to 4 feet per year) of California oaks, it is deciduous and can grow to 70 feet. With age, the branches are irregular and spreading. Leaves are deeply lobed.

Valley oaks like sun and moderate water with a water table above 70 feet. Do not water established oaks. They are long-lived and tolerant of seasonal flooding and a variety of soils (though they prefer deep soils with pH of 6 to 8).  These trees are deer resistant.

Valley Oaks provide nesting sites for birds, and are popular with insects year-round and with the birds that eat them (including bluebirds, warblers, phoebes, flycatchers, vireos, swallows, and titmice). This tree hosts numerous species of butterfly, including California sister, propertius duskywing, mournful duskywing, golden hairstreak, and gold Hunter's hairstreak. 

The acorns of the Valley Oak are a staple food of the acorn woodpecker, but a variety of mammals and birds also eat them, including scrub jays, yellow-billed magpie, deer, bears, and squirrels.

For more information on Valley Oak, see Calscape-Valley Oak.

Next week, this column will focus on large native shrubs and small trees that thrive beside the Lindo Channel.

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at (530) 538-7201. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us Hotline webpage.

The arrival of fall brings shorter days, cooler nights and a gradual winding down of garden activity. Flowers start to fade, while leaves turn glorious colors and begin to fall from the trees. For many gardeners, though, fall isn't a time to relax and put their feet up. That's because common garden advice tells us to rake up all those leaves, remove every dried stalk and maybe even begin a burn pile for branches and twigs pruned at this time of year. 

But a different and more laissez-faire approach to fall gardening is on the rise: one may view these seasonal changes as opportunities to build healthier soils and create nesting sites for garden wildlife, particularly native bees. In other words, there's an excellent excuse for “leaving the leaves” and letting dried stems and stalks and dead wood stay put.  Of course, one must be sure to keep piles and all dry combustible leaves and woody materials away from structures in order to be fire safe!

Allowing the leaves to break down over the fall and winter months is a form of natural composting that adds back nutrients, increases soil tilth and feeds organisms necessary for healthy plants. In the prolonged drought we are experiencing, a layer of leaves helps to retain moisture. And invertebrates that help control garden pests depend on leafy ground for shelter and survival over the winter.

One way to gradually allow more leaves to do this useful work is to remove them from lawns or walkways and pile them beneath the canopy of ornamental trees, shrubs and perennials (but away from trunks and stems) or on top of vegetable beds, using them as you would any layer of compost (larger leaves may need to be crunched down or shredded to stay in place).

In addition to letting leaves compost naturally, there is another reason to do less clean up in our fall gardens. A very important group of invertebrates that benefit from and depend upon these garden “leftovers” are our native bees. Most people think immediately of bumblebees and honeybees when the subject of bees comes up. But in fact California is home to 1600 species of native bees of various sizes, shapes, and colors, and all of them are important pollinators of flowering plants, shrubs and trees. Some are even considered essential crop pollinators for orchards and commercially-grown produce like tomatoes.

We are able to benefit in myriad ways from the huge diversity and beauty of flowering plants and the bounty of vegetables because of pollinators, especially bees. Bees and flowers evolved together, with flowers producing pollen and nectar needed for food at various life stages by all bees (they are vegetarians, whereas their wasp cousins are carnivorous). Bees help move pollen from one flowering plant to another, thus ensuring the plants' successful reproduction.

When we allow some leaves to break down naturally in our fall gardens, we are helping to provide nesting sites and shelter for native bees so they can survive the winter and emerge in spring to start a new generation.

Almost all native bees are solitary; after mating the female does the work of building and provisioning a nest and then lays her eggs. There are no queens or worker bees and most do not tend to the young, leaving them to complete their development into a new adult bee on their own. The majority of native bees have fairly brief life spans as active adult bees, often only living a few weeks or months. 

Bumblebees, however, are social. They form nests with a queen and worker bees but unlike honeybees (which are not native to North America, and were introduced in the 1600s) the nest only survives one year with a newly mated queen flying off in the fall and finding someplace, often in the ground, to overwinter before emerging in spring to start a new nest.

Different native bee species emerge throughout the spring, summer and fall, often appearing when the flowers they depend on are blooming.  Our native manzanitas, California lilac and Western redbud, which bloom in early spring, are good examples of this seasonality. The associated bee visitors emerge from their winter nests and show up in our gardens around the same time these natives are blooming. Our home gardens can provide native bees with flowers for sustenance and places to nest.

Our native bees have common names that can give a clue to the type of nest they build or a behavior they share.  Carpenter bees chew into wood or stems to form their nests.  Leafcutters cut circles or ovals from soft leaves that they then use in a stem or tunnel for nest building.  Mason bees use mud to partition their nests.  Cellophane bees make a resinous gel to form their cells.  Sweat bees like to drink in the perspiration on exposed skin!

About 70% of our native bees are ground-nesters. The remaining 30% nest in dried stems and wood, existing tunnels made by boring beetles or insects, rock cavities, or (in the case of bumblebees) old rodent holes or even man-made items like birdhouses. All their nests are in what can be called a linear space or tunnel and do not look like honeybee hives.  Some species of stem-nesting bees use stems that are hollow (like reeds); others favor stalks that have soft interiors that they can chew through.

A good example of a stem nester that depends on dried stems or stalks is Ceratina, the small carpenter bee. She uses these pithy stems to build her nest, lay her eggs and overwinter as an adult bee. Flowering perennials that have long, fairly strong stalks with a softer or pithy interior are Ceratina's choice for nesting. 

Leaving dried stalks on the ground instead of removing them provides opportunities for these nests. Come spring, the female, after mating with a male bee, starts chewing from the top of the stalk or sometimes through the side to form a tunnel. She gathers a pollen and nectar ball and provisions this tunnel, laying her egg on top of the food source. She then seals this into a cell and builds another. Usually, five to six cells are formed in each tunnel. Ceratina is a bit unusual as she doesn't close the top of the nest and will guard it from predators. The next generation develops into adults and spends the winter inside the nest tunnel, emerging in spring to start the cycle again.

Not cutting down dried stalks in the fall could mean saving a nest and allowing it to overwinter. Waiting until early spring to cut the seed heads off will open up the stalks and hopefully allow newly emerging females a nesting place. You can watch these cut stems for any activity! Most of our native bees will go about their business with no regard to us. They are a fascinating and often beautiful group of insects, mostly unwilling or even unable to sting. They go about their lives harmlessly and often unnoticed, unless we take the time and effort to look for them.

The past year's stubble with old nests will quickly decompose through spring and new perennial growth will hide much of it.  Additionally, letting dried seed heads remain often provides benefits to birds and other wildlife that eat the seeds.  When and where feasible, leaving stumps of trees or piles of brush in place can also provide nesting sites for tunnel nesters and other winter hibernators.

Ground-nesting bees need areas of bare soil or ground that is lightly mulched or covered with a thin layer of leaves. They tunnel down to build their nests, also with chambers and cells, provisioning them and laying their eggs. They too need these nest sites to survive winter. Not tilling the soil if possible and avoiding pesticides helps them nest successfully.  Pesticides are problematic as these bees use their mouths to excavate the soil, putting them in contact with any pesticides present in the dirt near their nests. 

Ground-nesting bees can use just about any texture of soil that will hold together.  A garden area that has stepping stones with soil between them is a great potential nest site for these bees, with the advantage of providing protection to the nest. Scientists with the Xerces Society (a National non-profit organization studying invertebrates and working for their conservation) have observed that ground-nesting bees often nest at the edge between lawn and garden. This may be because bees, especially the smaller species, often don't fly far from their nests to forage, so the proximity of their nest to flowers, their food source, is beneficial.

Making some or all of these small, but potentially significant changes to our gardening habits (and aesthetics) each fall has the potential to encourage the population growth of these important insects while, at the same time, increasing the health of the soil in our gardens. Tell your friends and neighbors that you're “leaving some leaves,” and stems, for the benefit of healthier plants and for the sustenance of wildlife, including our very important pollinators -- native bees.

UC Master Gardeners of Butte County are part of the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) system. To learn more about us and our upcoming events, and for help with gardening in our area, visit our website. If you have a gardening question or problem, email the Hotline at mgbutte@ucanr.edu or leave a phone message on our Hotline at (530) 538-7201. To speak to a Master Gardener about a gardening issue, or to drop by the MG office during Hotline hours, see the most current information on our Ask Us Hotline webpage.