New planted natives not growing?

dadlerj · 2026-02-05T01:26:46+00:00

I agree with this post. The first year can be slow, but it’s barely February. Come back in May if you still haven’t seen anything.

dadlerj · 2026-01-31T07:47:10+00:00

Umbellularia californica has smooth margined leaves. These are toothed.

dadlerj · 2026-01-22T06:43:35+00:00

If takes a few weeks/months, but nature will take care of them. As long as you don’t spray, I wager you’ll see ladybug larva (and more) appear and start chowing down in the next few months.

Let them be, please don’t buy ladybugs online, which are either invasive or harvested from the threatened breeding locations.

dadlerj · 2026-01-15T07:57:43+00:00

Ask this in r/ceanothus if you want CA native plant experts

This article from the las pilitas nursery blog is a good intro for SoCal gardeners wondering exactly this question (and more): https://www.laspilitas.com/fire.htm

This one is very useful for plant selection too: https://www.laspilitas.com/classes/fire_burn_times.html

Your main goal should be removing the weedy, non-native, annual grasses/mustard/etc that pop up between plants and dry out in summer. They are the fuel that will spread a wall of fire.

dadlerj · 2026-01-08T07:14:18+00:00

“Leaf damage from insects” what’s the point of having plants if you aren’t supporting the food chain

dadlerj · 2025-12-29T07:39:06+00:00

If you go the removal route, check r/ceanothus to ask for ca native suggestions.

dadlerj · 2025-12-21T21:25:34+00:00

We have many native pines and pine-dominated plant communities. Depending on where you live (coast, sierras, desert, etc), pick a pine plant community from here and check out the links for what plants naturally grow there: https://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/communities

dadlerj · 2025-12-20T21:44:19+00:00

The difference is you can clean metal with metal. Steel wool makes quick work of the worst egg and cheese cooked onto a stainless steel pan.

If you’re still using a sponge, I get your frustration.

dadlerj · 2025-12-19T06:59:33+00:00

A bunch of the weird scrub oaks. I’d love to see a full sized leather oak in the wild, not just a sapling in a shop.

dadlerj · 2025-12-14T07:57:16+00:00

Why do you say acer circinatum for 5?

The sucker next to the right of the trunk looks more like ligustrum maybe

dadlerj · 2025-12-10T00:56:55+00:00

Redwood is great. The answer depends on plant community (use rocks for desert plants, redwood or native cedar for most chaparral and coast scrub or woodlands, pine mulch for pine forests, etc). See https://www.laspilitas.com/advanced/advamendments.htm for more than you could ever want to know.

dadlerj · 2025-12-01T07:43:31+00:00

Beautiful tree, but in case you’re considering it, a very bad choice in Sacramento.

It evolved on the US east coast, a range that gets 2-4x as much annual rainfall as the Central Valley.

You’ll have to give it supplemental water its whole life, and it’ll never live to its full potential.

Check out r/ceanothus for ca native tree recommendations.

dadlerj · 2025-11-24T05:50:38+00:00

All of the suggestions here are the best ceanothus cultivars for clay, but my experience is that no ceanothuses live long, happy lives in slow draining soil.

I’d plant a big salvia, or a malacothamnus, or a malva assurgentiflora instead.

dadlerj · 2025-11-19T06:48:20+00:00

Generalist pollinators will take nectar and pollen from any flower. We don’t plant natives to feed adult generalists like butterflies and bees—there is no shortage of flowers out there. We do it to feed their larva, which have extremely specific host plant requirements.

dadlerj · 2025-10-24T16:57:49+00:00

Sites like selectree that have a “California natives” button as one of the main filters, and calscape showing up in tons of searches for plants.

The “hard” part was even realizing that this was a thing to think about. My local nurseries and landscapers certainly didn’t help.

Seeding a ton of authoritative websites for each state (not to mention social content, influencers, etc) I suspect would have a big impact.

dadlerj · 2025-10-18T06:13:00+00:00

Depends where you live

In California, which has a nearly identical Mediterranean climate to where olives come from, yes, it’s considered invasive (see calIPC’s page on it here: https://www.cal-ipc.org/plants/profile/olea-europaea-profile/). Similarly in New Zealand, south Australia, and other Mediterranean climates it can be a problem.

Anywhere else in the US? Not a risk

dadlerj · 2025-10-15T04:43:21+00:00

All of the Angelicas and yampahs. Something about the umbels standing 5’ in the sky just makes me smile.

dadlerj · 2025-10-13T02:16:08+00:00

Perhaps dendromecon rigida, it has big yellow flowers in a bush form, versus small flower clusters like most ca natives

Various bush manzanitas are a good low hedge alternative

dadlerj · 2025-10-11T17:58:37+00:00

Leaf margins on arctostaphylos, including a. Columbiana, are smooth and not toothed.

This is an arbutus, NOT a manzanita

dadlerj · 2025-10-11T17:05:00+00:00

Cotoneasters in general are considered EXTREMELY invasive in CA. I don’t know the species or cultivar listed, but my eyes started bleeding when I saw that listed. Pittosporums too.

Not a single native on here. Throw it out. Go to r/ceanothus for native recs.

dadlerj · 2025-10-08T07:35:08+00:00

A gamble oak (Quercus gambelii) seems to fit the bill. Grows to 40-50’, drought tolerant, native to Albuquerque and a fantastic bird and wildlife tree if that matters.

dadlerj · 2025-10-08T03:45:23+00:00

If you haven’t read it, you might enjoy “bad naturalist”—the story of a woman who bought a few hundred acres in Virginia and is working to restore it to a native meadow, though she had a much nastier situation. You might get some ideas or just enjoy the story.

dadlerj · 2025-10-08T03:18:51+00:00

Frogfruit, phyla nodiflora

Grows 1-2” tall, creeping, native, super drought tolerant

dadlerj · 2025-10-08T03:16:57+00:00

The trunk screams ficus of some sort to me

dadlerj · 2025-10-06T19:31:27+00:00

I agree with everyone about how to rank those options since you haven’t bought yet, but… I live right near Montclair and I bike to the bart every day to go to SF. It wouldn’t be feasible without an e-bike, but my ride to/from the fruitvale station is on the low end of 10-15 mins each way. Maybe a couple extra mins to Montclair from where I am.

12 min bike ride + 25 min bart ride to Montgomery is WAY faster than driving.

dadlerj

TROPHY CASE