Native Plants

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Wednesday - October 08, 2008

From: New York City, NY
Region: California
Topic: Container Gardens
Title: Container gardening for pool in southern California
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I have large planters around pool would like to know what plants to use that will not grow to high or to big and will not have large roots home located in camarillo ca.

ANSWER:

You can find a list of commercially available native landscapte species for southern California by choosing that area from the map on our Recommended Species page. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by not too high or too big, but I will recommend a few plants from that list of a moderate size (3 feet or less) that should do well in containers.

Aquilegia eximia (Van Houtte's columbine) and Aquilegia formosa (western columbine)

Artemisia pycnocephala (beach sagebrush) for interesting foliage

Dasiphora fruticosa ssp. floribunda (shrubby cinquefoil)

Diplacus longiflorus (southern bush monkeyflower) and Diplacus puniceus (red bush monkeyflower)

Encelia farinosa (brittlebush)

Eriogonum fasciculatum (Eastern Mojave buckwheat)

Gaultheria shallon (salal)

Ipomopsis aggregata (scarlet gilia)

Mahonia repens (creeping barberry)

Penstemon heterophyllus (bunchleaf penstemon) and Penstemon spectabilis (showy penstemon)

Psilostrophe tagetina (woolly paperflower)

Salvia clevelandii (fragrant sage)