Why plant natives in the winter?

Most of us think of spring as planting season. This is what the garden center tells us, and for most horticultural plants, it is. Not native plants. When summer ends and the weather starts to turn rainy and cold, this is the time to plant native plants. Whether from seed or from containers, they will do best if you plant them during the winter. But…. Why? California has a mediterranean climate, with essentially two seasons – wet and dry. Our California native plants have evolved in this climate. Most natives produce flowers in the spring or summer and go to seed in the fall. The seeds disperse, end up in the soil and will germinate when the rains come. Seedlings come up when temperatures are cooler and the soil is wet and have hopefully grown up enough to weather the summer and drop seed. The circle of life and all that jazz. For annuals, that means growing up and finishing their life cycle within the year by flowering and producing seed. Perennials can take a few years to grow up enough to flower, but they also need the growing season to get big and hearty enough to make it through the hot and dry summer. All this is of course assuming we have a rainy season in any given year or wherever you are in California. As we Californians know, this often isn’t the case, and we get prolonged dry periods with no rain. Weeks, months, sometimes years. Here in Marin County, we had some great storms in November but so far no rain in December. The last two years we had insane amounts of rain. Such is life in the golden state. This year I decided to plant my native seeds and plants this month whether it rains or not, because we’re in a cold snap so that’s great for getting them in the garden. If it stays dry, I will water as needed to keep things moist. But at this point in the season, the sooner you plant the better. Set yourself up for success by giving your plants time to get established before the weather gets dry and hot. Planting outside this window is possible, but your success rate won’t be as good. The issue of how-to water native plants deserves its own blog post, but the general advice is to deep water seedlings and container plants about 1 time per week for the first three years. Less in the winter, possibly more in the summer if there’s a prolonged heatwave. Three years because you want the roots to grow enough to access water on their own from the water table. After three years, native plants generally won’t need to be irrigated as they are “self-sustaining”. Native plants will ask you to be more observant and in tune with natural cycles than with traditional gardening. Be patient for rainy season and you will be rewarded with greater success! Happy gardening season!