Native Seedlings in the Field

It's been a few months since I last posted here.

I was away, out of state due to a family emergency. But now I am back.

Naturally I fretted about how all those 40+ native seedlings that I planted in October and November were managing. With the atmospheric rivers of rain, the seedlings fared well.

As you can see, so did everything else that was dormant in the field, including tall, unwanted grasses.

Some of the native seedlings were hidden under the tall grasses, dandelion plants, clover and other ground cover.

It was like an Easter egg hunt, poking through and searching for many of the seedlings.

Here is a Coyote Mint Monardella villosa, looking very good.

The White Sage Salvia apiana has never looked so good. I transplanted it from our garden at our previous house, concerned how it would react to being transplanted. It now has at least doubled in size, with two separate trunks. The White Sage is currently under threat by climate change, drought, wildfire, development and smudge stick poaching.

Ceanothus shrubs are always so lovely and hardy. I'm so happy to see this Ceanothus "Dark Star" seedling doing so well.

This is one of two Island mallow Malva assurgentiflora seedlings that I planted. They can grow up to 10' wide by 13' tall, with lovely magenta colored blossoms. The metal mesh you see is the top of a gopher cage that I made for the plant, because gophers apparently love to gnaw on the them. Keeping fingers crossed that the mallows will survive any possible gopher invasions.