Bloom! California

 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).