By Cindy Weiner, Butte County Master Gardener, June 3, 2016. 

Many people are interested in making their gardens more water-efficient. This often involves replacing lawns and other water-loving plants with those that are less thirsty. Many California native plants are good choices for residential gardens, but sometimes when you're looking at a one-gallon pot in a nursery it is difficult to envision that plant in its fully-grown state.  Visiting local gardens that use native plants in their landscaping is one way to see what a plant looks like at maturity and how it fits in with other plants.  Luckily in the Chico area we have access to several public gardens featuring native plants.

The Alice B. Hecker Native Plant Garden at Chico Creek Nature Center was planted in the late 1980s. While some plants have been replaced over the years, many are original and were propagated by members of the Mount Lassen Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. Some of these, like leather oak and California nutmeg, are rarely seen in gardens. The garden beds represent different local habitats, such as foothill or riparian. Fully-grown Oregon ash, elderberry and redbud trees provide shade for California bush anemone, Western bleeding heart, pipevine and mock orange. Spreading daisy, soaproot and several species of sage grow in sunnier areas. This garden demonstrates how a native garden will look after a couple of decades of growth.

The gardens at the Gateway Science Museum (at 625 Esplanade in Chico) include a native plant pollinator garden planted in 2013. These plants were chosen especially for their value to birds, butterflies, bees and other insects. Many of the plants provide nectar or pollen for the adult pollinators. Some insect larvae feed on leaves. The garden includes many different species of sun-loving sages and buckwheats. Showy milkweed is the host plant for larval monarch butterflies, and several monarchs go through complete metamorphosis in the gardens each year. The Gateway Gardens have been so successful at attracting both honeybees and native bees that it is one of 60 gardens in the state chosen to participate in the Urban California Native Bee Survey conducted by the UC Berkeley Urban Bee Lab. This is an established, but still young and developing, garden.

There are two native plant gardens at the Butte County Master Gardeners Demonstration Garden at Patrick Ranch. The Native Plant Garden was planted in March of 2015 as a showcase for native plants that are beautiful in bloom but are also easy to grow and easy to find in native plant nurseries. Three different species of penstemon provide brilliant color in the spring. Three species of buckwheat flower into early summer, and California fuchsia attracts hummingbirds from summer to fall. The Native Plant Wildlife Garden was planted in December of 2015. Each plant in this garden is attractive to wildlife as a source of food or shelter. Some of these plants can be a little tricky to grow or hard to find. Some of the more unusual plants here include woolly blue curls, hot rock penstemon and brittlebush.

Public native gardens such as these are an excellent resource for anyone planning a more water-wise home garden.