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> Some of our native plant introductions.

The Las Pilitas Collection

These are cultivated variates (cultivars) or wild selections of California native plants selected by Bert Wilson and Las Pilitas Nursery and introduced into cultivation over the past 45 years.

We try to develop plants that have good wildlife value, are drought tolerant, and are pretty (what's the point if they look ugly). Our plants are named after family members, friends, customers, local towns near where the original plant was discovered, or areas of the nursery the plant popped up in.

Instead of plants bred for beauty at the cost of survivability and ecological sustainability we try to choose plants that still retain strong survival traits but are also attractive. Some cultivated plants are like Chihuahuas, cute but if you dropped one out in the wild it probably wouldn’t last very long, but a coyote...beauty and survivability.

None of our selections are patented so any nursery is free to cultivate them. So our selections are usually out and about in the nursery trade. The flip side to that coin is that we get no compensation if our plants are purchase from another nursery. And, as we sell directly to our customers, if you see these somewhere else for sale, we didn't grow them.

Bert's Raspberry flavor of Diplacus puniceus - grid24_12
Bert's Raspberry is a large maroon flowered monkey flower.
Penelope's monkey is quite a colorful character - grid24_12
Penelope Monkey Flower has many flower colors on one plant.
Penstemon Margarita BOP flowers vary from purple to blue depending on water and temperature.  - grid24_12
Penstemon Margarita BOP is a one ft. perennial that flowers a long time.
Salvia Celestial Blue is REALLY blue. Native plants are wonderfully fragrant and colorful. Celestial Blue has grown into a six ft. bush with no irrigation in both Los Angeles and San Diego. You'll have to water it a few times to start it, but then it's a natural! - grid24_12
Salvia Celestial Blue has been in flower for 3 years.
A pale Swallowtail butterfly on a Salvia clevelandii alpine.  - grid24_12
Salvia Alpine flowers for months.
Salvia Pozo Blue can look edible, it probably is, but rather strong. - grid24_12
Salvia Pozo Blue has lived with no irrigation for 20+ years.
Salvia spathacea, Las Pilitas Hummingbird Sage as groundcover. - grid24_12
Las Pilitas Hummingbird Sage is flat with nice flower spikes.
Diplacus aurantiacus australis Ramona, Narrow Leaf Southern Monkey Flower is native in central San Diego county. - grid24_12
Ramona Monkey Flower is a one foot perennial with butter colored flowers hummingbirds like.
Diplacus aurantiacus lompocensis, Lompoc Monkey Flower - grid24_12
Lompoc Monkey Flower is a 2 ft. sub-shrub with large yellow flowers.
This Monkey flower is about 25 years old and was found along Topanga Canyon Rd in west Los Angeles. - grid24_12
Topanga Monkey Flower came from West Los Angeles and has large orange flowers.
This monkey flower came from a roadside in Agoura, between Thousand Oaks and Los Angeles. You can put  Los Angeles back into the wild. - grid24_12
Spunky Monkey came from north Los Angeles and is covered with yellow flowers.
Flowers of Salvia Powerline Pink - grid24_12
Powerline Pink Hummingbird Sage is huge
Topanga Hummingbird Sage mixed with some Diplacus Topanga - grid24_12
Topanga Hummingbird Sage is just right for Los Angeles.
The California Fuchsia was growing out the the desert. - grid24_12
Flaming Red Penny California Fuchsia grows about a ft. wide and tall.
PHAT Margarita Fuchsia with an Anna Hummingbird - grid24_12
PHAT Margarita California Fuchsia is fast and big
An Anna Hummingbird on a Ghostly California Fuchsia. - grid24_12
Zauschneria Ghostly Red is a fuzzy California Fuchsia.
Zauschneria californica Bert's Bluff was native on a coastal bluff but does very well inland and is hardy to about 0F, -15C. A great native plant fro your garden. In a school garden it starts flowers about when school starts. - grid24_12
Bert's Bluff California Fuchsia makes a 2 ft. mound of orange.
This California fuchsia is liked by hummingbirds. - grid24_12
Laguna Mountain California Fuchsia has green foliage.
Baby Bear manzanita bush has dark red bark, bright rose pink flowers, liked by hummingbirds, butterflies, bumblebees and other native bees, easy to grow, tolerates most soils, Baby Bear manzanita is a huggable when young.&nbsp; The height seems to be about seven feet and width about eight feet.The bush can be easily pruned to five feet both vertically and wide.'Baby Bear' manzanita can be used as a six to eight foot hedge. The bright pink flowers are very showy and stay for about sixty days. This manzanita bush has a goodly amount of nectar in it's flowers that is used by hummingbirds, butterflies and many native insects.<br> Baby bear seems to tolerate many conditions and be happy as a bear in most of California. - grid24_12
Baby Bear Manzanita is a very colorful 8 ft. bush.
Arctostaphylos Ian Bush with an Anna Hummingbird. This manzanita is easy in most of coastal California. - grid24_12
Ian Bush Manzanita grows fast to 5 ft. and then slowly to 6 ft. Great hedge plants in most of California.
Arctostaphylos La Panza manzanita - grid24_12
La Panza Manzanita is a gray ball with white flowers.
Mama Bear manzanita bush - grid24_12
Mama Bear Manzanita is a fast 8 ft. screen or specimen.
The Mt. Pinos-Frazier Park form of Big Berry manzanita is smaller and grayer. - grid24_12
Frazier Park Manzanita is a gray mounding ground cover or border plant.
Arctostaphylos glauca, Ramona Big Berry Manzanita - grid24_12
Ramona Manzanita is a very drought tolerant small bush.
Arctostaphylos parajaroensis Brother James was originally called Brother Bill because of a misunderstanding. - grid24_12
Brother James Manzanita is a mounding red-green bush.
The flowers of the Big Berry Manzanita from the Santa Monica Mountains in west Los Angeles.  Notice the resin dots on the pedicels. - grid24_12
Los Angeles Big Berry Manzanita is a very small Big Berry Manzanita.
Arctostaphylos parrayana flowers are nice, foliage is wondrous. - grid24_12
Parry's Manzanita a mounding ground cover for the mountains or foothills.
Pictures and description of Arctostaphylos pechoensis,  Margarita's Joy Manzanita. - grid24_12
Margarita Joy Manzanita is a very small dainty sub-shrub.
Arctostaphylos purissima, Burton Mesa Groundcover or Lompoc Manzanita is becoming one of our favorite low ground covers. It is generally less than a foot tall, but can mound to 2 ft. Loves beach sand, tolerates adobe soil. - grid24_12
Burton Mesa Ground cover and green prehistoric ground cover.
An Anna's hummingbird on a Arctostaphylos silicola, Ghostly Manzanita - grid24_12
Ghostly Manzanita is gray, almost white 8 ft. bush.
Arctostaphylos stanfordiana stanfordiana, Zin Manzanita flowers - grid24_12
Zin Manzanita is a dark green mass idea as a hedge plant
Pozo Surf or Parking Strip without water for years, about at about 8 years old. It seems to grow about 60 cm, 25-30 inches high and 6 ft., 2 meters  wide. The customers in San Diego love this plant. - grid24_12
Pozo Surf is a small bush that is green and drought tolerant.
Is this bright enough for you? Ceanothus Celestial Blue is bright and cheery. - grid24_12
Ceanothus Celestial Blue is very floriferous.
Ceanothus L.T. Blue flowers. - grid24_12
Ceanothus LT Blue is big, beautiful and very drought tolerant.
Remote Blue Ceanothus has sky blue flowers(yes the sky looks like that) - grid24_12
Remote Blue Ceanothus is a 6 foot bush with deep green leaves and blue flowers.
deep blue flowers of the Tassajar Blue - grid24_12
Ceanothus Tassajara Blue has blue flowers on a fast 6 ft. bush.
Rhamnus californica Tranquil Margarita Tranquil Coffeeberry - grid24_12
Tranquil Margarita Coffeeberry is the prettiest little coffeeberry you'll ever see.
Populus fremontii,  Zapata Fremont Cottonwood tree with fall color - grid24_12
Zapata is a Cottonwood for most of California.
The Carrizo Plain form of Fremont  Cottonwood - grid24_12
Carrizo Cottonwood is a Cottonwood for the desert.
The flowers on Acer negundo. - grid24_12
Bert's Toy Box is a small deciduous tree.
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Copyright © 1992-2025 Las Pilitas Nursery
Edited on Sep 15, 2016. Authors: Bert Wilson Penny Nyunt
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