Editor's Pick for 2022

This Month's Pick + Editor's Pick Archive Index

Each month our editor, Laura Lukes, highlights an outstanding plant, interesting insect, or helpful tool.

January

Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia)

This hardy California native evergreen shrub displays bright red berries from fall well into winter, thus earning it the common names of Christmas berry and California holly. It grows throughout California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and Coast ranges, rarely straying beyond the northern and eastern borders.

Toyon is a very attractive plant. Its deep green leaves provide a striking backdrop for its red berries during the muted-color seasons of fall and winter; in early summer those leaves frame dense bunches of white flowers. It usually tops out at about eight feet tall, but according to its listing on the Calscape, specimens over 30 feet tall have been found in the Los Padres National Forest.

Bears and coyotes eat the berries, the seeds of which survive their digestive systems. Birds such as robins, cedar waxwings, and mockingbirds also consume the berries, contributing to their dispersal. While the berries are edible for humans, they are acidic and astringent, and can be mealy in texture.

As a landscape plant, this shrub is a good choice for larger native and habitat gardens. It is easy to grow and can reach its full size in about three years. Plant it in either sun or part shade, in just about any sort of soil. It will welcome weekly doses of supplemental water in our dry summers when planted in a soil that drains well. Although it’s a component of chaparral landscapes, it naturally does better near seasonal creeks and seeps.

When given enough moisture, Toyon can act as a fire retardant and contribute to your fire-safe landscape. Planted in groups, they create beautiful and functional hedges.

Photos: Bush and berries by Alan Schmierer, flower by Andrew Butko 

February

Narcissus

This month we focus on bulbs in the genus Narcissus. You know them by their common names: daffodil, jonquil, and the earliest bloomer, narcissus. These ancient life forms (5 to 30 billion years old) are believed to have first appeared on the Iberian Peninsula. Native to the long dry summers of the Mediterranean, they employ an ultimate form of drought tolerance: bloom early and die back before the onset of the dry season. The bulb lies dormant underground until late autumn to early spring, depending on the variety. The approximately fifty species of beautiful Narcissus offer blooms and heavenly scents from late November through April. As they die back each year, their strap-like leaves can become unsightly, but please resist cutting them back until they are completely brown—up to that point they are taking in and sending nutrients down to the bulb where this food is stored until they begin to leaf out and bloom again. Bulbs are wonderful plants to tuck into the garden in clusters here and there—popping up to surprise us with their cheerful and hearty beauty just when we need it most.

Photographer: Laura Kling

March

Western Redbud: Cercis occidentalis

This stunning shrub or small graceful tree is an all-time favorite, providing a different aspect of beauty in each season. In early spring, the gorgeous clusters of small magenta blossoms pop out from the landscape. The rounded, heart-shaped leaves are a silky combination of copper and green when they first emerge, darkening to various shades of green, gray-green, or blue-green. In fall, these leaves turn yellow, then red, then brown—autumn colors on a par with the eastern hardwoods. Its seed pods change from purple to a russet brown as they ripen. Once the redbud has shed itself of leaves and pods, the bare branches of its silver-gray silhouette provide winter beauty. It is a hardy plant: drought tolerant, sun-loving, and successful in a variety of soils.

Tough and showy, this species of redbud is a true western treasure. What’s not to like?

Photographers: Tree by David A. Hofmann, flower closeup by John Rusk

April

California Laurel (Umbellularia californica)

California Laurel is found primarily in our state, as its common name implies. It is most often found growing in coastal forests and in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada range, although it can be found in the southern tip of Oregon. It grows from sea level to about 5,000 feet in elevation. Evergreen and partial to growing in the understory of redwood and mixed hardwood forests, as well as among oak woodlands and chapparal plants, it can live to be 500 years old.

The California Laurel looks a lot like its cousin, the culinary Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis), which hails originally from the Mediterranean. Both have shiny dark green leaves with a pungent odor when bent or crushed. Our California native flowers in spring: small yellowish-green flowers are held in an "umbel" (hence its genus name) which radiates out like umbrella ribs. The tree's fruit is the bay nut, a round to olive-shaped green berry about 1 inch long that matures to a purple color.

All parts of the California Laurel, especially the leaves, contain a volatile and strongly-scented oil. The fragrance is much stronger than that of its Mediterranean relative, so hikers beware: it has been known to cause headaches when inhaled too vigorously! That said, native cultures throughout its range, including the Concow Maidu in our area, valued the California Laurel for its many edible, medicinal, insecticidal, and ceremonial uses.

Photographer: Eugene Zelenko

May

Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)

Although the horticultural yarrow comes in many colors, including terracotta, paprika, and rainbow, the plant you see in the wild is a mild shade of off-white. Its feathery leaf fronds often lie flat in the poorer soils of the foothills, but in richer soils and kinder conditions, the plant can reach up to three feet tall. Yarrows bloom from May to October and can thrive in just about any habitat. They have been found in every ecosystem throughout California except the Colorado and Mojave Deserts and are found in temperate regions throughout the globe. Yarrow is considered a weed in Australia and is used to feed livestock in New Zealand.

This plant’s greatest claim to fame is revealed in its Latin name: Achillea derives from Achilles, the famous warrior of Greek mythology (and Homer’s Iliad), and allegedly a student of medicinal herbs, who is reported to have used crushed yarrow leaves to stem the flow of blood from his wounded soldiers. Conversely, a common name for this plant is “nosebleed,” as it was apparently used to induce nosebleeds to treat headaches. Other noted medicinal uses are in teas made from roots, leaves, and flowers, and to treat colds and flu, stomach aches, fever, and headaches (probably more effectively than nosebleeds would). Locally, Maidu peoples used juice from the plant to soothe sore eyes.

According to Calflora, yarrow was one of the medicinal herbs that was found at a 60,000-year-old Neanderthal burial site in Iraq.

Photographer: Bob Sweatt

June

Bee’s bliss sage (Salvia x ‘Bee’s bliss’)

Looking to cover a large area, quickly? Attract lots of pollinators, especially bees? Conserve water? The plant you want is Bee’s bliss sage. About four years ago, three one-gallon plants were put into a sheet-mulched area that had been a weedy old lawn. Those three plants have now grown together, and cover an area about 15 feet in diameter (you read that right—15 feet!). They would really like to spread more, but they are regularly trimmed to keep a ring of slate stepping stones revealed.

The leaves of Bee’s bliss sage are gray-green; in the spring it produces many lavender flowers. Give it regular supplemental summer water during its first few years in the ground, but after that it will require very little irrigation. The happy, spreading plants referenced above are hand watered about once every 6 weeks in the summer.

Replacing thirsty lawns is an excellent way to conserve water. Replacing them with drought-resistant natives that attract pollinators and provide habitat for all sorts of creatures is something we highly recommend. The our website has lots of valuable resources for lawn conversion, sheet mulching, and native landscape plant choices. Another helpful resource is the Neighborhood Habitat Program offered by Altacal Audubon.

Photographers: bush by Laura Kling, flowers by Jeanette Alosi

July

Grindelia camporum (Great Valley gumplant / Great Valley gumweed)

This super tough California native is beneficial to both humans and insects. As a landscape plant, it’s popular in sunny, dry gardens, where its spring blooms attract many species of insects, including butterflies and beetles. Its seeds are a food source for numerous songbirds.

As a strategy to cope with our hot dry summers, this plant may go dormant during the hottest months of the year. Come late winter or early spring, it re-emerges above ground as a basal rosette, later sending up a spiky orb that glistens with medicinal sap. In late spring the orb opens into a large yellow thistle-like flower, which exudes a sticky whitish substance, hence its common name. The flower will last quite a while, turning to seed in early to late summer, depending on the plant and growing conditions. Even in dormancy, the gumplant provides habitat to a beetle species which lives inside the spent flowers over the winter.

Our native California species is related to grindelias used as medicine in Europe over one thousand years ago. Grindelias have multidiverse medicinal uses: for respiratory problems, for skin lesions such as bed sores, and as a tea with steroidal and anti-inflammatory properties. Grindelia is also used to treat poison oak rashes, indigestion, and even severe nausea. Asthma attacks can be relieved by sucking on a flower bud.

At first glance, it might seem that the species name “camporum” could be derived from “camphor,” and therefore related to its medicinal properties. But in fact camporum is the plural form of the Latin word “campus” which denotes a flat level area, and in this case refers to the gumplant’s early growth habit of forming rosettes flat along the ground.

These flat leaf forms help the gumplant shade out competitors, even starthistle! Once you start looking, you will find this hardy plant in many seemingly inhospitable habitats; it readily grows in disturbed and altered areas such as ditches and roadsides.

Photographers: plant by Brent McGhie, flower by Laura Kling

August

Agave victoriae-reginae Queen Victoria Agave

A recent CNPS webinar on Dry Gardens and Drought featured succulents. Succulents and their cousins the cacti create dramatic flair in any garden, and work especially well as accents in rock gardens. There are hundreds of genera in the succulent family, and probably thousands of species and subspecies. Perhaps the most famous agave is Agave tequilana, the basis for many Mexican spirits, most notably tequila and mescal. All agaves tolerate, and even enjoy, dry summer heat, and can take very low winter temperatures. Here we focus on the lovely Queen Victoria agave. The Queen Victoria version is hardy down to 12 degrees F (!), and loves hot summer days, basking in direct and reflected heat.

This plant is very attractive, though small as agaves go, forming a basal rosette that tops out at between 18 and 24 inches tall and wide. The “leaves” are a beautiful light shade of green, with white streaks along their smooth edges. A sharp spine protrudes from the end of each leaf. The Queen Victoria will give you between 10 to 25 years of enjoyment before flowering. As is true of most agaves, the plant will die once it flowers. But what a flower! Dense reddish-purple flowers form a cone atop a 10 to 15-foot spike.

During the summer this plant requires watering only once a month; don’t water it at all during the cooler months. Dot several of these around your yard, tucked among decorative rocks or among other plantings. Queen Victoria agaves make good container plants, whether alone or in a grouping with other succulents.

Photographers: base plant (center) by Dun Holm, flowers by Laura Kling

September

Night Blooming Cereus and good luck on the Latin binomial!

Here at enews, we love a plant that defies categorizing. Night blooming cereus is right up there with the best of them, as the name is used as an umbrella term for up to ten different cacti genera. The word cereus describes any species of cacti that grows in an upright, elongated form. (Cereus translates as wax taper (a slender candle)). All species of night blooming cacti share beauty and mystery: their lovely and fragrant white flowers open after nightfall and begin to wilt with the onset of dawn.

These plants are a social species, tending to bloom in unison with those near them. Healthy plants will treat spectators to three separate bloom times a year, and all cereus flower during the hottest months of the summer. The number of flowers in this nighttime show usually increases as the plant grows older. As with most cacti, night blooming cereus thrive in warm, sunny places, with little supplemental summer water.

A plant this lovely has earned a number of romantic common names, including princess of the night, Honolulu queen, Christ in the manger, dama de noche, and queen of the night, as well as the more prosaic gooseneck cactus.  And for extra credit, here are its Latin genus names: Cereus; Echinopsis; Epiphyllum; Harrisia; Hylocereus; Monvillea; Nyctocereus; Peniocereus; Selenicereus; and Trichocereus

Save your evening beverage for after dark, so you can savor it on your porch while you watch the night blooming cereus open its beauty to the dark sky.

Photographer: Laura Kling

October

Point Saint George Aster (Aster chilensis)

Aster species show up in a variety of climates in Northern California: along the bluffs that line the Pacific Coast, for example, and up on the Pacific Crest Trail. In fact, asters are found in all plant hardiness zones.

The aster’s ubiquity belies the delicate beauty of the flower itself. It is dainty, with slender petals that form radiant spokes, usually of pale or deep purple, around a cheerful yellow center. You won’t be surprised to learn that “aster” comes from an ancient Greek word that translates as “star.”

A favorite native aster is Aster chilensis or Point Saint George aster. This low growing, fast spreading species has pale lavender flowers that will bloom from summer far into fall, a time when many natives are spent. Given the right conditions, it can even flower on into the winter!

The Point Saint George aster’s ability to tolerate light foot traffic makes it a perfect ground cover for areas between steppingstones or along paths. Be careful where you plant it—either make sure it has natural containment or locate it where you really don’t mind a vigorously spreading plant.

All asters attract butterflies, and the Point Saint George version is an excellent nectar source for bees and butterflies and, later, seeds for birds.

Point Saint George asters are listed as low water plants, and they benefit from occasional watering during the hottest of summer—two to three times each month. These plants prefer winter temperatures that hover above freezing.

Enjoy these, or any other asters, that you choose to plant.

Photographer: melystu

November

Leucophyllum frutescens

We present to you the Texas ranger. No, we don’t mean the ball player, or the Lone Star State law enforcer. We are referring to a low water, sun-loving beauty of a shrub that carries the various common names of Texas barometer bush, Texas sage, and Texas ranger (our favorite). Many of us have planted these in our gardens, and we swear by them. One Master Gardener describes this plant as an “incredibly happy camper” and another chimes in with “yes, so little water, so much sun, and it stays happy.” And the bloom attracts hundreds of bees.

It's a handsome plant, with soft, small gray-green petals on a symmetrical spray of branches. The Texas ranger will grow 6 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide, so choose its planting spot accordingly. Make sure it will receive full or part sun, in well-drained soil. Too little sun and the plant will become spindly. To keep its shape, or to prevent it from overgrowing, prune it once each year in early spring. Pruning it down close to the ground will encourage new growth and a fresh display of its natural form.

Did we mention low water? Water it in summer only when the soil is completely dry. Depending on the year, the soil, and its location, this may be as little as once a summer, or as often as twice a month.

Did you think we would leave the topic without a discussion of names? Not a chance—Leucophyllum = white leaves, and frutescens (a common Latin species name) = shrublike. Why Texas barometer bush? Because at virtually any time of year, an intense flowering commonly follows rainfall (when the humidity is high). Ours went nuts after that September rain, and the bees were kept happy for weeks.

As always, enjoy what you plant.

Photographer: Laura Kling

December

chlumbergera x buckleyi Christmas cactus

We love a good paradox, and are happy this month to present you with Schlumbergera x buckleyi: a cactus that is native to the tropical rainforests of South America; a plant that needs more hours of darkness than light to bloom; a beautiful flower that blooms in the cold dark days of winter; and a houseplant that can live up to 100 years.

Encouraging the Christmas cactus to thrive in your home entails (as with all plants) choosing the right place, and providing it with the right sun exposure, temperature range, and watering schedule. Find a nook in your home that offers bright, indirect light. A window facing east, or a spot in a bright bathroom is perfect. This plant prefers mild indoor temperatures, between a low of 60 at night and a high of 75–80 during the day. Water your Schlumbergera every 2–3 weeks, or once the top two of inches of soil become dry (check with your finger).

To encourage branching and abundant wintertime flowering, prune plants in late spring by cutting off a few sections of each stem. Holiday Bonus: place the cut ends of the trimmings in pots filled with lightly moist potting soil—they will root easily after a few weeks and make excellent holiday gifts!

Photographer: Laura Kling