[PCA] NEWS: The Dry Garden: A preview of the Theodore Payne native garden tour

[Olivia Kwong]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/home_blog/2011/04/theodore-payne-garden-tour.html

The Dry Garden: A preview of the Theodore Payne native garden tour
April 1, 2011 |  8:00  am

The problem with selling native plants in garden centers is that the
natives are reluctant seducers. For much of the autumn and winter --
prime planting months in California -- they're discreet. Their foliage
comes in the understated colors of a Craftsman paint palette. Give the
plants too much water, and they rot in their pots. Flowers are few.
Only in spring, usually far from town, safe distances from our hoses,
do native lilacs lead the charge into blossom with a cobalt-blue
eruption. After them come the pink and white spires of coral bells and
clarkia, masses of orange poppies, along with every color of
penstemon, irises and monkeyflowers. Only shoppers who know what a
native looks like now can envision its potential later in the year.

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