Bringing Natives Indoors

28 March 2011 Prev Next

Did you notice bouquets of native flowers last week at schools, libraries, and other government offices? To celebrate Native Plant Week, the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS-SCV) encouraged members to pick native flowers from their own gardens and bring them where more people could appreciate them.

Approved last year by the California legislature, Native Plant Week is the third week in April. Its purpose is to increase awareness of the beauty and importance of native plants.

If you want to make your own native-flower bouquets next spring, here are some suggestions of what you can grow.

For flowers that last a week or more, you can plant globe gilia or seep monkeyflower anytime and keep them watered. If you let it go to seed, globe gilia will come back on its own after the winter rains. In the fall, you can plant elegant clarkia and bird's-eye gilia to harvest long-lasting cut flowers in the spring. Cut clarkias when the top buds begin to open.

A subshrub whose cut flowers last at least a week is sticky monkeyflower. You may have seen this plant on steep roadcuts covered with flowers . It's a great plant for a well-drained spot that gets little to moderate water. Pinch it back lightly to keep it covered in flowers through summer – with lots to spare for indoor arrangements.

Flowers that last 4-6 days include yarrow, blazing star, single-leaf onion, and hummingbird sage.

Yarrow can also be dried as an everlasting, and it's widely available and easy to grow. If you live near wildlands, choose a yarrow that was grown from local seedstock. In suburbia, try Island Pink yarrow from the Channel Islands.

Single-leaf onion is available as a bulb from many seed and plant catalogs. It's easy to grow and spreads readily from bulblets and seeds, so once it's established, you will have plenty to use for cut flowers.

Most flowering native prefer full sun, but hummingbird sage will flower in part shade or high shade. With water, it will spread through underground rhizomes. If you don't want it to spread, harvest the leaves for a delicious tea or pot up the extras and give them away. In addition, try it as a dried flower.

For dried arrangements throughout the year, in addition to yarrow and hummingbird sage, some of the more decorative native plant materials include

shrubs/perennials – spicebush flowers, mountain mahogany feathered seeds, millkweed pods
sages – whorled stems of white, purple, cleveland (and some cultivars/hybrids of cleveland)
buckwheats – dried flowerheads of Santa Cruz Island, California, Saint Catherine's lace
grasses – flowering stalks of wild rye, grama grass, deer grass
vines – fluffy fruits of clematis

To create a bouquet, start with some foliage. According to CNPS-SCV, the following greens will last a week or so in bouquets:

shrubs – coffeeberry, creek dogwood, coyote brush
subshrub – coyote mint (before it flowers)

Add 1-3 types of flowers to the foliage, then, if needed, add a vertical accent with blue wild rye grass, common scouring rush, or California Dutchman's pipe vine.

Some natives that last only a few days as cut flowers, according to CNPS-SCV trials, include

California poppy, 2-4 days
Arroyo lupine, 3-4 days
Ithuriel's spear, 3 days
Black sage, 3 days

If you have other natives blooming in your yard, you can try them out as cut flowers. Choose young flowers and cut them in the morning.