signboard on the street, and I’ve been there many times, yet
I still manage to drive past the entrance every single time.
Similar to the Watershed Nursery is the Oaktown
Native Plant Nursery at 702 Channing Way in Berkeley
(oaktownnursery.com). Prices are about the same and there’s
a lot of overlap in their inventory, though each usually
has a few plants the other doesn’t. Oaktown is only open
Thursday-Sunday, but unless you’re in the neighborhood
on other business, I’d plan to visit on a Saturday or Sunday.
There’s only street parking and it’s in high demand during
the work week. Not a problem on weekends.
(I’m omitting, incidentally, the several fine independent
nurseries in the east bay which stock a selection of
California natives. For brevity, I decided to restrict this list
to those enterprises which focus primarily on natives and
which do their own plant propagation, instead of buying
from wholesalers.)
The last nursery that must be recognized is the Native
Here Nursery, operated by the East Bay Chapter of the
California Native Plant Society and located at 101 Golf
Course Drive in Tilden Park (nativeherenursery.org). And
now we must digress a bit, for one can’t discuss Native
Here without confronting the quasi-theological question of
“What exactly is a native?”.
California is a big place, with more than two dozen
recognized plant “communities”.
Species that grow in the cold mountain valleys of the
high sierra, the rainy redwood forest of Humboldt county,
and the desert of Death Valley could all be accurately
26 MARKETPLACECONTRACOSTA.COM APRIL 2019
described as California natives, but that doesn’t necessarily
mean they’re good choices for the east bay. (Interestingly,
a few plants achieve the paradox of being simultaneously
native and invasive. They’ve been introduced to a part of
the state outside their natural range, and become a pest.)
Some species, like the aforementioned golden poppy, grow
naturally in almost all of California’s 58 counties, but there
are subtle genetic differences between local populations,
as the plants have adapted to their specific environmental
conditions (e.g., soil type, rainfall, temperature).
Native Here operates on the premise that the best plants
for your garden are ones that evolved close by. When you
visit this nursery, you’ll actually find the plants organized
geographically, with designations like “Point Molate”, “Mt.
Diablo”, “Livermore”, etc. You may see the same species
in multiple areas, depending upon where the seeds or
cuttings originated. Native Here is only open limited hours,
currently on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.
Then there are the annual plant sales. These are held by
a variety of nonprofits, usually as both a fundraiser and
because it advances their core mission. The Native Plant
Society chapter that operates Native Here sells plants yearround,
but most groups settle for one day (or half-day)
events. Typically, though not always, they do one in the
spring and another in the fall. (Full disclosure: I run one of
the sales listed below.)
The “big daddy” of these events is the one at the Regional
Parks Botanical Garden in Tilden Park (nativeplants.org).
Besides the large selection of native plants you’d anticipate,
they have another feature you won’t find elsewhere: a wide
variety of native seeds. Their 2019 spring sale is Saturday,
Baby Blue Eyes