Native plants this Autumn

I always feel so honored when plants that I've been nurturing suddenly start to thrive and blossom. For example this Sidalcea malviflora Checker Bloom is finally shooting up stalks of blossoms after being in the same pot for around seven years.

This California native can be found in Northern, Southern and Central California, the Sierra Nevada and Sacramento Valley regions. It is a low growing plant, tolerant of many kinds of soil.

For a while this plant, which is growing in pot, looked like it was drying up, ready to perish.

I had all but given up on it, but still water it twice a week.

The stalk is currently 4 inches tall.

The blossoms attract native bees and butterflies.

A year and a half ago, I planted three seedlings of the Corethrogyne filaginifolia Silver carpet plant along a side walkway of our house, where there was just cracked soil.

The plants looked okay for a while, but not really spreading, as they should have.

But suddenly about a month ago, the plants look beautiful, producing many little asters.

The photo above is of just one of the plants.

I highly recommend planting this as ground cover.

It is drought tolerant and very low maintenance, tolerant of clay and sandy soil.

It also attracts butterflies.

One of our potted Asclepias speciosa California Showy Milkweed plants is turning into a mini jungle. This is a great host plant for our visiting monarchs.

I did not have much success with showy milkweed plants in the past years, so this is a pleasant surprise.