I just can not resist; although I do not intend to make a habit of this.
I know I am sending this late, and that it is already Sunday east of India. It is still before noon on Saturday here. These pictures are not mine, but were used as illustrations for the selection of a town tree and a town flower for Los Gatos. There were more, but these are my six favorites; four trees and three flowers. I know that sounds like seven instead of six, but that is only because apricot can be either the town tree ‘or’ the town flower. Selection is limited to specie that are either native, or of cultural significance. The three trees besides apricot are native here, where the Santa Cruz Mountains meet the Santa Clara Valley, and the Los Gatos Creek forms a small alluvial plain. Apricot trees, which bloom with apricot ‘flowers’ were the main orchard crop here longer than anyone can remember, until only a few decades ago. Arroyo lupine is native on the alluvial plain of the Los Gatos Creek; and cat tails are native to the marsh surrounding Los Gatos Creek.
1 – California sycamore
2 – valley oak
3 – coast live oak
4 – apricot
5 – arroyo lupine
6 – cat tail
Cat tail would be my favorite choice for the town flower because this is the town of the Cats. Apricot would be my second favorite flower, only because cat tail is so appropriate, and also because apricot is my favorite for the town tree (and we can not have it do double duty). coast live oak is my second favorite for the town tree because it is native to both the Santa Clara Valley ‘and’ the Santa Cruz Mountains.
This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/
Tony Tomeo 
Love the Oak trees. There is something magical about all the different Oaks.
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When I lived in town, I lived next door to a massive valley oak. The neighboring apartment building was built around it, and it somehow survived. It gave me all the mulch I needed.
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Yes, I get tons of leaves from our Garry Oak.
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I would not think that they would get big enough to make much of a mess. Is that what Oakland in Oregon is named after?
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Probably, as there are a lot of oak trees in Oregon. Here on Vancouver Island, we have the Garry Oaks. They are often found on rock outcroppings, where they don’t get very big. But, when they are grown in garden soil, they can get huge.
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I know that they are related to the valley oak, but I do not know much more about them.
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The Garry Oaks are protected here, along with Garry Oak ecosystems. (See http://www.goert.ca/about/index.php.
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Cat tail would be my choice also. Here in the UK we call it “Bullrush”. It’s a plant I’ve always wanted to grow in my pond but it’s a bit too invasive and has a reputation for piercing pond liners with its roots so I just look and admire from afar.
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What is funny about it is that no one really likes it. It lives in the marsh, and is native, and happens to have a name that is appropriate to our Town.
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I’d choose the live oak because… just look at it… 🙂 All those trees and flowers are stunning, though.
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The main problem with the live oak is that those who live with it dislike all the mess of the small and stiff leaves falling throughout the years. They are quite messy.
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I understand… But after reading your interesting blogpost about rain, the other day, I feel comforted in learning to like messy stuff covering the ground. 😉
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I like coast live oak too, despite the mess. The problem is that there are 30,000 other people in Los Gatos with unique tastes, and most of them are not from chaparral climates.
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I did not know that you had indigenous oaks. I wish we did. We have an English Oak in our garden but at 90 years, it is past it’s best – our winters are too short and not cold enough.
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I thought that we had more oaks than anyone! Coast live oak and valley oak are only the two most prominent around Los Gatos. There are several more specie in the Santa Cruz mountains, and the blue oak lives over in Almaden where the Mountains meet the Valley. There are several scrub oaks, Shreeve oak, California black oak, canyon live oak, tan oak and so on. There are enough oaks here that there is a big book about the ‘Oaks of California’. They live all over the state, and even in San Diego where the winters are probably as mild as yours. If you can grow English oak, you can grow all sorts of Californian oaks.
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Wonderful pictures, all, whoever took them.
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I really can not remember which ones I took. I know that the lupine is mine. The valley oak was a photograph by Karen Ashera. The tree is between Morgan Hill and San Martin, near where I used to grow citrus trees.
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