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Community Corner

Nature Made Easy: Gardening With Native Plants

In her lecture 'Easy Native Plants,' Orchid Black discusses the vital relationship among birds, bugs and blooms and how to fight fire with flora.

A manzanita tree has a beautiful mahogany bark and vibrant green leaves, which makes it a colorful addition to a home garden, said botany expert Orchid Black at a lecture at the historic Masson House on Saturday. The species of tree attracts hummingbirds, who like to dine on its berries during winter, she said.

“I work for the birds and bees, but the people pay me,” Black said, evoking laughter from a group of dozen gardening enthusiasts. “Our goal is not just to have pretty flowers, it’s to have habitats that work.”

Presented by the Theodore Payne Foundation, the lecture took place inside the Masson House at Headwaters Corner, which is also the headquarters of the Mountains Restoration Trust.

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Black, who is a board member of the California Native Plant Society and owner of Pitcher Sage Design, a native plant design company, shared her botanical knowledge of more than 50 species of native flora.

“It was informative and I got some good information,” Topanga resident Ben Allanoff said. “I thought it would be more about techniques for planting and that wasn’t the subject matter, but it worked its way in.”

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Audience members jotted notes as Black went through her list of dozens of species that thrive in Southern California's riparian, chaparral, coastal and desert environments.

Sages such as Salvia Clevelandi, commonly known as Winifred Gilma, which finches love, or a salvia hyrbid named Bee’s Bliss, indicating the insects that prefer it, both thrive in a full-sun, desert environment.

Leaving some old blossoms is good for finches, who like to eat them, she said. Many of the plants on her list were desirable to hummingbirds, butterflies and other pleasant garden visitors.

For shady areas, Black recommends the aptly named Golden Abundance Oregon Grape selection (berberis (Mahonia) aquifolium), whose bright blooms attract hummingbirds and will grow into a large bush of around 6 by 6 feet. An endangered species in the San Gabriel Mountains, it’s an “all-purpose plant because it has berries and flowers,” according to Black. Its beautiful blue berries can also be made into a jam.

She displayed a picture for each plant and provided information, including dimensions, correct amount of sunlight and when to effectively deadhead a plant, which means removing spent blooms.

Black welcomed questions from the group throughout the presentation, prompting someone to ask about the use of mulch and the possible danger of fire that mulching can pose.

Urging attendees to check with their local fire departments, Black said that to her knowledge, homeowners are permitted to have two inches of mulch even in the mountains.

She also advised watering native species once a week to increase their resistance to inevitable wildfires. However, watering once every two weeks is optimal for the health of most Californian plants.

“Our plants didn’t evolve with a lot of water and they don’t necessarily do well with it,” she said.

After the lecture, attendees took a firsthand look at the restorative efforts under way on the grounds of the trust with Debbie Bruschaber, executive director for the Mountains Restoration Trust.

“Our goal is to get the community involved in native plant gardening,” she said. “It’s all about finding that balance of manicured versus wild.”

During her impromptu tour, Bruschaber pointed to milkweed, a favorite food of monarch butterflies, which was growing abundantly around the Masson House, and verbena, a perennial whose tall, green stalks were adorned with clusters of lavender buds.

“We have a guy on staff who loves to grow plants, he lives for it, so now we have a nursery full of plants,” Bruschaber said. “We use a lot of them in our restoration but we can’t use as many as he grows.”

In addition to a native plant sale, the trust is hosting a variety of events this summer aimed at providing awareness of restorative efforts, including nature camps for children, docent-led trail hikes, naturalist programs and an open house.

For more information on native gardening as well as upcoming events, visit the Mountain Restoration Trust, the Theodore Payne Foundation or Black’s new blog where she shares her botanical knowledge on gardening with native flora.

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