NURSERY UPDATE

Despite showers, the Fall Native Plant Sale was a success, selling over 1,000 plants to the community. Though rain is usually not ideal for an event, we looked at it as a proper initiation into the planting season. It was a sweet water blessing for the plants we were passing on. For the nursery team, the sale is an emotional time. It is touching, bittersweet with letting go of our beloved friends, but ecstatic to see them go. I thank the community for being so accepting of our plant relatives, asking poignant questions and eager to get to know the plants. 

After getting the nursery clear of the winter’s cycle of natives, it was a quiet time for just a few weeks. Wyatt, our high school interns Coraline and Greer, and I sowed seed in germination mix. And then, we waited. It was my first propagation season as Native Plant Specialist. I fretted over the anticipation. I promised the seeds I would take care of them, read over germination data, and asked native plant friends their secrets. I did it all, but at the end of the day it was the seeds’ decision whether or not they come to life. I had to learn the good old lesson of nature. 

I can remember the first seed that popped up. Then all of a sudden, the trays were bountiful. California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), sagebrush (Artemisia californica), heartleaf penstemon (Keckiella cordifolia), purple sage (Salvia leucophylla), white sage (Salvia apiana), black sage (Salvia mellifera), hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea), purple needle grass (Stipa pulchra), giant rye (Elymus condensatus), bush sunflower (Encelia californica), chaparral mallow (Malacothamnus fasciculatus), California brickellbush (Brickellia californica) and so much more. Now, it is time to move up thousands of seedlings. This cycle will snowball into summer, then fall in which I hope to return these plants into the preserves, and all across the valley. 

Sophie McLean
Native Plant Specialist