NATURE : Fawning Over Native Flora in a Lush Setting

Flowers are proof that nature cares. They’re perfect and they’re not even in it for the money. They give everything and ask nothing. Flowers are like the ideal significant other--they’re beautiful, quiet and gone before you get tired of them.

Unfortunately, many flowers in the Golden State are endangered species, the victims of our progress and expansion. Native plants, along with native Californians and California agriculture, may someday be something you see in a picture on the wall of the micro-museum in the mini-mall.

Or, much like native Americans, native plants may soon be relegated to a reservation or to memory. The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, sort of a living library, is home to many native California plants. And how.

Up the canyon beyond the mission, the 67-year-old garden covers 65 acres and contains more than 1,000 types of native plants, while the research herbarium houses more than 96,000 specimens.

You can scuff up your shoes leisurely wandering the garden’s 5 1/2 miles of trails, which are divided into a Meadow Section, a Ceonothus Section, an Arroyo Section, an Island Section, a Redwood Section, a Desert Section and a Manzanita Section. Mission Creek flows through the middle. It’s a great place to forget how to spell ulcer . There’s not a clock in sight, and plants don’t like to rush.

Spring may have sprung, but it’s not as though there are no flowers at the garden. In fact, they’re everywhere, zillions of them, particularly in the Meadow Section and the Ceonothus Section.

Yellow is the color of choice as the California goldenrod seems to be the least endangered species. There’s also plenty of California poppies and monkey flowers ( Mimulus ), which vary in hue from Tammy Faye Bakker’s flesh tone to red.

All the rare plants indigenous to the Channel Islands are alive and well at the garden, which maintain an ongoing research program, thus saving you a bumpy and costly sea cruise. The island coreopsis ( Coreopsis maritima ), looking like something out of “The Hobbit,” have retired from blooming for the year, but the spectacular island bush poppy ( Dendromecon rigida harfordii ), which looks something like a eucalyptus, are blooming.

A vivid example of what can be done at home in your spare time is the Home Demonstration Garden, a drought-resistant, low-maintenance collection of spectacular plants that are too often overlooked by landscape architects. This garden within a garden is sort of a locals-only for flora, featuring the best of the best.

Plants you rarely see but should include fremontia, a waxy, leafed shrub with spectacular yellow flowers. A wide variety of penstemons come in all shades of pinks and reds, as do eriogonums or wild buckwheat. The California fuchsia ( Zauschneria ) is a tough little plant with pretty red flowers that attract hummingbirds.

In full bloom, and worth the drive alone, are several varieties of horse chestnuts, deciduous multi-branched trees, which are covered with fragrant reddish flowers. Without its leaves, the tree looks like something out of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

It’s seems oh, so Santa Barbara, but they do actually have a county tree. It’s the Santa Cruz ironwood. This tree also serves as the logo for the garden. Its leaves look much like one of California’s leading cash crops, marijuana, but we won’t get into that.

Much like the Playmate of the Month or the Employee of the Month, the garden has a Plant of the Month. In May, it was the spectacular Matilija poppy. This native has huge flowers with crepe paper-like white petals and yellow centers. Once established, and if watered regularly, the Matilija will get as big as a Chrysler, and they’re all over the garden.

This month’s plant is Van Hooke’s columbine, a relative of the state flower of Colorado.

Not content to just watch the posies grow, the garden has a variety of activities scheduled. There are more than 140 classes, programs, trips, tours and workshops each year. Where else will you find a class called “California Natives for the Scented Garden”?

There’s a garden help line (682-0988) and a Master Gardener Certificate program. The Garden Library contains about 10,000 books and periodicals. Several varieties of native plants are on sale.

The worst day at the gardens beats the best day of shopping.

* WHERE AND WHEN

Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 1212 Mission Canyon Road; 9 a.m. until sundown daily, $3 adults, $1 children. For more information, call 682-4726.