California Gold (Flannel Bush)

A spectacular native is Fremontodendron, with the prosaic name of Flannelbush.  It will never fit into my yard but should be a staple of slope and highway plantings.  Alas, the Irvine Company remains oblivious to its allure.  With its profuse yellow to orange flowers, similar in size and shape to their leaves, it looks as though fall arrived in spring.

Flannelbush (Fremontodendron californicum) in the wild, in spring.  Photo courtesy of Las Pilitas Nursery.

Flannellbush is related to mallows, and it has a somewhat mallow-shaped leaf.  It can grow to the size of a tree.  The leaf might make you wonder if it was a dwarf sycamore tree.  Until it bloomed.

This Flannelbush towers over a proper sized Coast Sunflower adjacent to an arroyo at UCI.  

Flannelbushes are notorious for their intolerance of summer water.   That could be a virtue if dealt with properly.  Last year I saw them for sale at Armstrong Nursery.  I'm sure none of those plants are still alive.

One of RSABG's Flannelbush cultivars.

The best display of Flannelbushes is at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont.  They have created several cultivars, and also some enormous Fremontodendron hybrid trees (Chiranthodendron pentadactylon x Fremontodendron 'Pacific Sunset' if you want to get technical) that are a wonder to behold.  Fall in Spring.

"That thirty-foot (wide and tall) tree can't be a Flannelbush!" I said to myself when I first saw this colossal beauty.  But it is– a Flannelbush hybrid.

One handsome Flannelbush resides at UCI and is visible from the campus ring road, bringing me fall each spring as I run my daily errands.  I assume it gets no supplemental water.  It is fairly toasted right now after a record-breaking heat wave in winter.  But it still has some nice blooms. Its neighbors fared a little better.

My favorite flannelbush.  Those brown bits are toasted leaves.  Oops.  Maybe it can grow back this spring.

As with some other California natives, the British have brought out the best in Flannelbush-- witness this UK Telegraph article. They recommend espaliering it on a south-facing wall.  That is some kind of dramatic. Maybe in San Francisco.  But it won't work here (See the L.A. Times article explaining why.) And it would probably get overwatered in summer and die.  Sigh.  What is so hard about NOT WATERING A PLANT?!!

Flannelbushes can get real big.  I don't care for the smaller hybrids like 'Ken Taylor.'  Little leaves, little flowers, no drama.  'California Glory' is the favorite of the Brits, and I agree. If you have the space to try a Flannelbush, you'll never have to water in summer.  Read up so you have a good chance of success.    Then invite me over to toast fall in spring.

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