On Saturday, August 21, 2010, I enjoyed giving a class at Nopalito Native Plant Nursery on parkway gardening with California native plants. The group was wonderful – engaged, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. (As always the presentation and a list of the plants shown on each slide can be found on my website, WeedingWildSuburbia. Please note: The presentations are copyrighted but educational use by non-profit organizations is encouraged. Please let me know in an email message what you want to use and how you will be using it. Credit all images and slides to B. Eisenstein, www.WeedingWildSuburbia.com.)
Following the morning class I finally had a chance to visit Nopalito Nursery. I think that the motto of the owners, Antonio Sanchez, Rick Sanchez and Kenji Akune, says it all:
“Plant Natives… Enjoy Life!”
If you are thinking about adding native or other drought tolerant plants to your garden, visit Nopalito. They have a nice selection with great prices, and they offer classes, many of which are free. You will find interesting natives, including a section of local natives (near and dear to my heart, though they haven’t caught on as much as they should – go figure!), native grasses (also not as popular as their amazing beauty deserves), and lots of other appropriate drought-tolerant plants including easy-to-grow succulents.
Species local to the Ventura area, including some Channel Island plants. 
Aren’t these native grasses and grassy plants outstanding? And you can plant them nearly year around, even in hot valley and inland areas. 
Owner, Rick Sanchez, helps customer select the perfect plant for her garden.
Though I prefer planting in the fall, some of the desert, succulent, and grassy plants can be planted all year, especially in cooler coastal areas. 
The Margarita BOP penstemons (Penstemon heterophyllus ‘Margarita BOP’) in my garden have long since completed their bloom period, but these at Nopalito are still showing their colors, along with the red California fuchsias (Epilobium cultivars) behind them. 
After returning home I took a look around my hot, sleepy garden. Not much is flowering, though the buckwheats (Eriogonum fasciculatum), goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), and California fuchsias (Epilobium species) are all attracting bees and hummingbirds to their blooms. Too hot to do any real work, but I will be posting about pruning oaks in my next entry: “I’m not an arborist, but I play one at home.” Till then – stay cool.
Ahhh, one day I'll take that trip down south and see all those fun nurseries. Glad your class was well received.
I hadn't heard of these folks. Thanks for the intro. Being in Ventura it seems like they have all the cool Channel Island plants right at their back door!