It’s sea dahlia time, both in our garden and what’s been preserved of San Diego’s coastal strand and coastal sage scrub. Once these perennials finish flowering for the year, they’ll enter summer dormancy and receive very little garden water. I trim the leaves once they’re brown and accept that having some “dead” sticks in the yard is worth it for the show they put on in the spring. They reseed easily if you let them—I’ve even got some popping up in my giant pot of spare coastal cholla pieces which is somehow a thing I have.
View from the Guy Fleming Trail at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.
Backlit beauty
I watched this California ground squirrel inhale blossom after blossom after snacking on Phacelia leaves.
Katydid nymph in our garden. Visit the California Native Plant Society-San Diego Chapter’s seed shop if you’d like to grow this plant yourself.