August 12, 2020
Planting in Summer- California Fuchsia- Bob Sussman
Planting in Summer- California Fuchsia- Bob Sussman
Keeping your native garden looking interesting, colorful, and full of wild things can be a challenge in summer. Most of our California natives are geared to be planted in late fall, benefit from the rains, and flower in spring and maybe into summer. In summer and fall they tend to slow down and are in somewhat of a dormancy. Having said all that, there are still natives you can plant that will grow, flower, and feed the wild things. If you hike in our local hills, you’ll see these red flowering Californa fuchsia.
These are actually not fuchsia at all that’s their “common name”, their botanical name is Epilobium or Zauschneria, both names are used. In our local hills we have two species, both grow in part shade to full sun- Zauschnera cana or Zauschneria californica- and from the Channel Islands Zauschneria ‘Catalina’. You can plant them NOW. The bright red flowers will be the center of your visual attention in your garden and the hummingbirds and bees will spot them too.
This a shot from the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in September. 
Note how your visual attention goes right to the red flowering California fuchsia and our spokes model too.
In the field they show up brightly on the hillsides, easy for the hungry hummingbirds.
These were growing on one of the hillsides around the nurserr. Always have a camera.
Here they are in a couple of landscapes in both Moorpark and Thousand Oaks.
The bright flowers will last through early winter. In late winter cut them back and they’ll sit until they start their growing cycle in spring.
This is a fine time to plant them in your garden just remember this is summer and they are new plants and will need a good watering down to the roots 2x to 4x per week until it cools down and begins to rain.
Here they are ready for your garden…
