Grow Native Nursery in Westwood

I visited the Grow Native nursery in Westwood last weekend on Superbowl Sunday. It was only a short jaunt up the freeway - the closest of any solely native plant nursery to me It's been open only since late last year and I hadn't had an earlier chance to visit because I've focused on home improvement tasks (which I decided were mostly not interesting enough to blog about since I was hiring others for the big stuff).

A partnership between Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, helps train veterans on the propagation, care and maintenance of California native plants and offers beautiful plants for sale to the public. A weekly farmers and artisan market is held every Thursday from 12 to 6 p.m. RSABG members receive 10 percent discount on all purchases from the Grow Native Nursery booth at the market and at the nursery.

Juli wanted some of the coastal variety of California Poppies for her yard and some other native plants. Since I wouldn't ever discourage her from planting natives, off we went. They had a reasonable selection and we ended up with:

Wind Poppy (Stylomecon heterophylla) x2 pkts of seed. These are marvelous flowers that I hadn't even known of two years ago. Search on Google Images or see this or this.

Maritime Cal. Poppy (Eschscholzia californica maritima)- The coastal variety has yellow centers instead of the solid orange of the inland variety (in 1 gal pots x2)

A dwarf selection of blue eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum
probably ‘Rocky Point’) to go with a dwarf selection that she already had - based on growth habit they are the same selection but memory fails as to the correct selection. x2

A 1 gal Ribes speciosum (Fuschi-Flowering Gooseberry) a plant with wicked thorns that will be an impediment to prowlers at the bottom of her yard.

When purchasing, I was asked if I was a member of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Gardens and when I responded that I was not, and regretted that I'd never visited, we received two complimentary tickets for admission.

I will have the pleasure of planting all these some time this weekend in the San Pedro garden annex.