How to make your garden bloom

The West's best flowers for borders, beds, bouquets, and containers

8 knock-out native flowers

Invite wildlife into your garden with Western plants chosen for their blooms and berries

Steven Gunther

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Great native flowers: Apricot mallow

The following natives are sun lovers except where noted. Shop for them at nurseries or California native plant specialists such as Las Pilitas Nursery in Escondido (760/749-5930; Web orders).

Apricot mallow ( Sphaeralcea ambigua). Downy stems bear flowers in summer. Grows 3 to 4 feet tall.