The Six California Native Plants Living on My Balcony

Of the 6,000+ native plants of California, I have six growing on my balcony. I should have more, but too often I succumb to a selfish desire to transform my garden into an Italian villa. However, I am resolved to fill future open container space with native species, for the health and biodiversity of my region.

I’m still learning a lot about California’s native plants. Last week, I wrote about navigating the many native plant resources available and the challenges and benefits of growing them in containers. In this post, I’ll share what I’ve learned about the six I care for, in order of sunniest to shadiest:

1. California Poppy

Growing poppies from seed has proven more difficult than I thought. I tried to sow the “Thai Silk Apricot Chiffon” cultivar directly into some of my pots in the fall, hoping for early spring blooms. Although the seeds germinated, they didn’t make it past a couple of centimeters. Probably because it was a silly, fancy cultivar. Lesson learned.

In early spring, lush, golden poppies appeared in every crack of the sidewalk, driving me insane with envy. I bought a packet of good old orange poppies and tried again, sowing both direct and in compostable seedling pots indoors. So far, they are decidedly more successful, especially the ones I started indoors, which are now a couple inches tall with true leaves. 

I just planted these out in the large pot with my olive tree. Poppies have a long taproot that dislikes disturbance, which is why most instructions advise direct sowing. My workaround for this was using compostable pots that I plopped right into the soil. Calscape says they can bloom February through September, so let’s hope I’m not too behind for flowers this year!

2. Clarkia Amoena (a.k.a. farewell to spring or godetia)

Another California wildflower that’s not yet blooming on the balcony, Clarkia Amoena should flower in May and June, as its common name, “farewell to spring,” poetically implies. I impulse-bought a single Clarkia while wandering the garden center looking for something else, as one does.

I found a spot for it with some other sun-lovers, agastache and a tulip that’s going over. The tag warned me this was a “properly tall,” non-dwarfed variety, and it’s living up to this description by shooting up stately stems. Though clarkias are drought-tolerant in the ground, all plants in containers except for cacti and succulents need regular water.

3. Lewisia longipetala 

I’ve heard Lewisia described as a tough, easy succulent, but in my experience this lady is fussy. Rare and refined, she comes from the alpine slopes surrounding Lake Tahoe, where she thrives in snowy winters and hot summers. With these needs in mind, is it any wonder I can’t seem to keep Lewisia alive past one season in the always-mild Bay Area? And does it even count as a native plant if their habitat is a four-hour drive away? In any case, I can’t seem to learn my lesson and resist her delicate, peachy petals.

I purchased a reasonably-priced six-pack of Lewisia this year and tried my best to mimic her natural rocky environment with a shallow planter filled with cactus mix and gravel. I did not water her in right away, but waited for her to get situated for a few weeks. Unless something dramatic happens, I won’t water her again for at least a couple of months. 

4. Woodland strawberry

These cute little strawberries occur throughout the Northern Hemisphere and are great for containers thanks to their shallow roots. They like the shade and spread by runners, which are like tentacles with baby plants on the end. You can pin the babies to a pot of soil until they develop roots, and then detach from the mother plant. I’ve been propagating mine this way for years. 

At the moment, I have six of them tucked into a so-called “strawberry planter.” I’ve noticed that the ones with a Goldilocks amount of sun (not too much, not too little) are doing the best. No flowers yet this year, and they’ve never yielded much fruit, but if you have more success than me, they’re a nice edible addition to any shady planter.

5. Aquilegia Formosa

In the top of my strawberry planter, I have an Aquilegia Formosa, a.k.a. Western or Crimson Columbine. While constantly putting forth new foliage, this plant has yet to produce a single flower since I planted it a year ago. 

Aquilegia likes part shade, especially in the afternoons, which is tricky on my southwest-facing balcony. I have her and the strawberries positioned in the shadiest spot possible, but a morning sun/afternoon shade situation would probably be better.

I love the lacy leaves, but I fervently hope for flowers next year! And not just for aesthetics, but to feed the many hungry hummingbirds that fly about my neighborhood.

6. Heuchera Cylindrica

One of the empty spots I wanted to fill with a native plant was a large, shallow pot that sits under a little side table. At Oaktown Native Plant Nursery, the staff confirmed that shade-loving, shallow-rooted Heuchera Cylindrica, or roundleaf alumroot, fit the bill for these conditions.

The Northern Californian version of the ornamental, colorful Coral Bells often found in nurseries, I love alumroot’s mounds of ruffly leaves. The plants I bought might be too young to put on a spring show for me this year, but I’ll have their tall stalks of pollinator-friendly white blooms to look forward to next year.

Watch this space for more native plants in the future

I’ve got lots of other container-tolerant native plants on my list: California Fuchsia, Sticky Monkeyflower, and Yerba Buena to name a few. I would also love to try my hand at growing some of these from seed.

It’s a journey to wean myself off the seductive choice and convenience offered by commercial garden centers, but I love learning about California’s incredible variety of native plant species. The more I learn, the more motivated I am to turn my gardening hobby into something that’s not only good for me, but good for the bioregion I call home.