Our CNPS East Bay chapter’s Native Here Nursery says spring isn’t over yet! We currently have many pots of blooming annual wildflowers just waiting to go to their forever homes. Forever may seem like an exaggeration for annual plants that germinate, bloom, and die in one season, but you can easily collect and grow the seeds they set and enjoy many more plants for years to come.
Our annuals are rewarding: they grow fast, and those we offer are easy to grow in pots or in the ground. Most are available in four-inch pots for just $4, and a few are in deeper “deepots” or gallon containers. (Remember that plants in any size pots will need more water than those in the ground.)
Below are descriptions of some special annuals available at the nursery in very good quantities right now (online 24/7 or in person on Saturdays 10 am – 2 pm). We also have smaller numbers of tidy-tips (Layia platyglossa), hayfield tarplant (Hemizonia congesta), and some Clarkia species.
Wind poppy (Papaver heterophyllum)
Wind poppy is the almost look-alike cousin of the seldom-seen fire poppy (Papaver californicum), but wind poppy will grow happily in gardens (without fire) when given the right conditions. With those preferred conditions—light shade, low to moderate moisture, and soil with good drainage—wind poppies will naturalize and regrow from seed every year. They do well under oaks and light up that semi-shady habitat with their bright petals.
Wind poppies bloom in April and May atop thin, wiry, foot-long stems that allow the flowers to move like delicate garden ornaments in the breeze. That swaying motion also helps distribute the seed, which shakes like salt or pepper out of holes around the top of the dried capsule.
In the wild
Wind poppy grows in chaparral or woodland openings in warm, dry inland locations from Southern California to the Bay Area.
In the garden
Sun: part shade or full sun
Water: low
Soil: adaptable to various soils but needs good drainage
Blow-wives (Achyrachaena mollis)
Blow-wives is a common annual wildflower that makes up for its unshowy flowers with lovely, persistent seed heads. These plants can be quite small or moderately tall (1-16 inches high), but when in flower they’re easy to overlook in the grassy fields where they grow. That’s because blow-wives’ flowers look like unopened dandelion heads, with yellow to red petals staying almost completely hidden inside their green phyllaries until they go to seed. Then they shine, literally, opening to display shiny white scales that look like petals attached to black seeds and arranged in spherical heads. A patch of blow-wives in seed can be quite stunning and may last for a few weeks before the wind catches the scales and disperses the seeds.
Blow-wives bloom in March-May and put on their seed display in April and May. If not disturbed, they re-sow readily, but they’re well behaved and not invasive.
In the wild
Blow-wives are common in low-elevation hills and grasslands throughout California.
In the garden
Sun: full sun
Water: low; drought tolerant once they have germinated and started to grow
Soil: adaptable to various soil types, including serpentine and clay
Blow-wives is the only plant in the genus Achyrachaena, and its plural common name applies to both individual and multiple flowers.
Goldfields (Lasthenia californica)
This is the spring wildflower that from March until May carpets large open areas with brilliant yellow-gold. In gardens, it germinates easily from seed and will reseed abundantly from year to year if it gets some winter-spring moisture and the site is not disturbed.
Goldfields are quite variable in their appearance. In poor soils they may be just a couple of inches high, but in better soils, like those in many gardens, they are more robust and may grow up to 15 inches tall. Their golden yellow miniature sunflowers are variable too. In some areas they may be twice as big as in others, but none are bigger than a quarter. Besides offering beauty, goldfields provide pollen and nectar for numerous insects, including many kinds of native bees.
In the wild
Goldfields grow in a variety of different soils, including serpentine, in open areas like coastal prairies, meadows, native grasslands, and woodland understories.
In the garden
Sun: Full sun or part shade
Water: low
Soil: tolerant of many soil types as well as medium to high levels of salt
A single plant is called a goldfields (plural), and multiple plants are also called goldfields.
Chinese houses (Collinsia heterophylla)
Unlike California’s many sun-loving annual wildflowers, Chinese houses are happiest in part shade in most places (on the coast they can take full sun). That tolerance of light shade coupled with relatively low water needs makes Chinese houses good candidates for growing under oaks, where they light up the understory with tiers of whorled purple and white flowers in March through May or June. Chinese houses’ showy flowers attract native bees, and the bees return the favor by pollinating the flowers and helping them produce a better seed crop. If Chinese houses are happy where they’re growing and they’re allowed to go to seed in an undisturbed spot, they can form a permanent colony that blooms from seed each year.
In the wild
Chinese houses grow in shady places throughout most of California below 3,000 feet, including meadows, disturbed sites, recently burned areas, near seeps or ponds, and beneath oaks or large shrubs. They’re not found in desert regions of the state.
In the garden
Sun: part shade inland; sun on the coast
Water: low to moderate
Soil: tolerant of various well-drained soils, best with a bit of humus
This is yet another annual with a plural name that applies to one flower or many flowers.
Skunkweed (Navarretia squarrosa)
Last, and perhaps least in the minds of some, is a diminutive annual plant—often just a few inches tall—that doesn’t have as many boosters as it should. In fact, Native Here may be the only retail nursery that carries it. But it’s cute and tough and worth considering. As a small plant growing in open places, it’s well-armed to repel small critters that might consider it an easy meal. It slows them down with its skunky aroma, then stops them with little spines on its leaf lobes and spiny bracts surrounding each inflorescence. Guarded by all that protection are tiny but exquisite blue flowers that bloom from about May to July.
Don’t just follow the showy-flower crowd, bring home a pot or two of these cute little stinky plants to appreciate and to remind you that beauty is in the eye (and the nose) of the beholder.
In the wild
Skunkweed grows in open, sunny, gravelly areas.
In the garden
Sun: full sun
Water: low to moderate
Soil: well-drained
Visit Native Here Nursery soon, either online or in person, to add easy annuals to your garden this year—and for future years.
— Native Here Nursery volunteers
May 2022
