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Favorite Plants of

Pacific Plant People

Emily Griswold
Member Profile
Emily Griswold is Director of GATEways Horticulture and Teaching Gardens at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden (APG), University of California, Davis. She leads the GATEways Project (Gardens, Art and the Environment), an initiative to engage visitors with the academic work of UC Davis through the creation of innovative gardens and outdoor programs in partnership campus departments.
IMG_0131

Quercus lobata (valley oak)

Leucophyllum

Leucophyllum langmaniae 'Lynn’s Legacy', (Lynn’s Legacy Texas sage)

Salvia muirii closeup

Salvia muirii (wildesalie)

Nolina nelsonii - Gazebo

Nolina nelsonii (blue nolina)

Erythrina closeup

Erythrina x bidwillii (hybrid coral bean)

Quercus lobata (valley oak)
Natives for Habitat

Plant Family

Fagaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Quercus
Plant Species

Species

Quercus lobata (valley oak)
Quercus lobata, commonly called the valley oak, is the largest of the California oaks. A majestic deciduous tree, it is endemic to California, growing in interior valleys and foothills from Siskiyou County to San Diego County. It thrives in areas with year-round access to groundwater and will require summer irrigation on other sites. Best suited to bigger gardens, this large tree provides exceptional shade and habitat value in hot summer landscapes.

Water Use

SelecTree Water Use Rating: Medium. If planted where the roots have access to groundwater, no summer irrigation is needed.

Conditions When It Thrives

Its preferred habitat is in interior valleys near creeks or rivers. It generally performs best in areas with a hot and dry summer climate.

Ecosystem Services

Exceptional tree for carbon sequestration, providing cooling shade, and supporting wildlife and local food webs. You attract all this diversity of life and get to observe it in your landscape.

Native To

California

Geographic Range

California, growing in interior valleys and foothills from Siskiyou County to San Diego County.

Availability

Widely available in California

Height & Habit

It can grow up to 60 feet tall in 20 years with an equal or greater spread and may ultimately reach 100 feet tall in favorable sites as it ages.

Special Features

I love the shape of the leaves. You know how they say ‘No two snowflakes are exactly the same’? It’s the same way when you carefully examine oak leaves. The leaves are a dark green color in the summer which make a great garden backdrop, and contrast with their gray-brown, furrowed bark.
Did You Know Icon
It has the largest acorns of any California oak. Also, it has tiny galls in the summer on the leaves they are called “jumping galls.” The galls fall off the leaves and look like little seeds on the ground, but each one has a tiny living larva inside. The larva hops to find shelter in cracks in the soil, causing the galls to “jump”. Sometimes their movement sounds like the pitter patter of rain in the summertime. It’s also an Arboretum All-Star - among the top 100 performing plants for the Central Valley region.

Why They Love It

It’s the quintessential California Central Valley native tree and an icon for this region. They are so valuable - they cast such great shade in our hot summers, when shade is essential to have a livable environment. As they mature, they get craggy limbs that are picturesque and beautiful. It’s also a vital foundation for food webs in this region. It supports a huge diversity of insects that in turn support a huge diversity of birds. If there’s only one tree I could specify for a garden in the Central Valley, it would be one of these oaks.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

Fully deciduous

Advice

Don’t plant too close to a driveway or your foundation. When planting generally it’s better to start with smaller trees. The absolute best way to start is with an acorn. With container trees, bigger is not necessarily better. The best way for an oak to develop a strong root system is in the ground (rather than a container).
Leucophyllum langmaniae 'Lynn’s Legacy', (Lynn’s Legacy Texas sage)
Drought Resilient

Plant Family

Scrophulariaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Leucophyllum
Plant Species

Species

Leucophyllum langmaniae 'Lynn’s Legacy', (Lynn’s Legacy Texas sage)
Leucophyllum langmaniae ‘Lynn’s Legacy’ is an evergreen shrub native to Mexico, with gray-green leaves of velvety texture. Its shape is branched and compact, forming a rounded mass of up to 5 feet high and wide. The flowers are lavender. They appear in the summer and fall, typically after a deep irrigation or late summer or early fall rain.

Water Use

Drought tolerant

Conditions When It Thrives

It really does best in sun and can tolerate clay soil with good drainage. It is not flood tolerant in the winter, however.

Ecosystem Services

As a dense shrub it provides cover and the flowers are adored by bees.

Native To

Mexico

Geographic Range

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b, 11a, 11b

Availability

Sold at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden plant sales and more.

Height & Habit

This rounded shrub gets about 5’ x and 5 wide, densely branched with small foliage which is a gray-green.

Special Features

It is very drought tolerant.
Did You Know Icon
It’s called Barometer Bush because it tends to bloom right after rainstorms. Also an Arboretum All-Star – a top 100 list of best performers for California’s Central Valley region and deemed a Texas Superstar® by Texas A & M).

Why They Love It

This variety, which goes by both "Lynn’s Legacy" and "Lynn’s Everblooming" has a longer bloom season for us than some others. It can bloom quite profusely with lavender purple flowers. When in full bloom the flowers can completely obscure the foliage. It also blooms in late summer and early fall, a time when you start to wonder if it will ever rain again, and it’s so refreshing to having something flowering.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

Ever-gray

Advice

It can take shearing but I prefer the natural loose form
Salvia muirii (wildesalie)
Drought Resilient

Plant Family

Lamiaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Salvia
Plant Species

Species

Salvia muirii (wildesalie)
Salvia muirii is a low-growing evergreen shrub native to the southern coast of South Africa. Conspicuous blue flowers hover over gray-green foliage over a long summer season on this remarkably tough and drought tolerant plant. Naturally compact, it fits well in small gardens and has similar growing preferences to many California native and Mediterranean climate gardening favorites.

Water Use

Drought resilient

Conditions When It Thrives

This is a great drought-tolerant plant for full sun. We have it in some pretty hot spots with reflected heat, and it has also done well in part shade for us. It grows well in clay soil here, as long as it’s not in a low spot and gets only infrequent water.

Ecosystem Services

All salvias are great pollinator plants. This one, with its blue flowers is going to be good for bees.

Native To

South Africa

Geographic Range

Availability

While it’s not that common, some wholesale growers in CA produce it. It’s something worth seeking out.

Height & Habit

I’ve grown them from two diff sources, one grew taller and one lower, so there may be some variability but growing to two feet or less is average.

Special Features

Neat, compact, low-maintenance, distinctive pollinator-friendly flowers. Leaves are fragrant when crushed.
Did You Know Icon

Why They Love It

This is a tidy little drought-tolerant plant with really pretty flowers. The foliage alone has a fine texture in a nice gray-green. I really love the flowers - they are a beautiful blueberry blue with a little white on the lower “lip”. The flowers are so charming, and I’m a sucker for salvias.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

"Ever-gray"

Advice

You don’t’ need to prune it unless it’s growing into a path - it‘s very low care.
Nolina nelsonii (blue nolina)
Drought Resilient

Plant Family

Asparagaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Nolina
Plant Species

Species

Nolina nelsonii (blue nolina)
Blue nolina is a blue-leaved succulent tree-like shrub from the mountains of Mexico. Although quick to form a large rosette, it takes many years to grow a trunk. It is very drought and heat tolerant and grows well in full sun or partial shade with well-drained soil. Its dramatic color and texture add a lot of drama to a low-water-use landscape. Credit: NC State University

Water Use

Very drought tolerant

Conditions When It Thrives

It grows best in full sun, but can tolerate partial shade and needs reasonable drainage.

Ecosystem Services

Bees love it when it flowers.

Native To

Mexico

Geographic Range

Availability

Definitely in the trade.

Height & Habit

In time it can develop a trunk. We’ve been growing ours for 8 or 9 years and haven’t gotten a trunk. In the shorter term, the leaves are about feet long, so plan on 4-5 feet tall and 8 feet wide.

Special Features

It’s very drought tolerant.
Did You Know Icon
Over time, Blue nolina will bloom with the flower stalk emerging 5-6 feet above the rest of plant with an enormous plume made up of tiny flowers. There are male and female plants, and if you are lucky enough to get a female, the hundreds of flowers act like little inflated lanterns. When it blooms the whole thing illuminates like an amazing glowing torch when backlit by the rising or setting sun. They take a few years to bloom and may not bloom every year.

Why They Love It

Painless Desert Design – the Look of a Yucca Without the Barbs. It has beautiful gray-blue foliage that radiates out in this sculptural spiky form. The leaves that look similar to a yucca or dasylirion. However, the edges are not like sawblades and the points are not like daggers, so it’s easier to garden around than other desert succulents. It’s a very striking sculptural plant year-round.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

It is ever-grey.

Advice

Be sure to plant it at least five feet back from any walkways, so the leaves have room to spread in all their symmetrical glory.
Erythrina x bidwillii (hybrid coral bean)
Biodiversity Boosters

Plant Family

Fabaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Erythrina
Plant Species

Species

Erythrina x bidwillii (hybrid coral bean)
A deciduous small tree or multi-stemmed shrub that can grow to as tall as 18 feet but is typically pruned to grow as a 6-8 foot tall shrub. It blooms continually on the new growth from spring through fall with peak flowering in summer months. It produces dozens of rich red flowers on 2 foot long terminal racemes that arch out and above the foliage on 6 foot stems. This plant inherits hardiness from its parentage (Erythrina herbacea x E. crista-galli) and is hardy to 20° F without damage and root hardy below this. Credit: San Marcos Growers

Water Use

Low Water Needs.

Conditions When It Thrives

It loves full sun. We water deeply every couple of weeks.

Ecosystem Services

Hummingbirds adore it.

Native To

It’s a hybrid between a South America tree (Erythrina crista-galli) and an Eastern US herbaceous plant (Erythrina herbacea).

Geographic Range

Availability

This is harder to find right now. It’s not that easy to propagate, more of a collectors’ item, but I’m hoping more people will produce it.

Height & Habit

Arching stems can reach 6’ in a season.

Special Features

Attention-grabbing red flowers and attractive winter architecture.
Did You Know Icon

Why They Love It

It has these flamboyantly beautiful red flowers that are great for hummingbirds, and this one has beautiful bright green foliage which is a great addition in a dry garden. It’s nice to have something contrasting that looks lush and green and tropical. It blooms in the heat of the summer when a lot of other things look kind of tired. It’s a showstopper- when it’s in bloom people are always asking about it.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

In Davis it goes fully deciduous and the winter stems have a sculptural curly architecture from the old flower stalks. We cut it back close to the ground in late winter before new growth begins, basically coppicing it every year. It makes a rounded 6‘ tall, 8’ wide shrub by the peak of summer. From late spring to fall it’s constantly pumping out these red flowers. The flowers look like elongated pea flowers with a velvety texture in vivid red. They are highly, highly appealing to people and hummingbirds.

Advice

Cut to the ground in winter.
Quercus lobata (valley oak)
Natives for Habitat

Plant Family

Fagaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Quercus
Plant Species

Species

Quercus lobata (valley oak)
Quercus lobata, commonly called the valley oak, is the largest of the California oaks. A majestic deciduous tree, it is endemic to California, growing in interior valleys and foothills from Siskiyou County to San Diego County. It thrives in areas with year-round access to groundwater and will require summer irrigation on other sites. Best suited to bigger gardens, this large tree provides exceptional shade and habitat value in hot summer landscapes.

Water Use

SelecTree Water Use Rating: Medium. If planted where the roots have access to groundwater, no summer irrigation is needed.

Conditions When It Thrives

Its preferred habitat is in interior valleys near creeks or rivers. It generally performs best in areas with a hot and dry summer climate.

Ecosystem Services

Exceptional tree for carbon sequestration, providing cooling shade, and supporting wildlife and local food webs. You attract all this diversity of life and get to observe it in your landscape.

Native To

California

Geographic Range

California, growing in interior valleys and foothills from Siskiyou County to San Diego County.

Availability

Widely available in California

Height & Habit

It can grow up to 60 feet tall in 20 years with an equal or greater spread and may ultimately reach 100 feet tall in favorable sites as it ages.

Special Features

I love the shape of the leaves. You know how they say ‘No two snowflakes are exactly the same’? It’s the same way when you carefully examine oak leaves. The leaves are a dark green color in the summer which make a great garden backdrop, and contrast with their gray-brown, furrowed bark.
Did You Know Icon
It has the largest acorns of any California oak. Also, it has tiny galls in the summer on the leaves they are called “jumping galls.” The galls fall off the leaves and look like little seeds on the ground, but each one has a tiny living larva inside. The larva hops to find shelter in cracks in the soil, causing the galls to “jump”. Sometimes their movement sounds like the pitter patter of rain in the summertime. It’s also an Arboretum All-Star - among the top 100 performing plants for the Central Valley region.

Why They Love It

It’s the quintessential California Central Valley native tree and an icon for this region. They are so valuable - they cast such great shade in our hot summers, when shade is essential to have a livable environment. As they mature, they get craggy limbs that are picturesque and beautiful. It’s also a vital foundation for food webs in this region. It supports a huge diversity of insects that in turn support a huge diversity of birds. If there’s only one tree I could specify for a garden in the Central Valley, it would be one of these oaks.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

Fully deciduous

Advice

Don’t plant too close to a driveway or your foundation. When planting generally it’s better to start with smaller trees. The absolute best way to start is with an acorn. With container trees, bigger is not necessarily better. The best way for an oak to develop a strong root system is in the ground (rather than a container).
Leucophyllum langmaniae 'Lynn’s Legacy', (Lynn’s Legacy Texas sage)
Drought Resilient

Plant Family

Scrophulariaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Leucophyllum
Plant Species

Species

Leucophyllum langmaniae 'Lynn’s Legacy', (Lynn’s Legacy Texas sage)
Leucophyllum langmaniae ‘Lynn’s Legacy’ is an evergreen shrub native to Mexico, with gray-green leaves of velvety texture. Its shape is branched and compact, forming a rounded mass of up to 5 feet high and wide. The flowers are lavender. They appear in the summer and fall, typically after a deep irrigation or late summer or early fall rain.

Water Use

Drought tolerant

Conditions When It Thrives

It really does best in sun and can tolerate clay soil with good drainage. It is not flood tolerant in the winter, however.

Ecosystem Services

As a dense shrub it provides cover and the flowers are adored by bees.

Native To

Mexico

Geographic Range

USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b, 10a, 10b, 11a, 11b

Availability

Sold at the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden plant sales and more.

Height & Habit

This rounded shrub gets about 5’ x and 5 wide, densely branched with small foliage which is a gray-green.

Special Features

It is very drought tolerant.
Did You Know Icon
It’s called Barometer Bush because it tends to bloom right after rainstorms. Also an Arboretum All-Star – a top 100 list of best performers for California’s Central Valley region and deemed a Texas Superstar® by Texas A & M).

Why They Love It

This variety, which goes by both "Lynn’s Legacy" and "Lynn’s Everblooming" has a longer bloom season for us than some others. It can bloom quite profusely with lavender purple flowers. When in full bloom the flowers can completely obscure the foliage. It also blooms in late summer and early fall, a time when you start to wonder if it will ever rain again, and it’s so refreshing to having something flowering.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

Ever-gray

Advice

It can take shearing but I prefer the natural loose form
Salvia muirii (wildesalie)
Drought Resilient

Plant Family

Lamiaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Salvia
Plant Species

Species

Salvia muirii (wildesalie)
Salvia muirii is a low-growing evergreen shrub native to the southern coast of South Africa. Conspicuous blue flowers hover over gray-green foliage over a long summer season on this remarkably tough and drought tolerant plant. Naturally compact, it fits well in small gardens and has similar growing preferences to many California native and Mediterranean climate gardening favorites.

Water Use

Drought resilient

Conditions When It Thrives

This is a great drought-tolerant plant for full sun. We have it in some pretty hot spots with reflected heat, and it has also done well in part shade for us. It grows well in clay soil here, as long as it’s not in a low spot and gets only infrequent water.

Ecosystem Services

All salvias are great pollinator plants. This one, with its blue flowers is going to be good for bees.

Native To

South Africa

Geographic Range

Availability

While it’s not that common, some wholesale growers in CA produce it. It’s something worth seeking out.

Height & Habit

I’ve grown them from two diff sources, one grew taller and one lower, so there may be some variability but growing to two feet or less is average.

Special Features

Neat, compact, low-maintenance, distinctive pollinator-friendly flowers. Leaves are fragrant when crushed.
Did You Know Icon

Why They Love It

This is a tidy little drought-tolerant plant with really pretty flowers. The foliage alone has a fine texture in a nice gray-green. I really love the flowers - they are a beautiful blueberry blue with a little white on the lower “lip”. The flowers are so charming, and I’m a sucker for salvias.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

"Ever-gray"

Advice

You don’t’ need to prune it unless it’s growing into a path - it‘s very low care.
Nolina nelsonii (blue nolina)
Drought Resilient

Plant Family

Asparagaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Nolina
Plant Species

Species

Nolina nelsonii (blue nolina)
Blue nolina is a blue-leaved succulent tree-like shrub from the mountains of Mexico. Although quick to form a large rosette, it takes many years to grow a trunk. It is very drought and heat tolerant and grows well in full sun or partial shade with well-drained soil. Its dramatic color and texture add a lot of drama to a low-water-use landscape. Credit: NC State University

Water Use

Very drought tolerant

Conditions When It Thrives

It grows best in full sun, but can tolerate partial shade and needs reasonable drainage.

Ecosystem Services

Bees love it when it flowers.

Native To

Mexico

Geographic Range

Availability

Definitely in the trade.

Height & Habit

In time it can develop a trunk. We’ve been growing ours for 8 or 9 years and haven’t gotten a trunk. In the shorter term, the leaves are about feet long, so plan on 4-5 feet tall and 8 feet wide.

Special Features

It’s very drought tolerant.
Did You Know Icon
Over time, Blue nolina will bloom with the flower stalk emerging 5-6 feet above the rest of plant with an enormous plume made up of tiny flowers. There are male and female plants, and if you are lucky enough to get a female, the hundreds of flowers act like little inflated lanterns. When it blooms the whole thing illuminates like an amazing glowing torch when backlit by the rising or setting sun. They take a few years to bloom and may not bloom every year.

Why They Love It

Painless Desert Design – the Look of a Yucca Without the Barbs. It has beautiful gray-blue foliage that radiates out in this sculptural spiky form. The leaves that look similar to a yucca or dasylirion. However, the edges are not like sawblades and the points are not like daggers, so it’s easier to garden around than other desert succulents. It’s a very striking sculptural plant year-round.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

It is ever-grey.

Advice

Be sure to plant it at least five feet back from any walkways, so the leaves have room to spread in all their symmetrical glory.
Erythrina x bidwillii (hybrid coral bean)
Biodiversity Boosters

Plant Family

Fabaceae
Species Icon

Genus

Erythrina
Plant Species

Species

Erythrina x bidwillii (hybrid coral bean)
A deciduous small tree or multi-stemmed shrub that can grow to as tall as 18 feet but is typically pruned to grow as a 6-8 foot tall shrub. It blooms continually on the new growth from spring through fall with peak flowering in summer months. It produces dozens of rich red flowers on 2 foot long terminal racemes that arch out and above the foliage on 6 foot stems. This plant inherits hardiness from its parentage (Erythrina herbacea x E. crista-galli) and is hardy to 20° F without damage and root hardy below this. Credit: San Marcos Growers

Water Use

Low Water Needs.

Conditions When It Thrives

It loves full sun. We water deeply every couple of weeks.

Ecosystem Services

Hummingbirds adore it.

Native To

It’s a hybrid between a South America tree (Erythrina crista-galli) and an Eastern US herbaceous plant (Erythrina herbacea).

Geographic Range

Availability

This is harder to find right now. It’s not that easy to propagate, more of a collectors’ item, but I’m hoping more people will produce it.

Height & Habit

Arching stems can reach 6’ in a season.

Special Features

Attention-grabbing red flowers and attractive winter architecture.
Did You Know Icon

Why They Love It

It has these flamboyantly beautiful red flowers that are great for hummingbirds, and this one has beautiful bright green foliage which is a great addition in a dry garden. It’s nice to have something contrasting that looks lush and green and tropical. It blooms in the heat of the summer when a lot of other things look kind of tired. It’s a showstopper- when it’s in bloom people are always asking about it.

Seasonal Appearance/Dormancy

In Davis it goes fully deciduous and the winter stems have a sculptural curly architecture from the old flower stalks. We cut it back close to the ground in late winter before new growth begins, basically coppicing it every year. It makes a rounded 6‘ tall, 8’ wide shrub by the peak of summer. From late spring to fall it’s constantly pumping out these red flowers. The flowers look like elongated pea flowers with a velvety texture in vivid red. They are highly, highly appealing to people and hummingbirds.

Advice

Cut to the ground in winter.
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