How do I know what to plant?
The South Bay generally includes the following plant communities: Coastal Strand, Coastal Sage Scrub, Chaparral, Coastal Dune. Each of these has a palette of native plants associated with it. There are many online resources you can use to research your plant selections. These include information from the California Native Plant Society, Calflora.net, and Calscape.org. Las Pilitas California native plant nursery has a wonderful website full of all sorts of useful information including plants for different native ecosystems. The El Segundo Blue Butterfly Coalition maintains a website that is a great resource for creating a habitat for the El Segundo Blue Butterfly. SBPC does not intend to be overly restrictive in our approval of your native plant pallet.
California Native Plant Society - cnps.org
Calflora - calflora.org
Calscape - calscape.org
Las Pilitas Nursery - laspilitas.com
El Segundo Blue Butterfly Coalition - esbcoalition.org
Where can I get native plants?
Most local nurseries and outdoor centers attached to big box home improvement stores do not carry California native plants. We hope this changes over time. We have found that the Theodore Payne Foundation, Tree of Life, and Las Pilitas nurseries have a great selection. Las Pilitas and Annie’s Annuals have a good mail-order track record. Las Pilitas’ website is full of great information. SS Seeds has a good selection of seeds but you generally have to buy at least a pound of seed, which is not cheap and is overkill for South Bay yards. Theodore Payne has a nice selection of smaller seed packs. The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy has monthly native plant sales - the selection is usually pretty limited. And Theodore Payne sells native plants as well. And the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society holds native plant sales occasionally.
Theodore Payne Foundation - https://theodorepayne.org
Tree of Life Nursery (SBPC gets most of our plants here) - https://californianativeplants.com
Las Pilitas Nursery (mail order!) - https://www.laspilitas.com
Annie’s Annuals (Mail order! Make sure you are in the California Natives section) - https://www.anniesannuals.com
SS Seeds (seeds only) - http://www.ssseeds.com
Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy - https://pvplc.org/native-plants-nursery/
California Native Plant Society - https://www.cnps.org
Now that I have them, how do I plant my native plants?
Before you try it on your own plants, volunteer at an SBPC planting event. Get your hands dirty and learn about our plants!
Each plant thrives in specific conditions. Make sure you consider the ideal conditions for each plant. A plant that requires sun will not likely do well in a constantly shaded area. Similarly, a plant that thrives under oaks will not likely do well in a sunny portion of your yard.
Once you’ve figured out the placement for your plant, dig a hole slightly wider than your plant’s root ball. Fill it with water and let drain naturally three times. The goal is to get the ground beneath your new plant well-saturated. Take your plant out of the bag or plastic pot. If the roots are tightly compressed tease the ends out a little. Put the plant in the saturated hole and ensure the stem coming out of the root ball is slightly above ground level. Lightly tamp the soil around the root ball ensuring there are no voids. Water again. Avoid building a berm or water dam around the stem of the plant. This encourages root rot.
DO NOT OVERWATER after initial planting. During the first weeks ensure the soil stays moist but not saturated. Gradually taper off the watering. It is best to plant right before or during our early wet season. But you can plant any time of the year with the right care. If you’ve been watering and your plant is looking bad, do not be tempted to water more. It is far more likely you are overwatering.
After the first year, watering is generally not required unless we do not get enough winter water. Do not use fertilizer or soil augmentation. Remember, you pledged you wouldn’t… and your plants don’t really like or need them.
