My husband and I have been enjoying hummingbirds in the garden this year, starting in late spring and lasting through the summer. They flit from Pittosporum blossoms in the side yard, to the vibrant calendulas in containers, to the white agapanthus, to the flowering trees and plants throughout the yard. They even occasionally drink from the communal terracotta bird baths under the oak tree.
Hummingbird feeder in the Pittosporum
I recently hung a hummingbird feeder in the Pittosporum tree that grows in the side yard. It's the perfect location, close to shelter and protection from the tree, and viewable from both our offices. I picked a discrete looking glass model, which resembles a Mason jar. It serves up clear sugar water via white and yellow metal "daisies". We thought watching beautiful hummingbirds from our offices would be inspirational and a great distraction.
View from my husband's office
View from my office
For about a month, nothing happened. Not a single hummingbird visited the new feeder, even though I continued to see hummingbirds in the yard, visiting real flowers. Admittedly, that is better, both for nutrition and pollination.
Finally, we had a visitor! The hummingbird took a good long drink, and then seemed to "look over" the feeder, before flitting off. Now that the hummingbird feeder has been discovered and tested, maybe we'll get more visitors. I'll keep the feeder cleaned and filled for the coming days as blossoms become scarce.
Not sure how to get started with California Natives? You're not alone - including me, who has been fascinated with California native plants for years. I'm sold on the concept of using California native plants in the garden, but pulling it all together is daunting. The California Native Plant Society (CPNS) is kicking off a campaign to help. Bloom! California focuses on eleven starter plant groups, with recommendations for plants that are easy to grow in California, require low water, and are host plants for butterflies, birds, bees, and other wildlife.
The eleven basic plant groups include ornamental grasses, mints, iris, currants, clarkia, manzanita, yarrow, sage, phacelia, toyon, and oaks. Most plant groups included multiple plants suggestions. All can be grown in California, but some may be more suited to where you live. The filtered plant list has access to the Calscape database for information about each plant, its requirements, and the wildlife it supports. If you've signed up for Calscape, you can save plants to a custom list. I created "Bloom-CA" for my top favorites (and added a Western Redbud).
My top favorite native plants
Export to Excel for a convenient list of plant choices
This scoped list makes it easier to focus on several foundational plants to start, and makes a convenient shopping list. Calscape also provides information about nurseries where you can purchase California native plants. Calscape is a great resource for California gardeners (see Calscape from last year).
This year we're experimenting with dye sources that grow on our small residential lot here in Oakland, California. This ties in with our "back to the land" theme for 2021 where we forage for materials from our own plot of land for projects. Last time we dyed with a self-seeded French Broom shrub, which produced a pale beige-almost-yellow dye (see Dye Project: French Broom).
Today I'm dyeing with cherries (Prunus spp.), picked from a self-seeded tree that grows by the curb. Sweet cherries originated in Asia Minor in the fertile areas between the Black and Caspian seas, and spread to England and North America via birds, colonists, missionaries, and settlers. Cherry trees (Prunus cerasus varieties) have been cultivated commercially in California for decades, and have naturalized in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their delicate pink blossoms are a beautiful part of our spring display
The red leaves and round petals of our street-tree cherry indicate that it is a “plum cherry” and not a “true cherry”. For now, I’m identifying it as a Prunus species.
My research indicates that the fruit yields a pink dye.
Our self-seeded cherry tree in blossom
Later in the season with red leaves and fruit
For this project I used basic dye equipment, and a well-ventilated workspace. Since cherries are also food, I decided in was safe to extract the dye in the kitchen. I thought it smelled delicious (like a cherry pie), but my husband found it quite overpowering. Keep in mind the sensibilities of those in your household! I used a soaking pot, a dye pot, a heat source, and a candy thermometer to keep the dye bath at a consistent temperature. I also used a strainer and cheese cloth to remove the cherries from the dye bath.
Indoor cooking for cherries (ventilated by a fan and open windows)
Prepared fabric
The Weight of Fabric was about 11 ounces (312 grams), which includes:
2 dish towels - 154 g (4.9 ounces)
2 napkins - 50 g (1.76 ounces
2 large handkerchiefs - 35 g (1.2 ounces)
2 small handkerchiefs - 20 g (.7 ounces)
1 dishwashing cloth 57 g (2 ounces)
The fabric was scoured and mordanted, using a gallnut mordant, followed by a bath of 15% WOF alum and 2% soda ash as a brightener. I collected about 23 ounces of cherries, so the WOF% for 11 ounces of fabric was about 209%. I gathered the cherries in early June, and used them right away.
The supplies for dyeing include:
23 ounces cherries
1/2 lemon (juice and rind)
A gallon of water (plus more as needed)
11 ounces of prepared cotton fabric (scoured, gallnut mordant, and alum brightener)
NOTE: For safety, use a face mask and rubber gloves.
Extract Dye
First, extract the dye, using our basic process.
Add water, cherries and lemon to the pot.
Simmer for an hour.
Soak cherries.
Strain them.
Rinse the cherries to remove dust and insects. Add the cherries to a gallon of water in a stainless-steel pot. Stir in juice of 1/2 lemon and its rind. Ideally, bring to 160 degrees, and simmer for an hour. My equipment isn’t that controllable, so I typically cook between 180-200 degrees. Your color results may differ if you can maintain the lower temperature.
Stir lemon juice and rind into the fruit
Cook and then soak for three days
Soak the cherries and lemon rind for three days. Strain the cherries out of the dye bath using cheesecloth. Return the dye bath to the stainless-steel pot. The resulting liquor is a nice red. I tested the pH to learn more. It registers a 3, which is quite acidic (and may be from the lemon).
Strain the fruit out of the dye bath
Cherry-red dye bath
Dye Fabric
Dye the fabric using our basic process.
Add wet fabric to dye bath.
Heat the dye bath and simmer for an hour.
Soak fabric in the dye bath.
Rinse and hang to dry.
Add wet, prepared fabric, and simmer for an hour, keeping the temperature between 180-200 degrees. Stir periodically to make sure the dye is distributed evenly. Let soak for an hour or overnight. For saturated color, I let it soak for three days. Look at that lovely pink.
Simmer fabric in the dye bath
Rinse fabric in cool water
Squeeze out excess dye from the fabric. Rinse the fabric in cool water until the water runs clear. Run the fabric through the washing machines' rinse and spin cycles, using cold water. Let the fabric air dry. Two weeks later, wash the fabric in a pH neutral soap, like Synthrapol, and hang to dry. The resulting color is beige, with a slight hint of pink in certain light.
Hang fabric to air dry
Very pale pink dye results (or beige, depending on the light)
During the dye process, some fabric seems to take color better than others, but all seem to lose color during the rinse cycle. This could be because the alum brightener was too weak, or that I need more cherries. I can try adjusting these factors, but maybe I’ll make a cherry pie instead!
This Prunus spp. thrives in our lower yard here in the East Bay, with almost no water. It provides a thick, high hedge between the backyard and a busy street. The leaves are thick and leathery, and help absorb the sound of rush hour traffic. The title conveys that I think this is a hollyleaf cherry, but truthfully I don't know. I'm claiming it until I learn otherwise, based on this photo from CalPhotos and other research!
Hollyleaf cherry
Hollyleaf cherry (Prunus ilicifolia) is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the Rosaceae family. It grows from 8 to 30 feet tall, and is native to the chaparral areas of coastal California (from Mendocino County to San Diego County) and Baja California, and to the desert chaparral areas of the Mojave desert. The leaves are thick, alternate, and 2 to 5 inches long. The flowers are small, white, and produced on racemes in the spring. The fruit is a cherry or drupe, edible and sweet, but with very little flesh around the smooth seed.
Hedge of hollyleaf cherry
Prunus ilicifolia is used in California native plant and wildlife gardens, and in drought-tolerant sustainable landscaping. It is a larval host to the California hairstreak, Lorquin's admiral, Nevada buckmoth, and tiger swallowtail butterfly, and a food source for the caterpillars of the pale swallowtail butterfly. Hollyleaf cherry is browsed by California mule deer and bighorn sheep, typically in late summer or fall when other herbaceous species are unavailable. The purple to black berries are consumed by songbirds and rodents, and the seeds are eaten by other small mammals. The foliage provides nesting and hiding cover for numerous birds and small mammals. Bees are attracted to the flowers.
Hollyleaf cherry drupes
Plants that are frequently found growing with Prunus ilicifolia include scrub oak (Quercus dumosa), California buckeye (Aesculus californica), California bay (Umbellularia californica), toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), redberry (Rhamnus crocea), and California coffeeberry (R. californica). Hollyleaf cherry seeds readily and does not require fire to sprout. I value our hedges of hollyleaf cherry for the privacy and habitat they provide on our small urban lot.
