KenGourley.com - Gallery of Northern California Plants

Gallery of Northern California Plants

When I look at this shot of the dangling 3-toned flowers of Fuchsia denticulata on the right, mixing with the orange Abutilon, AKA "Flowering Maple"; the royal purple blooms of the Tibouchina (AKA "Chinese Princess Flower Tree") on the left, and the dainty little heads from a huge mound of a neglected R. Mme. Cecile Brunner (AKA "the sweetheart rose") peeking out from the distant vacant lot in the middle... I can't help but think of the over-quoted line that Dorothy said to Toto: "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" (Or, in my case, Illinois!)
This Gallery of Northern California Plants is dedicated to the "survivors" of the garden: the plants that make it, year after year, either unattended and living off just the natural rainfall (which, for those of us that have lived here for many years, but come originally from the Eastern half of the continent, can still find amazing that California's summer rain usually adds up to zero!); or, with only modest man-made additional irrigation, perform in an otherwise very trouble-free manner. Besides California natives -- like the petite sky-blue blooms of Ceanothus (AKA "California Lilac") or the golden splash in the distance of Fremontia ("Flannel Bush") -- northern California has become home now to many plants that are originally from the Mediterranean basin, South Africa, Australia, Chile, or New Zealand -- places that have a very similar climate to ours, even if half a world away.
Unless otherwise mentioned, the pics were taken in gardens I maintain. I gladly give credit, though, to the many other gardens and parks, both public and private, where I have gotten my additional pictures!

Nasturtium with Dwarf Citrus
For people living along or near the coast, Nasturtium are extremely succesful plants to grow, coming in both trailing and climbing forms, and also smaller clumping varieties. Easy to grow from seed, they have often naturalized in many coast-side gardens, being able to take both fog and drought, and as well they can bloom in light shade. Regarding citrus, the best citrus by far for coastal gardens are lemons, because they don't require the same amount of heat that other citrus need in order to properly ripen well and get sufficiently sweet enough to be able to eat. The all-time favorite lemon of Northern California gardeners is unquestionably the Meyer lemon - a lemon variety which has thinner skins and is much milder and sweeter than other lemons. For folks living further inland, growing oranges works well, as long as the micro-climate you garden in has sufficient summer heat and usually has frost-free winters. Please check with your local nursery for their recommendations of which varieties of citrus grow best in your area, as well as become familiar with which Sunset climate zone you live in (as found in the Sunset Western Garden Book). And for those gardeners who have very limited space, I highly recommend planting only DWARF citrus trees!

Ice Plants and Statice
There are many different varieties of brilliant, showy coastal ground cover succulent plants that bloom in bright colors in the spring, which are all generally lumped together as "Ice Plants". Many can carpet a sand dune or hillside in shades of neon-red, hippie pink, and magenta-purple, and can survive as close to the sea as only being footsteps away from pounding surf! They look their best when grown in Santa Cruz and southward, but I've seen them grow and bloom as far north as Fort Bragg along the Mendocino coast. Most ice plant varieties are originally native to South Africa, and their various Latin horticultural names are all found in Sunset's Western Garden Book. The purple plant shown in this photograph that is next to the red-pink ice plant is Statice (AKA "Sea Lavender"), the Latin name being Limonium. Statice, besides looking great in coastal gardens, also happens to make a wonderful and very long-lasting cut flower!

Campanula Muralis
There are many different types of Campanulas (AKA Bellflower), but Campanula muralis is by far my favorite petite little ground cover variety. Here you see it growing in a half wine barrel in front of my friend Christopher's house, giving the city sidewalk in his neighborhood a cheery lift! Campanulas may look very delicate, but they are amazingly sturdy perennials! They can come in all sizes, too - ranging from this low-growing small-flowered variety, to large wand-like flower stalks that can grow as tall as six feet high! Although most varieties are what I would call only "SEMI drought-tolerant", they are nevertheless very successful choices to plant in the fog belt, as well as in shade further inland. Although their main moment of bloom is around mid-spring, they also can repeat their bloom intermittently throughout the growing season.

Evergreen Trumpet Vine
There are many different kinds of trumpet vines, both evergreen and deciduous. Most of the deciduous varieties fall under the Latin name "Campsis". The one in this photograph, though, is Distictis buccinatoria (AKA the Blood-red Trumpet Vine). Originally a native of Mexico, this vine does extremely well in the fog belt and banana belt zones of coastal Northern California, blooming intermittently throughout the year whenever the weather warms up a bit. Plant in a location where it gets full sun, but be forewarned: this vine can get HUGE!!! When my mom moved out to California in '79, I remember helping her plant one of these in front of the house she bought in the Glen Park area of San Francisco. It was in a cute little five-gallon container, and looked harmless enough... Three years later it not only had accomplished covering the bare wall as she had hope it would, but it also had climbed beyond the second story deck and into the neighboring house's window! Every year it had to be trimmed back severely, constantly needing some re-direction as to where to go and where NOT to go. I've also seen it climb a redwood tree, along with the spectacular magenta-pink Bougainvillea brasiliensis, outside a garden in Belvedere. It's beautiful and healthy, but it definitely needs SPACE!!!!

Geranium Incanum
One of the hardy "cranesbill" type of geraniums, this is in the true Geranium family (as opposed to what many people refer to as "geraniums", which are really more accurately Pelargoniums). Even when the little magenta flowers are not in bloom, the foliage on this geranium makes it a lovely ground cover plant year-round. This is another example of a plant that I think of as more "SEMI drought-tolerant", rather than completely drought-tolerant, but it is a healthy and reliable great garden plant for much of Northern California, regardless! The tall stems of the pink Foxglove towards the back are really just incidental in this photo, but they certainly make an attractive combination!

Sequoia Sempervirens (AKA Coast Redwood)
What gallery of Northern California plants would be complete without including the famous and majestic native Coast Redwood tree? This photograph was taken up in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, just north of the town of Garberville, California. The native ferns seen in this photo survive completely without any worry about having no summer water, because this part of Northern California gets so much summer fog that it drips down off the trees from up above. In proportion to both how far north, as well as how near to the coast, the far Northwest corner of the state is essentially a rain forest - in some sections rainfall exceeds over 100 inches a year! Think long and hard before planting one of these beautiful trees in your garden, though. Keep in mind that what starts off as a cute little redwood seedling in a harmless little pot will eventually someday grow up to be the tallest living thing on planet Earth!!

Common Calla Lily (Zantedeschia)
Originally a native of South Africa, the common white Calla Lily is seen so much all over Northern California that many gardeners actually consider it a weed! Compare that to when I lived in New York City briefly during the mid-'80s, where the cut calla lily flowers would get top dollar in the finest florist shops - you can see that this flower is not without people having very strong feelings about it! While I don't recommend planting callas in a rose garden, I see nothing at all wrong with planting them in the same garden as roses grow - just plant them on the shady side of the yard... After all, since I'm originally from the cold winter climate of northern Illinois, to my eyes, even the most "common" of these white lilies I still consider to be quite "exotic!"

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	Nasturtium with Dwarf Citrus For people living along or near the coast, Nasturtium are extremely succesful plants to grow, coming in both trailing and climbing forms, and also smaller clumping varieties. Easy to grow from seed, they have often naturalized in many coast-side gardens, being able to take both fog and drought, and as well they can bloom in light shade. Regarding citrus, the best citrus by far for coastal gardens are lemons, because they don't require the same amount of heat that other citrus need in order to properly ripen well and get sufficiently sweet enough to be able to eat. The all-time favorite lemon of Northern California gardeners is unquestionably the Meyer lemon - a lemon variety which has thinner skins and is much milder and sweeter than other lemons. For folks living further inland, growing oranges works well, as long as the micro-climate you garden in has sufficient summer heat and usually has frost-free winters. Please check with your local nursery for their recommendations of which varieties of citrus grow best in your area, as well as become familiar with which Sunset climate zone you live in (as found in the Sunset Western Garden Book). And for those gardeners who have very limited space, I highly recommend planting only DWARF citrus trees!
	Ice Plants and Statice There are many different varieties of brilliant, showy coastal ground cover succulent plants that bloom in bright colors in the spring, which are all generally lumped together as "Ice Plants". Many can carpet a sand dune or hillside in shades of neon-red, hippie pink, and magenta-purple, and can survive as close to the sea as only being footsteps away from pounding surf! They look their best when grown in Santa Cruz and southward, but I've seen them grow and bloom as far north as Fort Bragg along the Mendocino coast. Most ice plant varieties are originally native to South Africa, and their various Latin horticultural names are all found in Sunset's Western Garden Book. The purple plant shown in this photograph that is next to the red-pink ice plant is Statice (AKA "Sea Lavender"), the Latin name being Limonium. Statice, besides looking great in coastal gardens, also happens to make a wonderful and very long-lasting cut flower!
	Campanula Muralis There are many different types of Campanulas (AKA Bellflower), but Campanula muralis is by far my favorite petite little ground cover variety. Here you see it growing in a half wine barrel in front of my friend Christopher's house, giving the city sidewalk in his neighborhood a cheery lift! Campanulas may look very delicate, but they are amazingly sturdy perennials! They can come in all sizes, too - ranging from this low-growing small-flowered variety, to large wand-like flower stalks that can grow as tall as six feet high! Although most varieties are what I would call only "SEMI drought-tolerant", they are nevertheless very successful choices to plant in the fog belt, as well as in shade further inland. Although their main moment of bloom is around mid-spring, they also can repeat their bloom intermittently throughout the growing season.
	Evergreen Trumpet Vine There are many different kinds of trumpet vines, both evergreen and deciduous. Most of the deciduous varieties fall under the Latin name "Campsis". The one in this photograph, though, is Distictis buccinatoria (AKA the Blood-red Trumpet Vine). Originally a native of Mexico, this vine does extremely well in the fog belt and banana belt zones of coastal Northern California, blooming intermittently throughout the year whenever the weather warms up a bit. Plant in a location where it gets full sun, but be forewarned: this vine can get HUGE!!! When my mom moved out to California in '79, I remember helping her plant one of these in front of the house she bought in the Glen Park area of San Francisco. It was in a cute little five-gallon container, and looked harmless enough... Three years later it not only had accomplished covering the bare wall as she had hope it would, but it also had climbed beyond the second story deck and into the neighboring house's window! Every year it had to be trimmed back severely, constantly needing some re-direction as to where to go and where NOT to go. I've also seen it climb a redwood tree, along with the spectacular magenta-pink Bougainvillea brasiliensis, outside a garden in Belvedere. It's beautiful and healthy, but it definitely needs SPACE!!!!
	Geranium Incanum One of the hardy "cranesbill" type of geraniums, this is in the true Geranium family (as opposed to what many people refer to as "geraniums", which are really more accurately Pelargoniums). Even when the little magenta flowers are not in bloom, the foliage on this geranium makes it a lovely ground cover plant year-round. This is another example of a plant that I think of as more "SEMI drought-tolerant", rather than completely drought-tolerant, but it is a healthy and reliable great garden plant for much of Northern California, regardless! The tall stems of the pink Foxglove towards the back are really just incidental in this photo, but they certainly make an attractive combination!
	Sequoia Sempervirens (AKA Coast Redwood) What gallery of Northern California plants would be complete without including the famous and majestic native Coast Redwood tree? This photograph was taken up in Humboldt Redwoods State Park, just north of the town of Garberville, California. The native ferns seen in this photo survive completely without any worry about having no summer water, because this part of Northern California gets so much summer fog that it drips down off the trees from up above. In proportion to both how far north, as well as how near to the coast, the far Northwest corner of the state is essentially a rain forest - in some sections rainfall exceeds over 100 inches a year! Think long and hard before planting one of these beautiful trees in your garden, though. Keep in mind that what starts off as a cute little redwood seedling in a harmless little pot will eventually someday grow up to be the tallest living thing on planet Earth!!
	Common Calla Lily (Zantedeschia) Originally a native of South Africa, the common white Calla Lily is seen so much all over Northern California that many gardeners actually consider it a weed! Compare that to when I lived in New York City briefly during the mid-'80s, where the cut calla lily flowers would get top dollar in the finest florist shops - you can see that this flower is not without people having very strong feelings about it! While I don't recommend planting callas in a rose garden, I see nothing at all wrong with planting them in the same garden as roses grow - just plant them on the shady side of the yard... After all, since I'm originally from the cold winter climate of northern Illinois, to my eyes, even the most "common" of these white lilies I still consider to be quite "exotic!"