Lester rowntree 2014

© Project SOUND
Out of the Wilds and Into Your Garden
Gardening with California Native Plants in Western L.A. County
Project SOUND – 2014 (our 10th year)

© Project SOUND
Lester Rowntree:
legacy of an unusual California
native plantswoman
C.M. Vadheim and T. Drake
CSUDH & Madrona Marsh Preserve
Madrona Marsh Preserve
May 3 & 6, 2014

Today’s talk: an English gardener
entranced by California’s flora
 Introduce you to an unusual
California plantswoman – Lester
Rowntree
 Explore themes that ran
through her life and made her
extraordinary
 Introduce you to some plants
she loved – and her descriptions
of them
 Share just a bit of her native
plant gardening wisdom
© Project SOUND
1962

Sources of information on Lester Rowntree
 Hardy Californians (UC Press, 2006)
 Re-printing of Hardy Californians: A Woman’s Life
with Native Plants’ (1936)
 Biographical chapters by son, grandson; list of
articles by and about Lester Rowntree
 Chapter by Judith Larner Lowry (Larner Seeds;
Gardening with a Wild Heart)
 Grandson Les Rowntree’s website -
http://www.lesrowntree.com/
 Slide show:
http://www.slideshare.net/lesrowntree/lester-rowntree-
slideshow
 Lester Rowntree: California Native Plant Woman
- Oral history – Bancroft Library – available on-line
 ‘Flowering Shrubs of California and their Value to
the Gardener’, (1939). © Project SOUND
http://sierrafoothillgarden.files.wordpress.co
m/2011/05/hardy-californians.jpg?w=200

Gertrude Ellen Lester
 Born 1879 (late Victorian Era) in
Penrith (Cumberland, The Lake
Country) England - 1 of 8 children
 The family had a large walled,
formal garden typical of Victorian
England
 The children each had their own
garden, and Lester loved hers and
did all sorts of crazy things in it.
But it was hers and she could do
what she wanted with it.
 Garrya elliptica and Ceanothus
spp. were grown by Lester’s
father during her childhood in
Penrith
© Project SOUNDhttp://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g186328-d2213736-Reviews-Johnby_Hall-
Penrith_Lake_District_Cumbria_England.html
http://www.slideshare.net/lesrowntree/lester-rowntree-slideshow

 She escaped from her home as much as she could to get out into
the countryside – wanted to join the gypsies. “I hated the
confinement and was continually running away.”
 “I think the family did encourage picnics and going places, and
Lester made the most of any opportunity that way. So she loved
flowers right from the beginning.” - daughter-in-law Henriette
© Project SOUND
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caldbeck_Fells,_West_of_Penrith,_viewed_from_Culgaith.JPG

Move to Kansas, 1889 (age 10)
 “In America, running away was more fun — except at Westtown
where I was punished severely — for I could get farther and I
was always discovering new plants that I had never seen before.
It was beautiful in Kansas when the wind blew across the prairie
grasses and I could sit and watch the undulating waves, knowing
that I was free and in a wild place.”
© Project SOUND
http://www.discoveramerica.com/usa/experiences/k/kansas/tallgrass-prairie-preserve.aspx

Move to Quaker colony in Altadena,
California 1891
© Project SOUND
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Woodburys.jpg
http://media2.nrtwebservices.com/California/Properties/JPG_Main/111/3435111.jpg
 When Gertrude Ellen Lester
arrived in Altadena it was to
view the famous poppyfields
on the slopes of Mt. Lowe,
acres so brilliant that they
are reported to have provided
a landfall for sailors entering
the harbor at San Pedro.
 As with most English families
the love of gardens was
pervasive wherever they lived.
Native plants were grown
along with exotics; the garden
was as important as the house.

Boarding school at
Westtown Quaker
School
© Project SOUND
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westtown_School
 Worked as governess (in teens)
 Quaker boarding school
(Westtown School PA), late teens
 In her journeys across the
United States, the train crews
cooperated with her in her
efforts to collect wild flower
seed.
 Finishes high school at age 23
 College deferred to care for
dying father
 Never got to attend college

1908 – marriage to Bernard Rowntree
 Live in Oradell, New Jersey (‘The
Rowans’)
 Garden was somewhat famous –
but quite traditional (Victorian
influence)
 One son, Cedric (1911)
 1920 - (in her forties), cancer of
the uterus was diagnosed [not
confirmed] ; surgery in S. CA
 1920 - moved to S. CA (Point
Loma, then Altadena) to be
nearer her doctors and because
she wished to die in her beloved
California.
© Project SOUND

Health regained in California – 1920’s
 1925 – build ‘Big House’ in
Carmel Highlands (a few
miles south of Carmel)
 There, on property
overlooking the Pacific,
Lester began her career
with native plants.
 But all was not well with the
marriage
 1931 (age of 53) Lester and
Bernard were divorced
© Project SOUND
Wherever she went, she gardened.

Gertrude becomes
Lester Rowntree
 At Westtown School, in the early
20th century, it was convention to
call students by their last name and
Gertrude came to prefer that to her
given name.
 Even after marrying Bernard
Rowntree in 1908, she called herself
Gertrude Lester Rowntree.
 In 1931, when they divorced and
Lester began her career as a field
botanist, horticulturist, and writer,
she dropped “Gertrude” and became
Lester Rowntree.
 That this minor name change masked
her gender in a male-dominated world
was not unimportant.
- Les Rowntree (grandson)
© Project SOUND
http://www.lesrowntree.com/events.htm

A new life at age 53
 Lester built a little cottage,
nursery and gardens in the
Carmel Highlands where she lived
alone
 She also began a life (20+ years)
of wandering through the
deserts, chaparral, and up into
the high Sierra
 The garden was an early
laboratory and ‘demonstration
garden’ using CA native plants and
selected non-natives
 The home/garden was her home
base until her death in 1979, five
days after her 100th birthday
© Project SOUND

The need to support oneself, however simply
 After the divorce, Lester
needed a source of income – and
to restore her health
 Pursued several inter-related
activities to this end during the
1930’s through 1950’s (into her
late 70’s)
 Selling CA native wildflower
seeds (and a few plants)
 Writing books and articles
 Lecturing
 Designing gardens (a few)
 [? Attracting benefactors]
© Project SOUND

Lester Rowntree & Co. – California Wildflower Seeds
“I had been exchanging seeds
for some time prior to this with
Corovan in Geneva. He was the
best in the world at that time.
Also, I had done just a little
collecting and was in
correspondence with some other
seed people abroad.
The local plant nurserymen had
encouraged me to start the
business, so it was established
by the time I got the divorce.”
© Project SOUND
http://urbangardencasual.com/wp-content/uploads/seeds.jpg

Collaboration with Lila Clevenger
 After the Rowntrees were divorced [1932], Mrs. Rowntree and
Miss [Lila] Clevenger went into the California native plant seed
business, and built a nursery up here on the side of the hill.
Miss Clevenger was the secretary — she wrote the letters and
did the mailings, and watered the plants when Mrs. Rowntree
was gone. She followed instructions to the letter and kept
everything alive. She was not the gardener, but she could
water and could sort seeds, and so forth. She kept the
business going.
 Mrs. Rowntree did the collecting and then brought the plants
and seeds back, and propagated them. They had a flourishing
business and mailed seeds all over the world. It was an
excellent business, and without Miss Clevenger of course, could
never have been possible. This continued for a good many
years. Miss Clevenger was always at home. She never had a
vacation. She never had a trip; never went anywhere, because
the seeds and the plants couldn't be left. [Henriette]
© Project SOUND

 "I inhabit my hillside only from November to February, while
the winter storms are blowing and the winter rains pouring.
In March and April I have long shining days on the desert, in
May happy weeks in the foothills, where a chorus of robins
wakes me and my morning bath is in a rushing stream of just-
melted snow. In June I am in the northern counties scented
with new-mown hay and wild strawberries. In July in the
higher mountains, and in August and September up in the
alpine zone with mule or burro.

"Early in the spring my travels begin, but first I must load
the car. There are no large seats in my car, only my own
little leather driver’s seat, which stays with me when one
model is turned in for the next. Because on rainy or snowy
nights I leave the ground and crawl into the car to sleep, it
must have a flat floor; and since it is my home for weeks at a
time, it must have room for a great many things—flower
presses, books, photographic gadgets, canteens, tools and
seed bags. " Lone Hunter, The Atlantic Monthly, June 1939
© Project SOUND

Books provided income and an audience
 Two books published when she was in her
fifties, Hardy Californians (New York: The
MacMillan Company, 1936) and Flowering
Shrubs of California (Stanford University,
California: Stanford University Press, 1939),
were well received and brought in needed
cash.
 Three other book length manuscripts on rock
gardens, desert plant life, and Lester's own
garden did not find a publisher, and can be
read in manuscript in the Rowntree Archive,
California Academy of Sciences, San
Francisco.
 Fire destroyed her writing studio and the
field notes for two books, one on desert
flora, the other on California trees.
© Project SOUND

Numerous articles on gardening and
conservation
 The career that Lester started at fifty-three began to peter
out in her late seventies as failing eyesight made long, solitary
car trips and close botanic observation less and less
practicable. However she continued to write – well into her
90’s
 She supported herself with writing — over 700 hundred
published articles in journals ranging from the Journal of the
Royal Horticultural Society to local garden club newsletters.
 She also gave talks on conservation and native plant gardening
to many groups – gardening clubs, plant societies, botany
classes, etc.
© Project SOUND

Formal honors & positions: contributions
to conservation and horticulture
 In 1965, lifetime honorary president of the newly-founded
California Native Plant Society
 1971 - honored by the American Horticultural Society in for
her work in preserving California native plants; cited Lester
for the "Conservation and propagation of California flora,
famous as author, photographer, and lecturer, and children's
author. A truly great personality of horticulture.“
 1974 - a similar award by the California Horticultural Society
 Honorary Secretary of the British Alpine Society
 President-at-large of the American Herb Society
© Project SOUND

LESTER ROWNTREE: February 16,
1879 - February 21, 1979
Today Lester Rowntree died in her sleep, five days after
celebrating her hundredth birthday. Queen Elizabeth II sent
a cablegram to her subject (Lester never gave up her British
citizenship) in honor of the occasion, but Lester's real
celebration had taken place a few days earlier. Some friends
had driven her from the convalescent home to spend an
afternoon in the sun on the deck of her cottage. They served
her tea; there was very little talk. A Mahler record was
played, and one by one, early spring flowers blooming in the
fugitive February sun were handed to her to smell and savor.
One friend said, "I never truly knew what the word absorption
meant until I saw Lester absorb her garden." Now the garden
will absorb Lester. By her wish, her body will be cremated and
her ashes scattered over the Hill she loved and tended.
© Project SOUND

So, who was Lester Rowntree?
 So unique and multi-faceted she’s hard to label:
 conservationist, seed collector, expert on California
native plants, gardener, garden designer, writer,
lecturer, photographer
 Perhaps the quintessential Victorian eccentric – a bit
out of her time?
 An immigrant who became ‘more native’ than most
native-born Californians?
 A visionary futurist?
 An ecological horticulturalist?
 Perhaps a bit of all of these
© Project SOUND

Lester Rowntree has been called the ‘female
John Muir’
© Project SOUND
“You know, Muir is celebrated for
having bought ten cents worth of
raisins and a bag of tea, and for
disappearing in the mountains for a
whole summer and fall.
She did the same thing. She took a
burro and took off into the mountains.
She's absolutely the female John
Muir. I hope that this is somehow
brought out by the people writing
about her. They don't parallel her
with Muir because she's a woman.”
[James Roof]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Muir

Like Muir, she loved living simply in the
mountains
 She toured beyond the state of
California into Canada and Mexico
and most of the states of the
continental United States,
supporting herself by lecturing to
garden clubs and schools,
sometimes subsisting on ten cents
a day for chicken feed which she
boiled and ate as gruel.
 She spurned conventional comfort
at home or in the field, but
insisted on her daily bath whether
in an icy mountain lake, the ocean,
or wherever she might be.
© Project SOUND
Lester and "Skimpy" collecting in
the Sierra, 1935

Shared worldview: the unity of nature
 She called her central
religious principle by
different names but the
message remained the same -
the essential unity of nature
in all its forms and the
responsibility that each
person must assume for his
own odyssey.
© Project SOUND
http://www.free-image-download.com/gudang/first-lake-sierra-nevada-range-california.jpg
Sense of responsibility for the natural world shaped the
conservation focus and ethic of both Muir and Rowntree –
and both loved and closely observed the Sierras

But Lester’s love of the Sierras had a
horticultural side
‘Fundamentally she was interested in using plants and
trees to enhance the quality of life where people live.’
[Rowan - grandson]© Project SOUND

‘Hardy Californians’ was written to get Californians –
and those from colder climates – interested in CA
native plants
 Influenced in part by her own
troubles with growing CA native
plants in New Jersey
 But also by her sense of the
intrinsic worth – and garden
worth – of the plants themselves
 She also realized that she would
have to educate all gardeners
about how to grow native plants
© Project SOUND
http://sierrafoothillgarden.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/hardy-
californians.jpg?w=200

Wisdom from ‘Hardy Californians’
“Another cultural pitfall is the tendency to
cosset. More California flowers have been killed
by coddling than by neglect. They are distinctly
annoyed by too much attention. In looking back
over my efforts to grow these species in northern
New Jersey I am now sure that over-attention
was the cause of many of my failures. I would like
to have another try at it.”
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
* Lewis’ monkeyflower – Mimulus lewisii
http://www.wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=35105

© Project SOUND
* Lewis’ monkeyflower – Mimulus lewisii
© Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College
http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?7177,7386,7422
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mimulus_lewisii
 Middle to high elevations of the
Sierra Nevada; much of the higher
elevations of the Rockies from CO,
MT to AK
 Plant of moist places: streamside,
seeps, riparian corridors, moist
meadows, marshes, lakeshores

© Project SOUND
Prettiest of Mimulus
 Blooms: in spring – usually
June-Aug in natural setting; ?
earlier in our area
 Flowers:
 Large for mimulus – up to 1”
 Typical shape – but very open
 Color: overall usually
pink/magenta with yellow
throat and darker pink nectar
lines & blotches
 Blooms at tips of upright
stems
 Bee pollinated – like
purple/pink penstemons
 Seeds: very small; eaten by birds
http://www.wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=35105

© Project SOUND
Mimulus lewisii is usually pink and
pollinated by bees (left). One mutated
gene, which is responsible for the yellow-
orange petals (right), causes the bees to
drop their visits and hummingbirds to
pollinate the plant.
Image courtesy Toby Bradshaw and Doug Schemske.
Mimulus cardinalis is usually red and
pollinated by hummingbirds (left). The altered
version (right) is dark pink and attracts 74
times more bee visits than the type that
occurs in nature.
Image courtesy Toby Bradshaw and Doug Schemske.
http://www.genomenewsnetwork.org/articles/11_03/monkeyflower.shtml
A single mutation can recruit a whole new set of pollinators

Lester Rowntree’s
gardening advice
“Mimulus lewisii makes a
splendid garden plant,
especially if you keep it
neat with consistent
pruning.
In the garden M. lewisii
does best when grown near
some high broken shade
among other plants which
help to disguise its rather
weak outline”
© Project SOUND
©2010 Jean Pawek

© Project SOUND
Moist parts of garden
 In bog/wet containers –
probably the best choice
 Around ponds/pools
 Near re-circulating ‘streams’
and ‘waterfalls’
 Edges of regularly watered
beds, lawns©2003 Hartmut Wisch
©2002 Gary A. Monroe
© Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College

Lester Rowntree’s view
“What I would like to see
is not more (bigger and
better) horticultural
forms and hybrids but
more species” [Helps]
© Project SOUND

Annie’s Annuals : Mimulus lewisii x M. cardinalis hybrid
 ‘EASY, reliably perennial & not fussy about drainage’
 ‘If you have a particularly damp spot, this would be an ideal choice.’
 Perhaps better choice for our area
© Project SOUND
http://www.anniesannuals.com/plt_lst/lists/general/lst.gen.asp?prodid=3579

“It is by no means an established fact that a plant
will flourish under cultivation only if it has a soil
and exposure identical with that of its native
habitat. Nevertheless, knowledge of these natural
inclinations are a guide to the gardener, - also
familiarity with a flower’s associates gives a clue
which may avert a disaster.”
© Project SOUND

‘Deep understanding’ of plants through self-
education & patient observation
"I didn’t take up this for the poetry of it. I had no
ambition to become a picturesque Lady-Gypsy. I
honestly wanted to find out about California wild
flowers. There was little written about them in
their habitats and nothing at all about their
behavior in the garden, so I made it my job to
discover the facts for myself" (The Lone Hunter,
The Atlantic Monthly, June 1939)
© Project SOUND

Completely self-taught, she became an expert
on native plants and their requirements
 "One starts as an amateur, even with university
degrees. And Lester became a professional in the
way I think each of us would like to. The continued
pursuit, the standards, all in order to find what's
going on out there in the real world. She was
intimate with her world, and she had that
wonderful capacity to communicate that intimacy
and knowledge to those who were interested“
[Rowan - grandson]
© Project SOUND

Botanical Influences
 Willis Jepson – Jepson Manual
 Leroy Abrams (Stanford)
 Alice Eastwood (CA Acad.
Science)
 James Roof (USFS Experimental
Station, Albany CA)
© Project SOUND
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_Linn_Jepson
http://student.santarosa.edu/~wearle/dw_b/final_project/plant_legends.html
With James Roof
http://www.huh.harvard.edu/libraries/archives/EAS
TWOOD.html

© Project SOUND
Scarlet Monkeyflower - Mimulus cardinalis

Description from ‘Hardy Californians’
“Mimulus cardinalis is another
Monkey-flower well known in
gardens. It flourishes in the
Canadian zone but one is apt to come
across it in moist places anywhere in
California.
It is a dependable perennial, about
two feet tall, with rather sticky
green leaves and big brilliant scarlet
flowers with erect upper lips and
turned back lower lobes. “ p. 76
© Project SOUND
J.S. Peterson @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

© Project SOUND
Love those flowers!
 Blooms: Apr-Oct
 very showy red-orange
“Snapdragon” flowers on
stalks above foliage – may
have some yellow
 Great nectar source for:
 Hummingbirds
 Insects
 Others eat the foliage:
 Caterpillars of Common
Checkerspot and Buckeye
butterflies
 Slugs & snails – just love it!

© Project SOUND
Uses in the garden
 On slopes, as a ground cover
 Bordering paths and roads
 In planters (probably also
large pots)
 In informal garden beds
 In hummingbird gardens
 Wet spots in the garden (low
spots; under birdbath; where
it receives sprinkler spray)
 Beside ponds and streams
 It can grow in a pond setting
as well, as long as the
crown is above the waterline
http://www.sunset.com/sunset/Premium/Garden/2002/11-
Nov/WildlifeGardens1102/WildlifeGarden11021.html

“I suggest the damp crevices of a rough rock garden as an
ideal place for it and you should cut it down to the ground
the moment its untidiness out-weighs the beauty of
whatever late bloom it may be bearing.” p. 76
© Project SOUND
Gary A. Monroe @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database

In the 1930’s, gardening with CA native
plants was not terribly popular
© Project SOUND
http://www.bvnasj.org/sanjosethennow.htm

In the days when she was
practicing, Californians were
flamboyant in their introduction
of exotics to the state. Santa
Barbara was a center of
introduction of exotic plants.
She entered California… in the
days when gardens were rampant
with exotic plants from all over.
Also, gardeners were trying to —
in many cases — reproduce the
eastern American landscape, the
landscape of the humid East.
She of course, was interested in
getting native plants introduced
into the horticultural field.
© Project SOUND
http://www.maybellinebook.com/2012/11/maybelline-headquarters-in-hollywood.html
http://www.sbbg.org/about/press/meadow-revival-garden

The fickle nature of the gardening ‘industry’
 Old and new - when as a girl I was
gardening with my father in California
we grew many old flowers which are
new today. After a wave of popularity
recedes, a few puddles remain where
certain gardeners find they love a
plant enough to keep it - after it may
be forgotten by the majority
 25 or 50 years later seedsmen and
nursery men pull it out of the bag
again and it is hailed as a new plant
and new it is to the beginning
gardener. [helps]
© Project SOUND

Lester Rowntree & Co. –
California Wildflower Seeds
 Seed packages cost twenty-five
cents, postage paid; 400 different
species
 Mixtures for eight different
environments were available for
fifty cents
 Correspondence was invited. "We
will be very glad to hear from
experimental planters who will
report to us on the hardiness of
our varieties in the East."
© Project SOUND
Lester Rowntree & Co.'s California Wild
Flower Seed brochures, probably c. 1935.

Some excerpts from Lester Rowntree & Co.
 ‘We give or imply no guarantee as to description, purity or
productiveness of our seeds, and hold ourselves in no way
responsible for customers results.’
 ‘Our seeds are carefully selected from native stands, but
these stands are exposed to climatic and other conditions
over which we have no control. The list is subject to change.’
 ‘In our present form of list we cannot give adequate
descriptions of flowers and of conditions of growth for each
type of plant. We are glad, however, to answer
correspondence regarding the cultivation and hardiness both
of our listed seeds and of other native California plants.’
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
 Even in the early years of
the 20th century, native
vegetation was being lost
to agriculture and housing
at an alarming rate.
 Theodore Payne and Lester
Rowntree, coming from
England , were acutely
aware of this
 Lester promoted
conservation not only
though her seed collecting
but also in her writings and
lectures
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/when-los-angeles-blossomed-each-
spring.html
http://www.kcet.org/updaily/socal_focus/history/la-as-subject/when-la-was-empty-wide-open-
socal-landscapes.html

Ways in which she promoted
conservation of California endemics
 By providing seeds (not only to the
public, but to gardens and preserves)
 By writing about the importance of
conservation – and teaching people how
to grow the natives through her
writings
 By urging garden clubs and other
groups to take action to:
 Set aside protected Preserves
 Use CA natives for re-vegetation
 Educate others about Ca natives
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
* Tricolor monkeyflower – Mimulus tricolor
©2011 Barry Breckling

 Distribution: Inner and Outer N.
Coastal Ranges & Great Central
Valley/Sierra foothills – CA
 Extends into adjacent OR
 Grows on the borders of drying
vernal pools, often in sandy,
volcanic soils
© Project SOUND
* Tricolor monkeyflower – Mimulus tricolor
http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/lifeforms/aquaticplants/b0967tx.html
http://www.flowersgallery.net/spring/contra-costa-goldfields-specs-pictures/

Lester
Rowntree
gently teaches
 “Mimulus tricolor is one of our
California annuals which is willing to
use, even prefers, a heavy soil. It is a
dainty dwarf with lanceolate leaves
and enormous flowers, rose-color
heavily blotched with deep crimson, on
half-inch stems.
 Grow it where it will have plenty of
moisture during its growing season. In
its native regions the plant is spent by
the time the ground has baked dry
and hard. Nothing is perceptible
where the blooms have been flaunting
but a dried mud puddle where
potential beauty will lie hidden in
minute seeds until a mysterious
warning stirs them to begin next
spring’s life cycle.”
© Project SOUND
©2011 Barry Breckling

© Project SOUND
Flowers are fantastic
 Blooms: in spring - usually Mar-
May depending on when vernal
pools dry up.
 Flowers:
 Big in comparison to plant
 Typical monkeyflower shape
(fused petals; trumpet/funnel
shaped corolla); very open
 Colors: pink with yellow, white
and magenta blotches – very
lovely – like garden flower
 Insect pollinated (bees)
 Seeds: very small
http://www.answers.com/topic/dudleya
©2010 Vernon Smith

© Project SOUND
Tricolor monkeyflower in
the garden
 Any area with moist soils through
bloom period:
 Edges of lawn
 Rain garden/vernal swale
 Other sunny moist, low spots in
garden, with natural associated
like Stachys ajugoides var. rigida,
Mimulus cardinalis, Juncus
xiphioides, Rumex salicifolius var.
salicifolius, Eleocharis
macrostachya, Mimulus guttatus
 Good choice for containers
 Bog containers
 Glazed ceramic pots that can be
kept moist
http://www.ohv.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27452

“The effect of your wild flower planting is more
interesting and the situation more satisfying for the
plants, if you choose an unevenly contoured place. A
hillside is ideal, or a rocky irregular area with some
groups of low wild shrubs or herbaceous plants in it…
Do not be too meticulous in clearing the land of old
logs, dead plants and decaying vegetable matter, for
many flowers enjoy being near old wood and the stems
of dead plants shelter the young seedlings from birds
and weather… Don’t be too careful about your
arrangements; Nature’s seeds are often wind-sown; she
does not go out of her way to put a row of four inch
annuals in front of a row of eight inch ones.”
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
Seep (Common Yellow) Monkeyflower
Mimulus guttatus
http://www.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~db50/FOTO_-_Archiv/Mimulus%20guttatus%20BotKA%20S1.jpg

“Anyone who roams the country knows that while a
plant may be 12” by 12” or more in the low hills, it
is quite likely to be 1” by 1” on the mountaintops.
The more one sees of plants the less one likes to
dogmatize about absolute size and color and the
less one inclines to criticize other people’s
descriptions of them” p. xxxi
© Project SOUND

Description from Hardy Californians
 “Mimulus guttatus is a most
adaptable Monkey-flower, seemingly
able to change its foliage with its
location, which causes me some
bewilderment when I am naming my
specimens and photographs and
writing up my notes.
 In the lowlands it is an ubiquitous
species, two to three feet tall,
leafy-stalked, lush and attractive
when young, a bit raggy as it begins
to go off, perfectly contented to
endure summer drought if it may
have spring and winter moisture.”
© Project SOUND
http://www-biol.paisley.ac.uk/bioref/Plantae_Mimulus/robertsii1.jpg

© Project SOUND
Consider using Seep
Monkeyflower
 Edges of ponds (or in them)
 Regularly watered flower beds
 Under the bird bath; near
fountains
 Naturally damp areas of the
garden; use with sedges (Carex)
and rushes (Juncus)
 In the wildflower garden/
prairie
 In the vegetable garden –
leaves & flowers are edible
http://www.s-
weeds.net/familjer/tubiflorae/scrophulariaceae/pix/mimulus02.jpg

Gardening tips from Hardy Californians
“M. guttatus and its varieties are
some of the easiest of plants in
cultivation, although they are
usually biennials and indeed are
best treated as annuals. Seed
should be sown early, the plants
watered all summer to prolong the
bloom and then pulled out. They
grow well at sea level and are
contented with either sun or shade
and almost any soil.”
© Project SOUND
http://www.em.ca/garden/native/nat_mimulus_guttatus1.html

“I want to say a kind word for the native California Buckwheats
(Eriogonums) – a genus to stimulate interest and wake the
imagination, but probably the least appreciated of any of the
California flowers. Yet among its seventy-odd species, with a
plethora of varieties, there is a Buckwheat, often a fragrant one,
for every conceivable climate, exposure and position.” p 91
“People who travel the California roads fall, sooner or later, under
the spell of the Eriogonums and become champions of their beauty.”
“So often in the autumn when at dusk and early dawns I am lazily
scanning the country surrounding my sleeping bag, I feel grateful to
the Buckwheats for the beautiful form of their plants, the
tenaciousness of their browning flower heads and their nice foliage.
When the plant has quite finished blooming, is dry and a bit weary,
it often adds a red or pink tinge to the gray-green or silver of its
leaves’
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
* Sulfur-flower Buckwheat – Eriogonum umbellatum
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ERUM

 Southern British Columbia south to California,
and eastward to CO, WY, MT, and NM
 ~ 40 different varieties; in San Gabriels (vars
minus (alpine form), munzii & subaridium); in
Mojave Desert mtns (var. juniporinum)
 Usually on dry, rocky slopes
© Project SOUND
* Sulfur-flower Buckwheat – Eriogonum umbellatum
http://www.graniteseed.com/seeds/seed.php?id=Erio
gonum_umbellatum
© 2006 Steven Thorsted

© Project SOUND
var. minus (rare alpine form; San Gabriel &
San Bernardino mtns)
© 2010 Gary A. Monroe
var. munzii – sometimes available in
nursery trade
© 2008 Thomas Stoughton
var. subaridum (San Gabriel, San Bernardino
& desert mtns)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Eriogonum_umb
ellatum_var_subaridum_2.jpg
var. juniporinum; Mojave
Desert mtns

© Project SOUND
Flowers: sulfur yellow
 Blooms: summer: usually May-July
or August in Western L.A. County
 Flowers:
 Typical size/shape of native
buckwheats
 Many dense ‘balls’ of flowers in
umbels (hence name)
 Color: bright yellow w/ hint of
green
 Attracts butterflies, many
other insect pollinators
 Infusion of flowers used to
treat skin sores/infections
 Seeds: small, dry
© 2003 Christopher L. Christie

© Project SOUND
Plant Requirements
 Soils:
 Texture: well-drained best;
gravelly in wild
 pH: any local
 Tolerates salty soils well
 Light:
 Full sun to part-shade
 Water:
 Winter: good rain/irrigation
 Summer: drought tolerant to
occasional irrigation: Water
Zone 1-2 to 2 (well-drained
soils)
 Fertilizer: none; likes poor soils
 Other: be sure to choose variety
suitable for your conditions
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=ERUM
© 2003 Michael Charters

© Project SOUND
Spot of yellow
 Usually used as a groundcover
or edging plant
 Also used in rock gardens
 Fine on dry slopes
 Perhaps in containers
 Excellent choice for
butterfly/pollinator habitat© 2008 Thomas Stoughton
http://socalbutterflies.com/plants_html/E_umbellatum.htm
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2752/4536645697_348d7e8702_b.jpg

Description from ‘Hardy Californians’
“The type E. umbellatum does for
the rock garden what the
Pompom chrysanthemum does for
a perennial border.
With the rich sulphur of its
buds, the lemon-yellow, sulphur-
yellow or yellow-gold of its
umbels of bloom, and the tawny
reds and russets of its aging
flowers, it provides those shades
so satisfying in late summer and
autumn.”
© Project SOUND
http://www.anniesannuals.com/plt_lst/lists/search/lst.srch.asp?prodi
d=4066&srch_term=Eriogonum

Eriogonum umbellatum var polyanthum
'Shasta Sulfur'
 The perfect groundcover and/or
edger for dry gardens; Great choice
for a dry sunny border or rock garden
 Quite possibly the best “Buckwheat”
for maintaining year-around good
looks!
 Handsome sage green, silvery-edged,
spoon shaped leaves form a tidy,
compact, evergreen mound 1-1/2 ft.
tall by 2 ft. broad.
 Lovely bright lemon yellow clusters
from late Spring till end of Summer
 Heat tolerant, long lived & reliable
© Project SOUND
one of the best for bees,
butterflies & an amazing host of
pollinators.
http://www.anniesannuals.com/plt_lst/lists/search/lst.srch.asp?prodi
d=4066&srch_term=Eriogonum

“All native California perennials require a period of rest.
During this time many of them take on a mangy and
woebegone look, which is one reason why California wild
flowers are not fitted for the formal garden. In
California this shabby period comes in late summer and
is a good time for you to go off fishing. But before you
go, prune the sleepers hard.” [cmv note: only do this
once temperatures have cooled in S. CA] “They will
be glad later and so will you. Most California plants are
short-lived under cultivation and pruning is valuable in
aiding to longevity as well as in making the plant neat
enough to appear within the garden walls.” [cmv note:
take your pruning cues from nature; what eats this
plant – when and how?] © Project SOUND

 RR: Can you describe an ideal plant landscape?
 “The contours are important; this gives a "feel" to the place.
It's nice if there are several exposures. You look at the site
and decide what should be kept. Try to produce something that
won't stick out like a sore thumb. It must harmonize — blend
with the surroundings . Like this garden here.”
© Project SOUND

 "[S]he placed value on native plants. She valued things that were
natural — things that were in their place — things that fit“
 She didn't violate [the natural] form at all. She tried to work
with it, even as she introduced plants from outside of the
Monterey County region to her garden.” [Rowan – grandson]
© Project SOUND
In her garden design,
Lester used mainly
native plant material in
conformity with
existing contours, an
approach … well suited
to the rugged California
coastline.

© Project SOUND
Good substitute for
Scotch Broom
 As a showy accent plant – looks
nice with natural associates like
Salvias, wooly bluecurls
 In the scented garden or habitat
garden – good nectar plant
 As a hedge plant
 On steep, rocky slopes
CA Dogface Butterfly
http://tolweb.org/Zerene

From careful observation & garden experiments
emerged an ecologic view of horticulture
 “She began looking at the ability of the semi-arid
environment to sustain certain plants. She began looking
ecologically at horticulture and landscape architecture.
 Lester was not the only one who was doing this, but she
placed value on native plants. That's saying something more
than just the fact that you ought to use native plants
because they'll grow better, take less water. She valued
things that were natural — things that were in their place —
things that fit.
 There's almost a teleological foundation to much of this in
that things ought to be this way and ought to be that way.
She thought she knew, and I think she did, what kinds of
plants ought to be growing where.” [Rowan - grandson]
© Project SOUND

“A plant is more susceptible to its surroundings
than we think. Root companionship, plant
associates, and gregarious proclivity are not mere
phrases. The standards for good wild flower
gardening are as obvious as those for the growing
of exotics. It is even more important when dealing
with wild flowers, to group together plants of like
feelings. Even though we know that wild plants
from unlike locations can be made to dwell
together, the innate instincts of good
plantsmanship rebel against it.”
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
Grape Soda Lupine – Lupinus excubitus var. hallii
http://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/plants/lupinus-excubitus

© Project SOUND
Grape Soda Lupine in Santa Monica Mtns
 Gravelly and sandy
places
 Chaparral & Sagebrush
scrub to 4500‘
 Often on banks &
hillsides
http://www.timetotrack.com/jay/socal/lupinex2.htm

From Hardy Californians
 “Lupinus excubitus is one of the best of the Southern
California Lupins and has some good varieties. Vast amounts
of it often grow on west-facing inland hills in sandy gravelly
soil where in full sun it makes intensely brilliant patches of
bright purple-blue.
 There are a good many silky silvery long-petioled leaves
around the woody base of the plant, above which the three
foot flower stems rise and spread, covered with flowers for
much of their length, for like most Lupins, L. excubitus is a
profuse bloomer.
 The banner of the flowers has a central strip of bright
yellow, which like similar markings in other species, turns
purple with age (or is it after fertilization?)”
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
Grape Soda Lupine has lovely flowers
 Blooms:
 Mid/late spring at higher
elevations
 Probably Mar-May in
western L.A. Co.
 Flowers:
 Similar in color & size to
Dune Lupine
 Range from silvery violet to
light magenta-violet
 Scented – reminiscent of
grape soda
 Attract bees, butterflies,
even moths & humans!
http://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/plants/lupinus-excubitus

“We gardeners must conform to the requirements
of air and soil and location. Every plant which is
made unhappy through our arbitrariness, detracts
just that much from the success of our plan. In
wild flower gardening more than in any other phase
of gardening we must work with Nature. And
Nature won’t be forced. If we can’t or won’t go her
pace and adopt her manner we might as well give up
all idea of wild flower gardening.”
© Project SOUND

“And if you must have rock garden's theme song The
right plant — the right place — let that be the motto
on the rock garden shield — indeed let it be the motto
of all gardeners.” © Project SOUND
http://www.timetotrack.com/jay/socal/lupinex2.htm

Holistic worldview shaped by Quaker faith
 I know that Lester believes that the Being, as she
calls it, is in every rock, in every tree, in every
leaf. The Quakers believe this also.
[Henriette – daughter in law]
 She was able to convey so well, as I look back, an
almost mystical view of nature, which I'm sure you
picked up from some of her writings… She
conveyed to us that everything in nature not only
had its place but its rights, and we as humans,
really were secondary to this and we must walk
softly in nature. [Les – grandson]
© Project SOUND

Children and nature
 To her, it was simply dreadful if
children grew up in urban surroundings
and never experienced nature.
 She made a great effort to see that
her grandchildren really knew about
nature.
 And, as her eyes were going bad, she
wrote 4 children's stories – about
children out in nature, learning about
their place in nature.
 Ronnie. 1952. Viking.
 Ronnie and Don. 1955. Viking.
 Little Turkey. 1955. Viking.
 Denny and the Indian Magic. 1959. Viking
© Project SOUND
http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mmJK-
531Lw2fQBtKmlHr8mg.jpg

“It is said that native California plants are hard to
grow. They are – so long as we insist on putting the
wrong plant in the wrong place. Nothing can be
more pig-headed than a California wild flower under
uncongenial conditions, nothing so amenable and
satisfying if happily placed”
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
Characteristics of CA Primrose
 Size:
 Usually < 1 ft tall
 Usually 2-4 ft wide; more in
favorable locations (with more
water)
 Growth form:
 Sprawling sub-shrub or
herbaceous perennial
 Foliage initially in basal rosette
– then becomes almost vine-like
 Foliage:
 Lance-shaped; may be incised
 Drought & cold deciduous
 Roots: 2-4 ft
http://www.timetotrack.com/jay/desert/primcal2.htm
http://www.theodorepayne.org/gallery/pages/O/oenothera_californica.htm

“Transplanting should always be
done while the plants are very
young. A wall-motto with
“Transplant early” in large letters
should hang near the bench
where any grower of California
wild flowers works. These
species have a mania for tap-
roots and it is almost impossible
to move them successfully after
the root is developed and settled
in its ways.”
© Project SOUND
http://botany.si.edu/onagraceae/taxalist.cfm?genus=Oenothera

© Project SOUND
Flowers are the reason to
plant native primroses
 Blooms:
 In spring - usually Apr-May in
our area
 Flowers open over long period –
individual flowers short-lived
 Flowers:
 White, becoming more pink
 Fairly large (2 inch) and
definitely showy
 Sweet, slightly musky fragrance
 Seeds: many tiny seeds in a capsule
 Vegetative reproduction:
sprouting from roots
© 2003 Lynn Watson
http://botany.si.edu/onagraceae/taxalist.cfm?genus=Oenothera

 “Among the several species of large white fragrant-flowered
Oenotheras which carpet the high hot plateaus of southeastern
California are O. californica and O. caespitosa. Both Evening
Primroses are hardy and both must have good drainage.
 O. californica sends up ten inch slender stems bearing lanceolate
leaves as well as nodding buds and large flowers. You find it
frequently on sandy plans and in dry washes.
 Please remember that when these silver-leaved plants from
hot, sunny gravelly places are brought into cultivation, shade,
overly rich food and too much moisture tend to turn the
silver into green and thus do much to destroy the charm of
the plant.” pp 175-6
© Project SOUND

congers up a picture….
 “Calochortus albus has the apposite common name
of Fairy Lanterns. The glistening, almost
transparent petals overlap at their apex something
like the tip of a parrot’s bill. They have a pearly
look and are thickly fringed with white hairs. The
convex gland below the center of each petal is
yellow or pink and quite noticeable. The pendant
buds which precede the flowers and the dangling
three-sided green seed-pods which follow them
add to the beauty of the branching drooping spray
which may carry twenty-five flowers or more.”
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
White Fairy-lantern: enchanting flowers
 Blooms:
 Later spring: usually Apr-June in
coastal L.A. County
 Flowers:
 Truly like a little ‘fairy lantern’
 White tinged with pink
 Flowers hangs from stem; nod in the
breeze
 Seeds:
 Dark brown seeds in hanging winged
capsule
 Fairly easy to grow; plant fall-winter
(with the rains) in pots or in ground
 Vegetative reproduction: offsets
from bulbshttp://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CAAL2

Lester Rowntree’s tips
 “A slope in partial shade containing
humus or rich light earth with some
shale or broken stone in it exactly
suits their esthetic as well as their
physical qualities. The sight of them
in bloom will be enough to lift you out
of the deepest depression.”
 “Bear in mind that all California
Calochorti [and other bulbs] should
be kept from drying out during their
growing period. After that they
should be dry while the bulb is
maturing. The leaves generally give
the signal for rest by beginning to
wither.”
© Project SOUND

© Project SOUND
Garden uses for White
Fairylantern
 In a pot – alone or with other
bulbs & native wildflowers; allows
you to treat plants as Zone 1
 With native dry grasses (Melica
imperfecta; Koeleria macrantha)
& annual wildflowers – have same
water & light requirements
 Take a tip from Mother Nature –
these look great when massed!
 Great bulb for under native oaks;
place where gets part-sun.
 Protect the bulbs from rodents,
including squirrels, gophers;
native Californians roasted bulbs
http://www.bulbsociety.org/GALLERY_OF_THE_WORLDS_BULBS/GRAPHICS/Calochortus/Calochor
tus_albus/C.albus.html
http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/CalochortusSpeciesOne

Better yet, read her books or interviews
I think that no one has ever approached her writing style.
She has a style that looks upon native plants almost
anthropomorphically and gets away with it. She doesn't
attribute human traits to them and she doesn't write purple
prose about them, but she can certainly conjure up beautiful
writing about native plants without being maudlin. Her style
is easy to read — leads you on through one of her books,
leads you through her articles — lots of articles for little
magazines, like the Journal of the California Horticultural
Society. I don't think anyone's ever written the way she
does.
[James Roof]
© Project SOUND

Contribution to CA native plant
horticulture and conservation
 Writer and horticulturalist Judith Larner Lowry comments
on Rowntree’s legacy: “Today, it would be hard to find a
professional in the field of native plant horticulture who was
not, at some point, inspired by Lester Rowntree. The model
of her double focus, wildland exploration and landscape use
of plants, is followed by numerous California native plant
horticulturists, from arboretum directors to landscapers to
nursery professionals, who make regular trips into the wild
for the pleasure of observing plants in their homes and to
collect seeds and cuttings for propagation.”
© Project SOUND

"One never knows how
good an idea is until it has
appeared in [print] public.
In the mind of its
originator it may appear a
brilliant star but when
thrown to meet the
reader's eye it becomes
drab and bereft of
sparkle"
© Project SOUND

Lester rowntree 2014

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