Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Sunday - November 02, 2008

From: Rodeo, CA
Region: California
Topic: Shade Tolerant
Title: Shade tolerant plant for Rodeo, California
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I live in Rodeo, California and I need to know what is a good green plant I can get to place in a shady area

ANSWER:

Well, Mr. Smarty Plants will tell you how to search for and find a plant yourself. First, go to our Recommended Species page and select 'Northern California' from the map or the pull-down menu. This will give you a list of 158 native plant species that are commercially available for landscaping in northern California. Next, select the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option and click both "Part shade—2 to 6 hours of sun per day" and "Shade—Less than 2 hours of sun per day". This will give you a list of 85 native plants (herbaceous, shrubs and trees) to choose from.

Here are a few herbaceous choices:

Collinsia heterophylla (purple Chinese houses)

Aquilegia formosa (western columbine)

Ipomopsis aggregata (scarlet gilia)

Mimulus lewisii (purple monkeyflower)

And, here are a few evergreen shrubs:

Mahonia repens (creeping barberry)

Gaultheria shallon (salal)

Ceanothus velutinus (snowbrush ceanothus)

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (kinnikinnick)