I'm in heaven when I can spend the day gabbing on about native plants. Sunday was that kind of day as I wandered about Ann's garden for the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour and answered questions for the passersby. Designed by Rick Alatorre and installed a year ago (although it looks much more established!), this garden weaves a number of floriferous natives around a central stone patio. The Limnanthes douglasii var sulpherea 'Pt Reyes' pictured above happily mounded in the sunshine and gave the bees a good workspace to gather pollen. A native of vernal pools, this native annual adapts easily and reseeds like crazy! There's actually a species of bee that only uses this flower to survive!
Among the cool kids of the garden plants- Monardella villosa, or Coyote Mint. It wasn't even blooming and it seemed to be a clear favorite, especially when paired so well with the Iris douglasiana.
The garden magnet, however was the little porch, where visitors gathered to take in all the amazing Columbines and Currants.
Seriously, these were the Godzillas of Columbines! The flower stalks rose to over 5 feet tall and the flowers looked like a gaggle of rockets blasting off into the stratosphere!
I came home with an interesting shoe-shaped tan line on my feet and a re-energized imagination for future design projects. (Not to mention the satisfaction of having a string of visitors I knew- thanks for stopping by, Meeces!)
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