Page 45 - Greet HWY 68 Loop 05.25

GREEN LIVING
Are you taking steps to lighten your carbon
footprint on the earth? Share your practices
COUNTRY Pink flowering martin@n2co.com or phone 272-4620.
with your neighbors. Contact Laurie at Laurie.
Currant buzzing
with bees
GARDENER’S

CLUB

Native beauties all around us

BY PRISCILLA DU, SAN BENANCIO

The Country Gardener’s Club gathered at Priscilla’s enchanting
blue house and blossoming front yard to appreciate her plant
collections and endure her quirky plant talks. We walked by the
already majestic-looking Honey Bush, Matilija Poppy, and Bee’s
Bliss Sage, which were emerging from the rainfall and prepping
for their showtime later. Large ceanothus covered in vibrant
blue have always been the eye-catcher in March.

Pink Flowering Currant Ceanothus “Concha”

These are a few commonly found varieties in retail garden
centers that grow well here.
• Ceanothus ‘Julia Phelps’ is upright, quickly growing
to 6 feet or more. It has intense violet-blue blooms
and tiny leaves, which deer hardly bother.
• Ceanothus ‘Concha’ has a broad, arching form and vibrant, Priscilla talking about
bright blue flowers that last over a month. It grows the plants in her garden
moderately to 5 feet tall and 8 feet wide or more. The leaves
are long but still on the small side and relatively deer-safe.
• Ceanothus ‘Joyce Cutler’ can make an attractive large- At the end of the meeting, we sat around the tables to appreciate
scale ground cover with dark green foliage and bright blue Priscilla’s Dudleya collections. Dudleya is a group of California
flowers. It grows moderately to about 3 feet tall and easily native succulent plants. They were the subject of illegal poaching
10 feet wide. The bloom is not intense but lasts nearly three from the coastal public land a few years ago. Three species of
months. The leaves are slightly hairy, which deters deer. Dudleya are commonly found in Monterey County: D.lanceolata,
D.farinosa and D.cymosa. My favorite is a hybrid of D.farinosa,
Besides the buzzing ceanothus plants filled with hundreds of which I snatched from a nursery closeout many years ago. They
bees working the flowers, the delayed blooming Pink Flowering were set up in front of the house and lived happily through full
Currants that usually flower in January have finally woken up sun, wind, rain, and down to 20-degree weather at the bottom of
with enough rainfall. Native currants and gooseberries are a San Benancio Canyon.
crucial winter food source for resident Anna hummingbirds in
this area. They feed on the thousands of tubular flowers and If you are interested in native plants and pollinator gardening, feel
nest among the protection of the thorny branches. free to reach out to us at countrygardeners68@gmail.com. We
• Pink Flowering Currant is the most attractive and delicate have been your very own local garden club since 1955.
looking of this family. It likes rich, loamy, well-drained
soil, bright shade or part sun. It grows moderately to 7 feet
tall with an upright form. Like many native plants, it loses
its leaves in a short dormancy period, usually around late
summer and fall before the rain. As soon as rain starts, the Priscilla Du loves gardening and using
plant will leaf out and then push out gorgeous 4-inch-long local native plants to create a welcoming
pink clusters of flowers, followed by black or grey clusters environment for bees and birds. She lives in San
of currant berries in the summer. Benancio with her family.

44 May 2025 Greet HWY 68 Loop 45