Zauschneria Catalina (California Fuchsia)

California Fuchsia (Zauschneria californica, syn. Epilobium canum) is one of the single most important late-season native nectar plants on the West Coast. Red-orange tubular flowers open in August and keep going into October, exactly the window when resident Anna's Hummingbirds are building winter reserves and when Rufous Hummingbirds are migrating south through our region. Very few native perennials bloom this late, which is what makes Zauschneria such a critical piece of any hummingbird garden.

The plant is a low subshrub, 12 to 24 inches tall, spreading 2 to 4 feet wide on gentle rhizomes, with narrow gray-silver to gray-green foliage that feels right at home in a rocky Mediterranean-style planting. In its California native range it grows on dry slopes, rocky outcrops, and coastal bluffs. In Pacific Northwest gardens, give it full sun and sharp drainage and it will sail through summer drought with no supplemental water once established.

The tubular red-orange flower is a textbook hummingbird-syndrome bloom, though long-tongued native bees and bumblebees also work it where they can reach nectar.

Deer-resistant. Tolerant of salt air, wind, and sandy soil, making it well suited for coastal plantings. Spreads gently underground by rhizome, so give it room to colonize a hot rock garden or drape over a dry wall. Cut back hard to the ground in late winter, new growth returns from the crown in spring.

Pairs with Eriogonum umbellatum, Armeria maritima, Erigeron glaucus, Sedum spathulifolium 'Cape Blanco', and Achillea millefolium for a late-season West Coast pollinator tapestry that bridges the nectar gap into fall.