Pink Saturday - Native pink

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

California wildflowers are blooming this weekend in our hills and in local gardens. While the best-known California wildflower is our brilliant orange poppy, there are some PINK spring wildflowers. Here's a sampling, from the gardens I visited during the Theodore Payne Foundation's annual Native Plant Garden Tour.

Above and at the top of this post, the Western Redbud, or Cercis ocidentalis. Its cousin in the Eastern United States is Cercis canadensis.

Lavatera assurgentiflora ssp. assurgentiflora is the Island Tree Mallow, a fast-growing shrub with large lavender-pink striped flowers.

These pretty Coral Bells are members of the Heuchera genus, and several species are native to North America and California.

Their delicate pink sprays of flowers and un-fussy ways make them a mainstay of the shady garden. You can find named varieties like "Canyon Chimes" and "Dainty Bells" in colors ranging from deep coral to purest white.

Other heuchera varieties are prized for their attractive leaves; bronzed, silvered or mottled and patterned, they add a touch of drama and color to a shady green garden. The one above is a silvered pink - perfect for Pink Saturday!

There are many penstemon species native to California, but one of my favorites is Penstemon spectabilis - and spectacular it is, this pretty blue flower with a pink throat.

Sages are great for California gardens, and this is a variety of Salvia greggii selected for its showy magenta flowers.

Most California native flowers are drought tolerant. This pretty daisy is Erigeron glaucus "Bountiful."

Here is it with a pink selected variety of our native monkeyflower, Mimulus species.

I love our native irises, and the beautiful varieties bred from them are called Pacific Coast Hybrid Iris. You've seen photos of the ones in my garden, but I don't have a pink one like this beauty - not yet, but just wait! If you're in Southern California, you can find these plants at the Theodore Payne Foundation's nursery, located in Sunland.