Comments on: trying to do the right thing

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:47:05 +0000

In choosing natives, and especially in San Diego, the foremost concern is always and forever.….……water. Like you say, the larger leaves indicate what may eventually be less tolerance for the predictable drought conditions which are also a part of why they developed the way they did. What often happens is the usual — commerce and some one messed up on a contractor is my bet.

By: lostlandscape

lostlandscape — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:23:27 +0000

Susan, as I wrote this the differences between gardens and natural spaces became clearer to me. I’d hate to discourage anyone from using more natives in their garden plantings. It seems like the time to be most concerned with choosing plants extra-carefully is if you’re establishing new landscaping on the edge of a fairly pristine wild area, where there might be as much of a chance of garden plants moving into the wilds as there’d be of the wild species colonizing the garden. In more urban areas, what plants you select would have less impact on the wild spaces.

By: susan (garden-chick)

susan (garden-chick) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:59:56 +0000

Your post makes an important point, but is one of the reasons I hesitate to go too far down the path of native garden design — I’m worried I’ll make a mistake, and it seems like a much bigger deal than simply choosing the wrong color of hellebore.

Of course, I’m just a residential garden designer, I would expect someone doing habitat restoration to be better informed.

By: lostlandscape

lostlandscape — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:27:25 +0000

Town Mouse, I think gardeners “get” the difference between strains, since we’ll often go to great lengths to get a specific color or size of a plant.

DryStoneGarden, thanks for the link. Your own post on the different poppy strains is terrific.

Kate, it’s a really specialized market, to be sure, but I’m glad people are interested in keeping diversity alive.

By: kate

kate — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:08:56 +0000

This is fascinating. You are fortunate to have a nursery that specialises in habitat restoration.

By: DryStoneGarden » Blog Archive » Coastal California Poppies

DryStoneGarden » Blog Archive » Coastal California Poppies — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:46:15 +0000

[…] and that there used to be a lot more regional variance across the state. Lost in the Landscape writes about a recent re-gen project in the San Diego area that used the generic poppy instead of the […]

By: Town Mouse

Town Mouse — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:14:28 +0000

Interesting post. Country Mouse is working on habitat restoration and is often asked “What difference does it make whether I use locally native plants”. Here’s the difference! thanks.