New native plants for sale

The Tehachapi Resource Conservation District (TRCD) is still offering native plants for sale during its fifth annual Native Plant Sale, March 1 to April 3, 2015. This year several new drought resistant shrubs, grasses and flowering plants are being offered.

One new flowering mint being offered is quite unique, being a variety developed in the Tehachapi area, at Mourning Cloak Ranch. This is the Coyote or Hummingbird Mint, Monardella macrantha 'Marian Sampson', also known as Scarlet Mint. I called Ed Sampson, the developer of this mint variety, to ask him how this beautiful mint came to be. He said he originally purchased Coyote Mint seeds from the Theodore Payne nursery near Los Angeles. The first plants were not as hardy, nor disease resistant. Over time, Ed would weed out the weaker, paler-flowered plants, favoring the more colorful plants that could withstand Tehachapi's cold winters and hot, dry summers. After about ten years, a hardier, very attractive, low growing mint was developed, which exhibited bright red, 2 inch tubular flowers hummingbirds loved. When his dear wife Marian passed away, Ed felt it was only fitting to name this beautiful, bright mint after her.

Several botanists also took note of Ed's new Coyote Mint. Ed gave a sample to Nevin Smith, a renowned horticulturalist, who took this new variety of mint up the California Coast where it thrived. Bart O'Brien took some Marian Sampson Coyote Mint back to the Santa Ana Rancho Botanical Gardens, where he was Director of Horticulture. Bart then submitted an article about this mint to the Pacific Horticulture magazine and it took off from there. The plant soon made its way into Colorado and several nurseries in the intermountain areas. In 2001, this beautiful mint was dedicated as Tehachapi's City Flower. Finally, "Plant Select", a Cultivar Group associated with Colorado State University, awarded 'Marian Sampson Coyote Mint' as one of "Ten Plants of the Year" for 2014.

Besides this lovely Coyote Mint, many other brightly colored plants and shrubs are still available for sale such as Firecracker Penstemon, California Fuchsia, or Cleveland Sage. Please visit the Tehachapi Resource Conservation District website, TehachapiRCD.org, to print an order form, or the Desert-Mountain RC&D website, DesertMountainRCandD.org, for plant descriptions and ordering online.

Plants will be available for order online or by submitting an order form to the Desert-Mountain RC&D until April 3, 2015. Please contact Karla Nelson at (661) 428-4370, or [email protected], or Carol Rush at (661) 549-0042, or [email protected] for more plant descriptions