A Manual of California Native Plants

3.1 Copyright 1995, Bert Wilson
The online Catalog of Las Pilitas Nursery, Santa Margarita - Escondido

Guidelines for native landscaping and native plants.

Some people think native plants are the plants that were on there hillside before their house was put there. Some people have told us 'it's native somewhere in the world'. Some people think it is only what is still native on that slope, in that town, within ten feet of the site to be planted. Some are worried that there will be cross poliation with the natives that are left in the area, a 'pollen free zone'. We want what is best for nature as a whole. And native plants that are close to proper are a lot better than no native plants. We're losing butterflies, birds and other species because there are a whole lot more weeds and exotics than natives. We need to be encouraged to put native plants in. I'm happy with State specific, even Pacific time specific for California, Rocky mountain specific for the mountain time zones, the central and eastern time zones can use their own native plants. The birds and butterflies fly those routes and commonly drop those seeds along those routes. The plants will not establish out of their normal plant communites within those zones. BUT, drop a plant from a completely different system, such as a California Native in Australia or an Australian plant in California, and you might have a nasty weed. Whole areas of the Western United States have been overrun with weeds. Most native wildlife cannot use weeds. Native rodents can sorta use some of the weeds. It's ironic that the suddividers clear the chaparral, create all sorts of fear and distain for native plants, covert thousands of acres to weeds and end up with rare rats along with the rare foxes and rare owls that live on them. So the native plants are gone, the weeds result in more frequent, larger fires and soil erosion. While the developer can't do the subdivision because they made habitat for rare and endangered rodents. (Once you introduce weeds into a native system it becomes lesser of evils. All your choices are bad, which is less bad?) Native wildlife like the native plants they are familiar with. They have evolved together. Nutritionly they probably need some of the native plants for their health.

Section 1 contains many ideas and methods to accomplish a successful native landscape or restore a native site. Ideas to incorporate native plants in with other plants in a garden landscape are included. Conventional gardens can also benefit from the information even if native plants aren't used. We hope this 'manual' will fill you with environmental awareness and give the answers to many of your garden and landscape questions.

The manual\catalog is based almost wholly upon our 35 years of experience with California native plants (the manual was started in 1980 with true cut and paste, typewriter and scissors). In various gardens, from lettuce to manzanitas, these ideas have worked.

Without much thought many of our plants will perform for 3-7 years beautifully. With thought they will perform even better and last for 30-50+ years with no care.

This manual has been separated into 3 levels of difficulty. (Pretty squirrely huh!)

RUN to the real easy california native landscaping and plants section.1. Real easy section

For those that have no time, or interest in learning this stuff, run here. Or, those of you, that are just interested in planting a little front yard, don't worry too much about it, the landscaping won't be perfect, but it should work and look as good as most 'designed' yards.

this tree squirrel makes it look easy2.Easy section

If you want to know the basics but aren't real interested in the science of how things work this section is for you. The easy section is an attempt to give you enough information to understand the concepts, without being too hard. I've made many a person's face turn into this Native gardening and landscaping should be fun! Who needs stress? If you're not into squirrel yoga, try figuring out your yard and the wildlife you can(do) attract.



3. Advanced Section

A hard working Las Pilitas animal planting california native landscape garden plants This section is for those of you who not only want the car to run but want to now why it runs. This section is good if you want some good, well documented amo for your no it all neighbor or mother-in-law. Or if you just like to fill your brain with useless facts.

Our customers range from botanists to book writers, from people that have planted California native plants for 40 years to people who have no clue what a native plant is. Some of you will find parts corny, (witless?) Others will get stuck in the easy section. We know everyone of you will be thinking we should have made it different for you, but this represents most of the questions put to us over the last 25 years. Hopefully we've answered yours and created many more questions and answers for you.


HAVE FUN with your California garden!