East Bay Wilds Native Plant Nursery in Oakland (and what I planted where the yucca grow)
While touring Gerhard’s garden (in March) I spotted a Pellaea mucronata and mentioned my desire to grow the sun-loving fern. Gerhard had purchased his at East Bay Wilds, in Oakland, CA, and said we could swing by the next day if I wanted to. Uh, yes… of course I did!
Interestingly the nursery is only open on Fridays, one day each week! Thankfully the gods were smiling and that day was the day we were able to visit.
We had very limited time to scout for the desired fern, I was trying to remain focused while also being distracted by so many cool things!
Were these things for sale? Or are they NFS props? I have no idea.
Had I been able to load up my car and drive home I would have been asking about several of them, things I’d love to work into my garden.
Hunting, looking at all the plant tables, not seeing the Pellaea mucronata I was lusting after.
Lupinus microcarpus
Dudleya gnoma, I think?
Finally! There it was… my birdfoot cliffbrake! (dumb common name).
So where did I plant that lusted after fern? In the area I cleared out this spring when “removing” a few Yucca filamentosa (post here).
Here’s a photograph of the pit I dug (and redug, and redug) to try and get out as many yucca roots as possible.
Here’s how that’s going… (they just keep busting up through the soil!)
Even though I know I’ll be cutting out baby yucca for the rest of my life (or as long as we live here) I’m still very happy with the change.
Here’s a look at what all went into the empty space, and yes… I intentionally underplanted (by my standards) so that it would be easy to see and pull those darn yucca. There’s a pair of Agave ‘Mateo’, the Pellaea mucronata is at the bottom of the photo, just left of center.
Three other dry-land ferns made it into the planting.
The largest (at the top of this photo) is a Cheilanthes tomentosa. There are also two Cheilanthes lanosa, only one visible in this photo, to the lower left of the C. tomentosa.
There are also two small Microcachrys tetragona, aka creeping strawberry pine,
And a pair of agaves that were part of the old planting, but now can hopefully get more light and grow on happily. This one a NoID…
And this one, Agave montana ‘Baccarat’ from Allison (you might remember her as Bonney Lassie).
Since I started this rambling to show you where a fern from my March trip ended up, let’s take a quick little detour up the sidewalk to see another. The Pleopeltis sp. (or hybrid whose true identity is a mystery) from is tucked up underneath the Dasylirion wheeleri. I love it here because I can see it from inside the house, but it may get a touch to much sun on hot days. I’m still evaluating its placement.
Gardens are never finished, isn’t that right?
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