“…And We Have a Winner!”
By Ken Kramer
In 1964, on an otherwise unremarkable day in the history of public administration, the San Diego City Council was gaveled to order to take up a weighty matter that had lately generated surprising civic passion. But now, it was time to decide on an official San Diego City Flower.
Roses, carnations, and poinsettia were among the many candidates brought into the council chambers, each accompanied by a cadre of vocal supporters. City Councilman Tom Hom suggested the shamrock. “How about seaweed?” somebody offered. Councilwoman Helen Cobb said, “It does make a wonderful soup.” The City Manager swatted a spider and hinted it might have come in on a flower.
But in the end, everybody put away their pistils and decided on the carnation. And thus it was, for over sixty years, until thinking began to change. The carnation, you see, is not really native to San Diego. But how would a better choice be determined? Aha! How about an election?
That is when Savannah Stallings and the San Diego Bird Alliance got involved. Their job is to make sure birds have a safe place to live in a natural habitat. To get on the ballot, there were some basic criteria: the flower had to be native to San Diego and had to have significance and a name in one of the Kumeyaay languages. They worked with the Barona Cultural Center and soon enough had eight entrants for a kind of floral face-off, including the Black Sage, Cleveland Sage, Blue Elderberry, California Wildrose, California Buckwheat, and the Bladderpod. There were actually several ballots, creating a March Madness feel, as the original eight became the Final Flor, and then the championship ballot between the Bush Sunflower and the Blue-eyed Grass.
San Diegans could vote online, at civic gatherings, at libraries, and lots of other places around town. “All told we had over 7,700 votes,” Savannah says. “There were days when it was like 50-50 and I was like, please sway one way or the other!” It was close, but the winner by a margin of about 30 votes was the Blue-eyed Grass. Savannah, who was scrupulously impartial throughout the campaign, had some informative things to say about the winner. “You can find them along creeksides and meadows and in shady areas.”
Once the vote was officially tallied, the result was taken to the City Council, which, without a word about shamrocks, spiders, or seaweed soup, agreed. An incident-free Floral Face-Off. “It was fun,” Savannah says. And now Blue-eyed Grass is San Diego’s official City Flower, in case anybody ever asks you that question About San Diego.
