Some of our Christmas Gift Recommendations !
Some of our Christmas Gift Recommendations!
Christmas is quickly approaching and the shopping days are going fast. The pressure mounts not only to be done with your shopping list of names but to some how come up with creative gifts that say you thought about “them”, even though even though and even though some of the people on the list you couldn’t give a rats rear end about. Sorry, personal commentary.
I’ve got some unique ideas – for your gardening enthusiast. Here are some suggestions that say “you care” to the luck recipient of your gift. These are cheap too, look expensive but aren’t. These are unique plant gifts from our native plant nursery that range in price from $8 for one of our 1-gallon desert mallow hybrids to $30 for our 5-gallon pacific coast iris creations.
Matilija Poppies
These are the biggest poppies in the poppy family where they grow by underground runners and can get 8’ tall by 10’ wide. The flowers look like a fried egg and are roughly 6” across. They bloom from mid-March to early July and are excellent cut flowers and bee food too. We have plenty of them in 1-gallon containers and if planted you probably have a 75% chance of having them flower in their first spring. Or said a little differently if you buy and plant 4 of them (plant them correctly) you have a 31/32 chance of having at least one of your plants flower, pretty good odds. The price of our 1-gallon matilija poppies is $10 and that’s a Merry Christmas!
These are the 1-gallon plants ready for your garden.
Here they are in spring….
And cut flowers too!
Desert Mallows
Our native desert mallows in California are generally orange, there are a few exceptions but generally orange. Over the years we’ve collected mallows for other regions in the southwest that run a range of colors from almost white to red, with pink and magenta too. If you cut them back after they flower they will flower again and again. Plant them in full sun. They reach as size of H 3’ to 4’ x W 4’x 5’ and are excellent as cut flowers and for bees too. The pricing on these is $8 /1-gallon plant and $25 for a 5-gallon. Yes, flowers in winter too and many are in bloom at the nursery now!
In your garden – generally orange but we have other colors too.
‘Magenta Bob’ is a pretty good seller too…
Also good in pots for your patio…
Our Pacific Coast Irises
Most native gardeners are familiar with douglas irises but there are either 11 or 13 different pacific coast iris species depending on who’s definition you’re using (probably 13 KS’s version is likely the correct one). While the native irises have their own sort of wild charm and run a large range of colors and patterns the hybrids can be really spectacular. Producing a new hybrid can be a lengthy process, we divided them in October, to produce more for the following fall. We’ve already done our “divisions” for the year and have small numbers of large 5-gallon irises in stock for your garden. Many of these are our hybrids and so you won’t be able to find or buy them any place else. There are also some other named hybrids that we use in our “crosses” that grow very well in Southern Calif.
Easy enough to grow just plant them in the shade and water 1x/week, in summer even less. Flowering time is from early March through early June. The flowers are particularly striking and are about 4-1/2” across when in full bloom.
‘Wilder Than Ever’- a named pacific coast iris that we’ve been growing for several year.
‘Clarice Richards’ – one of the most durable pacific coast irises that we grow from Dr. Richard Richards.
‘Spinning Sarah’ – one of our named creations. The good cross parents (‘Canyon Snow’) make this one a good grower in your garden.
‘Dr. Richards’ – named after my buddy and fellow pacific cost iris addict. This is big iris with large red flowers that sort of aggressive – a good think.
One of our yet to be named creations, a cross between ‘Rubies’ and ‘Untitled’ – also a very persistent iris in the garden.
True Christmas originals for the gardener that thinks they have everything!
