Re. Re. Olive understory

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Hey all,

Thanks for all the good responses!  Karrie, that columbine is beautiful: I'll see if Theodore Payne has seeds of it. And Sylvia, I actually thought about Camellia sasanquas as an understory for the olives, so I don't think its too weird a combination.

I do want to include more California natives in our garden, though.  It's not so much for their aesthetic value as for their value to wildlife, in particular to songbirds, but also in feeding insects which songbirds eat. And lizards, mammals, etc., as well.  (The rabbits need no encouragement, they're busy eating the lawn). 

 

Today is my day off, and so I visited the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden for ideas.  The best groundcovers for evergreen shade I saw were Fragaria, Heuchera hybrids, Iris douglasiana hybrids, Salvia spathacea, and Ribes viburnifolium.  I may plant a mix of them and let the best plant win.

Jan, I hear your advice about planting now before the olives' roots make it impossible to establish anything!  I'd better get busy!

To those of you in far-flung med. climate countries: is there a push for more native plants for wildlife?  Here in California it's a growing movement, partly I think because for some reason conventional landscapes are almost completely devoid of plants native to the state.  This wasn't the case back in New York, where most suburban gardens have lots of native trees- Flowering Dogwood, American Holly, Rhododendron, not to mention shade trees and conifers- so although native plants were a topic, they weren't a really hot topic.  

The Med. Basin is an important flyway for numerous birds: is there concern among gardeners to make their trip a bit easier?

What's the news on the topic down under?

Thanks again, 

-Ben Armentrout-Wiswall

PS  One area I'm perfectly happy to go non-native is with bulbs: Narcissus tazetta and Tulipa clusiana are lovely under the olives, and I think I'll try Amaryllis and Lycoris as well, maybe some Zephyranthes too.