Click around, or use our search box. We have thousands of photos of California native plants.
May wild flowers in a California Native Garden
Here are many native flower photos. I've tried to include enough pictures so you can get a feel for the potential of a native garden. California native plants are very unique and wonderful.
These plants grow in our(mostly) California garden in May. I started with just random photos but got totally lost and ended up going through the last four years of photos in the garden with a date in May. (You can see that random changes part way down the page.) There are a few flowers in the pots, and few in the wild, but most are flowers in the Santa Margarita garden.
Desert Sage is a late May favorite in a desert garden. There are many more sages in flower in May, but at least you have a taste of their diversity.
Salvia brandegei, Island Black Sage grows and flowers along a very hot, sunny path. The 10 year old plants are are enjoyed by Butterflies, chipmunks, and hummingbirds. It's native to the channel islands of California.
Trichostema lanatum, Woolly Blue Curls are native on the site. We enjoy 5-10 acres of them. There were more present before CDF seeded weeds from the sky after a fire in 1985.
Bush Poppy is native on the site, and was planted in the garden over ten years ago in a sunny spot with Ceanothus and Buckwheat plants adjacent to it and a large coast live oak on its north side. It has grown very well with no supplemental water.
Showy Penstemon is big and carefree and loved by hummingbirds. Plant at the back of a perennial garden.
Grinnell's Northern Penstemon looks similar to Penstemon spectabilis, but is a little lower, like it's 'trunk' was cut off.
Climbing Penstemon is native on the east, west and north slopes, and has benefited from the removal of weedy grasses and yellow star thistle (compliments of California Department of Forestry, they planted it for us, we got to remove same) in its vicinity. A favorite of hummingbirds.
California Poppy It's really funny; plant a pound of seed and get one or two plants (the quail show up and eat all the seeds) and plant 3 plants and get hundreds of new plants the next year. They have reseeded in open mineral soils and areas mulched with coast live oak leaf mulch. The poppies don't care, they like the garden.
Eriophyllum confertiflorum, Golden Yarrow, is native on the site and planted throughout the garden. The plants are ignored unless they get ratty, then we trim their heads off and they grow new ones. They have declined in garden areas that become shady and/or contain oak leaf mulch.
Antirrhinum multiflorum, Multiflowered Snapdragon, is native on the site in decomposed granite and full sun, comes up in the garden occasionally, and is short-lived, but very showy and a hummingbird favorite. We do not water it. As a pioneer species after brush fires, it would probably do very well in gardens around the world.
Eriogonum umbellatum, Sulfur Buckwheat, has been growing in the front garden for 20 years. The bed it is growing in receives 1-2 supplemental besprinklings during the dry season (May- November) if we remember and have time. The snowberry next to it keeps trying to bury it, but so far so good.
Shasta Sulfur Buckwheat has been ignored for years. It was planted under an Arctostaphylos glauca that drowned in the rains of the early 1990's. I'm not sure we ever watered it. It was in full sun by itself for a while, then Chilopsis linearis seeded in where the A. glauca drowned. Now the area has morning shade. I'd guess the plant was 15 years old when this picture was taken. (You think you have a strange garden, we have weird natives popping up in our garden!)
Penstemon heterophyllus, Foothill Penstemon, is native in our area(along with much of California) and needs little or no care. This plant is @10-12 years old in our garden. Plant on a wall or boulder so it can be used by hummingbirds.
Keckiella antirrhinoides, Yellow Bush Penstemon, was planted originally in the sun. After 20 years it is in the shade of a coast live oak that has doubled in size. Although the plant is leaning away from the oak, it has grown well in the garden with no irrigation.
Wild Ginger grows in semi-moist full shade. Nice looking in the underground portion of a parking garage.
Narrowleaf Milkweed grows next to alkaline moist spots in Malibu up into the Sierras at 6000 ft and from Baja to Washington to Utah. Well liked by butterflies and most customers.
Showy Milkweed grows in full sun and needs little care after the first season. The butterflies are free.
Chuparosa major limitation is frost. It's only hardy to about 28 F.
Douglas milkvetch grows from the coast, through the San Joaquin Valley, into the mountains of central and southern California. Munz lists the elevation from 160-6800, but I taken pictures of it at about 7000 ft.
Nuttall's Milkvetch grows right on the coastal bluff but has done fine with some regular water at Santa margarita.
Bush Anemone has grow in San Luis Obispo gardens and our garden in Santa margarita with no water after a year of so. But it loves water. In Bakersfield one was in full sun with continuous water and it looked great.
The yellow Hooker's Evening Primrose is a weedy flower that flowers ans acts like a non-native plant. Flowers for months, seeds everywhere, brown thumbers LOVE it. The red Scarlet Monkey Flower mixes well with it.
Evening Primrose is an amazing perennial that has large fragrant flowers. Unfortunately it's a PITA to grow and not reliable in low land gardens.
Beavertail Cactus is easy to grow in most California gardens. It will grow in fairly cold climates, desert climates, or coastal climates.
Skyblue Penstemonis a flat perennial that emerges from the snow in the Sierras and flowers. In lower elevations it makes a little mound of blue.
Scarlet Bugler grows in much of the populated areas of central and southern California. Full sun, no water.