The Covington Elementary sensory garden features a lot of native plants. Here are the ones I noticed blooming Saturday while we were working on some upkeep.
Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
Many of the plants in the main yarrow patch in the garden aren’t just done blooming; their tops are brown and crispy. This one in a slightly shadier spot is still going strong though.
AI Overview pointed me to this Washington College page: “The genus Achillea was named after Achilles, who used the extracts of plants to treat the wounds of soldiers in the battle of Troy. The name milfoil comes from its Latin name “millefolium” meaning “a thousand leaves.””
Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis)
The sensory garden has a couple Western redbuds. This one had a few purple blooms.
California fuchsia (Epilobium canum)
A hummingbird visited this plant while we were working in another part of the garden.
arboretum.org says: “The original genus name was in honor of Johann Baptista Josef Zauschner (1737–1799), a professor of medicine and botany in Prague. The genus name Epilobium canum comes from three Greek words: epi (“upon”), lobos (“pod” or “capsule”), as the flower and capsule appear together, and canum meaning “ash-colored”, “gray”, “hoary.”“
Discussion of why hummingbirds seem to be attracted to red.
Red-flowered Buckwheat (Eriogonum grande var. rubescens)
Red-flowered buckwheat is originally from the Channel Islands but is doing pretty well in the garden.
The Latin word “rubescens” means “reddish” or “reddening”.
Oregon Gumweed (Grindelia stricta)
Edit: Originally, I said here that I’m not sure which species of gumweed this is, guessing Grindelia hirsutula. However, Kathleen found the original tag for it! It’s Grindelia stricta, common names Oregon gumweed or coastal gumweed.
This gumweed is a descendant of plants originally donated by Kathleen, who was there when the garden was first put together.
There’s some mystery connected with these plants. For at least the past two years, someone — we don’t know who — has made a practice of ripping out every visible gumweed plant by the roots. (I’ve salvaged multiple of these, returning some to other sections of the school gardens.) The gumweed still returns though to bloom again, growing vigorously from fragments of roots left behind and seedlings that escaped notice.
Wikipedia says: “The genus was named for Latvian botanist David Hieronymus Grindel, 1776–1836.”
Per the Missouri Botanical Garden’s A Grammatical Dictionary of Botanical Latin, “stricta” may mean “very upright or erect” (among other things). Maybe that can be seen in the form of this particular plant that is pretty narrow and tall. In other parts of the school gardens though, it’s growing wide and low to the ground, at least assuming it’s the same species.
Pink Honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula)
The honeysuckle is on the edge of the garden, climbing on the chain link fence.
Cleveland Sage (Salvia clevelandii)
Cleveland sage is native to Southern California but seems happy in the school gardens. The sensory garden has lots of nice smelling plants; Cleveland sage stands out. I grabbed a few of our clippings for a bouquet (and perhaps to propagate).
Here’s a little over 5 months of growth for one I planted in the latter half of 2024 in the main native garden. Even in May 2025, it was still not much more than a few sticks, but by August 2025, it was maybe 10x (?) larger and blooming:
Wikipedia says: “The plant was named in 1874 by Asa Gray, honoring plant collector Daniel Cleveland.”
Hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea)
Hummingbird sage flourishes in the sunny sensory garden but seems to be struggling in the main native garden — not enough water? Too much shade? Hopefully we’ll figure it out this year.
Last year, I cooked up some trimmings: Fried hummingbird sage. It was pretty good.
AI Overview pointed me at this article for another plant with the “spathacea” specific epithet: “The specific epithet, spathacea, means ‘with a spathe.’ This references the spathe-like or boat-shaped bracts that hold the flowers.”
California Goldenrod (Solidago velutina ssp. californica)
The goldenrod is crowding one of the redbuds. We plan to move some to another bed a little later in the season.
California Aster (Symphyotrichum chilense)
On the genus name, Wikipedia says: “Nees emphasized the uniqueness of this plant in having its pappus hairs arranged in a coherent, basal ring. This structure is likely the basis for the scientific name of this genus, which derives from the Greek συμφύω (sumphúō), meaning “unite”, and θρίξ, τριχός (thríx, trikhós), meaning “hair”. However, this characteristic ring is not generally shared by most New York aster pappi, nor is it characteristic of any other plants included in the modern concept of Symphyotrichum.”
(I release theses photos into the public domain. These works are marked with CC0 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/.)
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