The Watershed Nursery

The Watershed Nursery A California Native Plant Nursery. Specializing in plants and services for sustainable gardening and

The Watershed Nursery started growing California Native Plants in 2001 and we are super passionate about local natives being part of your garden and local wildlands.

We are happy to welcome all of you to the nursery on this beautiful Spring Sunday April 5th! We will be open until 4 pm ...
04/05/2026

We are happy to welcome all of you to the nursery on this beautiful Spring Sunday April 5th! We will be open until 4 pm today 🐣🌼

Mark your calendars, our final spring 2026 Bringing Back the Natives Extravaganza is right around the corner! We're exci...
04/04/2026

Mark your calendars, our final spring 2026 Bringing Back the Natives Extravaganza is right around the corner! We're excited to be hosting Stephanie of Bowerbird Atelier all day next Saturday. Stephanie is a botanical illustrator, garden designer, weaver, and lifelong guest on Ohlone land. Her symbiotica californica series explores the symbiotic relationships between California native plants and the animals that depend on them, and she showcases her patterns on fabric, wallpaper, and prints.

04/04/2026

California Buttercups are one of our favorite spring wildflowers, so we were excited to see May Chen's recent Pollinator Post featured them. If y'all haven't read the Pollinator Posts, they're easy to access now via the Bringing Back the Natives website--see the link below.

A low growing perennial reaching up to two feet tall (when in bloom), this widespread buttercup (Ranunculus californicus) is a cheery addition to meadows, container gardens, and woodland edge plantings. Native across California, Baja, Oregon, and Pacific coast islands, CA Buttercups are found in varied habitats. CA Buttercups can handle wet or dry, full sun to part shade, and are found growing in the coast ranges, foothill grasslands, meadows, and woodlands under 7,000 feet of elevation. They're a common sight alongside Blue-eyed grass in open areas of the East Bay hills as winter turns to spring, popping up with small, glossy bright yellow blooms. And when we say glossy, we mean it--they have a lovely sheen to them, similar to porcelain!

As we learned from May Chen, the bright color and glossiness of their petals provides a strong visual signal to pollinators. The petals also reflect light towards the flower center, warming up the stamens. This makes for a cozier landing spot for insect pollinators on cold days, and speeds up the maturation of the pollen, increasing the odds of pollination.

As a result of that pollination, California Buttercups reseed well, and require no special treatment to germinate where they fall. If you happen to have more seeds than space, you can try your hand at toasting them for a nutty addition to a cereal, or parched and ground into flour/meal. California Buttercup seeds are an important food intentionally stewarded by Miwok, Pomo, and other west coast Indigenous peoples, and prepared in pinole, mush, bread, and cakes.

CA Buttercups are summer dormant, dying back hard, so don't be surprised if you lose track of them in summer. They'll come back with the winter rains.

If you'd like to try California Buttercup out, we have them in D-16 containers for $8.20 apiece!

To learn more about May Chen & the Pollinator Posts, check out:
https://bringingbackthenatives.net/guest-post/pollinator-post-3-22-26-1

We're stoked to be hosting Kim Chacón as our guest speaker for our April Bringing Back the Natives Extravaganza! Kim is ...
04/03/2026

We're stoked to be hosting Kim Chacón as our guest speaker for our April Bringing Back the Natives Extravaganza! Kim is an ecological designer, researcher, and educator whose work focuses on California’s native bees and the plant communities that sustain them. Drawing on her Ph.D. research in geography, she studies how urban and suburban landscapes function as living ecosystems, and how thoughtful plant selection can create resilient habitat in a changing climate. Through her teaching and design work, Kim helps people see landscapes from a bee’s perspective, offering a deeper understanding of how California native plants can support pollinators across space, season, and scale. Learn more about her work at beelandscapes.com.

03/27/2026

We love to see a at work!

03/26/2026

Poppy season is starting on our shelves! (It’s almost year round in the garden, of course). The Tufted Poppy, or Eschscholzia caespitosa, is one such butter-yellow annual beauty. They stay under a foot tall, reseed well, and play well with other wildflowers, such as Clarkia, Blue eyed grass, or Globe Gilia. We’re fond of their petite form and the way their blooms blink open and shut with the day’s sun. Adorable! Well visited by bees, too. Try one out for yourself—we have them in D-16 containers for $8.20 apiece!

Happy first day of spring! We'd like to embark on a springtime tale of two Checkerblooms, if we may. We have both the st...
03/20/2026

Happy first day of spring!

We'd like to embark on a springtime tale of two Checkerblooms, if we may. We have both the straight species, Sidalcea malviflora, or Checker Bloom, and 'Hem's Hybrid' checker mallow (both grown from seed) on our shelves at the moment, and blooming in our gardens. Checker Bloom is a highly variable species, with many local variants and subspecies recognized. That's part of why horticulturalists have bred several cultivars--so many possible combinations of form, flower, and function.

The straight species is a stunner on its own--deep green, glossy leaves, and upright to spreading bloom stalks. Checker bloom will do well in full sun to part shade, reaching about 1.5' tall and 1' wide. It's a great option for a container garden, woodland openings, or meadow plantings. Protect these plants from wildlife in the early days--we've watched blooms be chewed off their stalks by passing herbivores. Checker bloom is also a larval host plant for West Coast Lady, Two-Banded Checkered Skipper, and Common Checkered Skippers.

'Hem's Hybrid' checker mallow is more upright in form--similar to Hollyhocks or Delphinium. Their petals have a rounder edge and a pale pink to white center, a rounder, paler green leaf, and more compact form. Great for a cottage garden and containers!

For both, do not be alarmed if they seem to die back precipitously after blooming--they are summer semi-deciduous, and should return with winter rains.

If you'd like to give them a try in your garden, we've got them in 4" containers for $8.50 apiece!

Just a few more days left! Come out to the Nursery this Saturday to support the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, a...
03/18/2026

Just a few more days left! Come out to the Nursery this Saturday to support the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour, and learn something too!

If you're not familiar with the tour, it's a great way to learn more about gardening with California native plants by exploring gardens ranging from established wildlife oasis to brand new installations, from large lots in the hills to small front-yard gardens, from local native plants to natives from throughout California, and from gardens designed and installed by owners to those designed and installed by professionals. We're proud to support the tour with a portion of our sales on each Extravaganza day. Learn more about the tour and how to support at www. bringingbackthenatives.net

What would you say if we told you that Smooth Scouring Rush (Equisetum laevigatum) is a fern? While there is still debat...
03/15/2026

What would you say if we told you that Smooth Scouring Rush (Equisetum laevigatum) is a fern?

While there is still debate in the scientific community (and amongst our staff) about whether Equisetum, or horsetails, should be classified as a true fern or ‘fern ally’, these prehistoric herbaceous perennials contain many of the attributes of a member of the fern family. They have a vascular system, reproduce through spores, and do not flower or produce seeds. Equisetum are part of a class of Eusporangiate ferns, which are considered a subclass of the Polypodiopsida (fern class). At least for now–we’ll have to wait and see what new phylogenies pop up in scientific literature.

Often referred to as a living fossil, scientists believe that Equisetum (horsetails) once flourished in the understory of Paleozoic forests. Some estimates state that Equisetum members may have grown up to 60 feet tall in swamps of the Carboniferous period. Native to wetlands across North America, Smooth Scouring Rush reaches 3-6 ft tall and spreads well through rhizomes and via spores. Smooth Scouring Rush thrives in moist clay and loam soils, partial to deep shade, and is a perfect companion to water features or rain gardens. It is a great option for erosion control and outcompeting stubborn non-native weeds. Despite what the common name suggests, the Smooth Scouring Rush is not smooth. It is extremely high in silica, making for abrasive stems that helps deter herbivory. The high silica content not only provides the plant with great deer resistance, but also can provide the gardener with many practical uses. Historically, Smooth Scouring Rush has been used by Indigenous tribes throughout Northern America as a scrub brush. The abundance of abrasive silica makes for a great alternative to steel wool. They’re also a great fidget toy–their segmented stems pop apart in a satisfying manner, and if you reconnect the segments and twist, you’ll hear a lovely ticking sound.

Want to try Smooth Scouring Rush out for yourself? We’ve got them growing in 1-gallon pots for $15.25-16.30 apiece!

Arguably one of the easiest annuals to grow, Globe gilia is a true-blue pollinator superstar! This upright annual wildfl...
03/13/2026

Arguably one of the easiest annuals to grow, Globe gilia is a true-blue pollinator superstar! This upright annual wildflower has delicately lacy foliage, and produces spherical clusters of powder-blue flowers that provide weeks of color from late spring to midsummer. Each flowerhead can contain up to 100 small flowers! Their blooms’ open architecture gives easy access to its supply of pollen and nectar, which supports both small and large pollinators alike. Smaller bees can crawl around this sugary thimble to access its nectaries, and the flowerhead is a perfect landing pad for larger-bodied bees and butterflies. Hummingbirds just hover and get their share of course! It is especially fun to watch bees collect their blue pollen, and watch as their pollen sacs turn a striking lavender-blue.

Globe Gilia is a great addition to vegetable gardens or alongside fruit trees, interplanted or broadcast as a cover crop (pair with nitrogen-fixing annual lupines to enrich the soil further). Try serial sowing every 2-3 weeks December-May to extend the bloom season further, and water weekly or biweekly to encourage blooms well into summer.

Despite its delicate look, this wildflower annual is surprisingly hardy once established and reseeds readily. Drought-tolerant when grown from seed, be sure to give transplants regular water to establish. Great for rock gardens, around establishing shrubs, containers, and as filler. Gilia is perfect for softening harsh landscapes in full sun to part shade, and reaches about knee-high, but in very rich soils it can climb to almost 3 feet in height. Especially striking paired with CA poppy and Tidy tips. We'd love to give a shoutout to Anita P., longtime TWNC customer & local Richmond Love Your Block restoration hero, for her planting of Gilia along Carlson Blvd in the Richmond Annex.

If you would like a Globe Gilia of your own, stop by the nursery– we have them available in D-16, 4", and D-40 containers for $7.70-$9.40 apiece!

Mark your calendars--our March Bringing Back the Natives Extravaganza is just around the corner! We're stoked to be host...
03/12/2026

Mark your calendars--our March Bringing Back the Natives Extravaganza is just around the corner! We're stoked to be hosting Nicholas Crawford of The Davey Tree Company for an engaging talk & demo of pruning best practices at 11 am. He will discuss native plant care, demonstrate hands-on pruning skills, and provide information on California’s evolving fire clearance requirements. Rain or shine, we hope to see y'all there!

There's lots of pink and purple blooms popping up in our gardens this time of year--please enjoy! How is your garden gro...
03/04/2026

There's lots of pink and purple blooms popping up in our gardens this time of year--please enjoy! How is your garden growing?

Pictured:
Nemophila maculata - Five spot (available now!)
Salvia leucophylla - Purple sage (available now!)
Gilia capitata ssp. staminea - Bluehead gilia (available now!)
Sisyrinchium bellum - Blue-eyed grass
Salvia spathacea - Hummingbird Sage
Sidalcea malviflora 'Hem's Hybrid' - Hem's Hybrid Checkerbloom
Sidalcea malviflora - Checker mallow
Salvia mellifera - Black Sage (available now!)
Rhus integrifolia - Lemonadeberry (available now!)

Address

601 Canal Boulevard # A
Richmond, CA
94804

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 4pm
Wednesday 10am - 4pm
Thursday 10am - 4pm
Friday 10am - 4pm
Saturday 10am - 4pm
Sunday 10am - 4pm

Telephone

+15102342222

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Watershed Nursery posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category