Plant Passion

Designing a drought-tolerant wonderland

is easier than you think at

Matilija Nursery

By Clarissa Fishman
Photos courtesy Matilija Nursery

Driving on Hwy 101 southbound from Ojai to Moorpark, I am struck by the rural beauty and fertile land here in Ventura County. Going through the area, with its citrus and avocado orchards and nurseries of all sorts, I feel a sense of serenity overtake me. The natural and somewhat wild beauty is quite breathtaking, especially in the early morning light.

Recently, I’ve been thinking of ideas for landscaping my backyard, which, at this point, is a blank canvas. My mind 
is filled with pictures of beautiful native flowers and drought resistant plants. We are on the Central Coast, after all, and although in the last couple of years we’ve been blessed with plenty of rain, we are always just steps away from a drought. So I dream of easy-to-maintain beauty that also attracts the many pollinators, not only to feed them, but also to enjoy the beauty their presence creates.

I was happy to talk to Bob Sussman of Matilija Nursery in Moorpark, which was my destination this morning. His nursery specializes in California native plants or hybrids of California natives, as well as non-native bearded irises, and some Southwestern plants, too. Bob has an extensive reservoir of knowledge about these plants, the drought-resistant varieties in particular.

His love for plants started when he was 15, but it would be many years before it became his profession. After many happy years in banking, Bob decided to take off his tie for good and spend more time outside. Thus, Matilija Nursery was born.

He’s learned a lot growing/hybridizing native plants and irises over the last 30 years, and much of that has come through trial and error. Or, as he puts it, “Through trial and failure. Cause you know, failure is a better teacher!”

Bob’s palpable passion for plants becomes clear when he talks about the beauty and convenience of low-impact and drought-tolerant species. “You’ll need to trim things back maybe once or twice a year, and water on average maybe every two weeks, once the plants have taken,” he says with a smile. “There’s not much an individual has to do, either expense-wise or time-wise, and in the spring it looks just like the hills around us, and that’s really pretty. You can also have blooming flowers all-year round if you know what and where to plant.”

I am particularly interested and happy to hear how easy it can be to have a very beautiful bee, butterfly, and hummingbird-friendly garden. Attracting these pollinators is the best part, Bob continues. “We have a lot of monarch (butterfly) enthusiasts that love to come to our nursery and watch the monarchs feed on the nectar from the flowers, lay their eggs in the milkweed where the caterpillars will then eat the leaves, attach their chrysalises to it and then hatch into beautiful monarchs,” he says. Imagine watching this whole life cycle in your own backyard! Bob has everything you need to make it happen. Landscaping that is beautiful, drought resistant, easy to maintain and attracts pollinators? Sign me up!

As we walk around the nursery, Bob points out the desert mallows, which he believes are a little underrated. But they are so pretty and they bloom all year round, even in sunny areas. They only need cutting back once a year and they will flower again and again, he notes. Matilija poppies are another beautiful plant, but people frequently plant them in the spring when they see them in bloom — and that’s not the right time, 
so there’s a misguided belief that they are hard to grow. If you plant them in winter when the roots are strong, Bob suggests, they grow just fine.

The irises are also a bit underused. Like Matilija poppies, they’ve gotten a bad rap as a difficult-to-grow plant, but that is not the case once you know what you’re doing. “If you can do two things correctly with irises, you won’t have any problems,” he tells me. “If you water less frequently in summer and plant them in the shade, you’re good — they will live forever.”

Bob explains that there are about 12 species of native irises. “People have been hybridizing them for about 80 or 90 years,” he says. “We cross a lot of these hybrids with other hybrids to produce our own irises that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.” Once they are ready to be sold to the public, he sometimes posts them on the Matilija Nursery Facebook page and asks customers to name them. If your name is ultimately chosen, you’ll get a free iris of that particular species. Some of the names so far are Golden Berry Parfait (that’s a yellow one), Chocolate Parfait, which is a brown one, and Red Gold, which is a red one with a gold center.

Bob says that when settlers came to California from the East and the Midwest, they brought a lot of bearded irises with them because they could remain in a dried-out state for a long period of time. When they arrived here, water was scarce, but the irises could survive on rainwater alone. Today, the hybridized irises — which are Matilija Nursery’s specialty — are even more drought resistant and low maintenance.

Bob is the guy to talk to when you want to create a native and low-maintenance landscape that is also drought resistant and pollinator-friendly. I left feeling more informed and inspired that I could create my ideal garden in this one-stop-nursery!

Matilija Nursery is located at 8225 Waters Rd., Moorpark. For more information, including a wealth of details on their offerings and current plant availability, see matilijanursery.com.