Mountain Phlox, Linanthus Grandiflorus
Mountain Phlox, Linanthus grandiflora
It’s seeding time for California wildflowers. It’s mid-October and the recent rains have germinated the reseeders, both wanted and unwanted. We always start some in potting soil this time of year, so that we can direct seed the wildflowers we want and then use the potting soil starts to fill in any gaps where the direct seeding failed. One of the ones we’re starting this year, after a couple of years break, is Mountain Phlox, Linanthus grandiflorus. We started it in a couple of gardens three years ago and hadn’t really thought about it since then, but this year we noticed that it naturalized pretty well in those gardens and that it keeps blooming until quite late in the year; it can bloom until as late as September in a garden where it gets some supplemental water. Also, we saw a thick patch of it in the Botanic Garden at Tilden this past July, looking good when most of the other native annuals were done, and it made us want to plant some more of it.
Mountain Phlox, Linanthus grandiflorus, at Tilden
We also started California Wind Poppy (Stylomecon heterophylla), which we grew for the first time this past year, Blue Flax (Linum lewisii) which isn’t an annual but functions a bit like one, and Clarkia bottae. The rest of the wildflowers will just be whatever reseeds.
Tags: linanthus, mountain phlox
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 8:47 am and is filed under california natives, plants, wildflowers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 27th, 2009 at 11:45 am
The number of blooms in that picture is amazing. Mountain Phlox looks like an awesome addition to the garden.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
I’ve had a hard time growing my own Stylomecon heterophylla. That’s one I usually buy.
October 28th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
(as a plant.)
October 29th, 2009 at 8:29 am
I’ve never seen them growing that densely blooming in nature. They’re usually scattered on dry hillsides. But they do pretty well in the garden.
That makes sense about the Stylomecon. Thanks for the warning. I bought a single plant last year and collected the seed for this year. They’ve germinated immediately, but I’ve already had some casualties. If they fail I’ll direct seed mahogany red poppies, pretty similar coloring and effect, though not quite as cool. If you see a lot of mahogany red in my photos next year, you’ll know I didn’t do well with the stylomecon.