Oh Anna, thank you for posting the picture, we have shared some lovely times and plants as well.
It is good to hear from you and that the Barbados cherry is growing well for you.
Mine is very nice too and I also love the scent.

I see you are just as sweet as ever. I always had a good time at the plant exchanges and visits to see native plants.
Have you been successful in propagating it from cuttings?

Hi, Anna. Long time, etc. I think Frostweed is always successful in propagating from cuttings. Once she insisted that I take what looked like a mere stick in a styrofoam cup. It was Flame Acanthus. Here's a picture of it after it made it thru the winter and neglect by me.



A few months after that picture was taken I had to remove the Flame Acanthus from the bed and put it in one of those large tubs that fully grown shrubs are sold in. Guess I'll have to take a picture to show what it looks like now.

I don't think I could put a 'stick' in a styrofoam cup and expect it to do anything except croak. Don't know what her secret is but Josephine definitely has a magic touch.

I think many of your native plants would work in my garden even tho' I am gardening in the mountains of northern California. I certainly have the heat !

I am going to have to find the time to do a bit of research. My first love had been rose and, yes, I did create a fine rose garden and could continue down that path, but actually this is not very rose friendly climate and I am searching for a new direction.

This thread had got me curious as to whether or not this might be something that would work for me. Just thinkin' at this point.

I am looking for plants that will naturally grow in "poor" soil. I am reaching an age where I can no longer constantly be bringing back organic materials to feed the soil and want plants that will be happy with what I have and more water than they would find in their natural environment. Even in drought conditions, in my part of California, water is not an issue. I can supply supplemental irrigation to get plants established as my county is a county of origin for water for other parts of the state.

I am curious to see if I could pull it off. I don't have much lawn. My lawn is actually a 400 sq. ft. cover crop for my maple tree ... I just want to pull some roses that need deep watering and plant things that require less regular watering and still make me happy.

All suggestions, as I explore are welcome.

@RoseBlush1 - I bet there are plants that some people 'round here grow that would work for you. I don't want to be the 1st one to suggest anything since Im too new at this thing called gardening. Are you wanting to grow from seeds?
I do want to applaud you for wanting to grow plants that are more suited to your area. And I especially like that you aren't concerned about having a typical 'yard'. My front 'yard' is taken up my a wonderful Magnolia so everything else is a little St. Augustine, a little Bermuda, some dandelions, a little crabgrass and so on. But when it's mowed it's all green. No problemo!

I wish I had time to do some research, but right now I am in the throes of preparing for a plant sale this weekend.
You might start by researching the native plants native to your area of California, I am sure they are different from ours. Maybe the California native plant society has some guidelines.

Josephine ...

Thank you for the encouragement. I live in one of the few areas of California where there is little information about native plants online that really fits my climate. I think that's because there is such a small population up here in the mountains. Also, everything is dictated by the elevation where you are located. Of course, there are native plants, but the information isn't as readily available.

There is a lot of information for southern California, coastal California, the Sierra foothills, chaparral climates, but not much that quite fits here ... So, I am always on the look out for plants and plant combinations that can handle heat and poor soil.

I have found out that these are the two variables that are the hardest on any plant in this garden because I have no shade. The heat simply eats all of the organics whether they are dug into the soil or placed on top, so building good soil for the long term is a dream, but it is wiser to find plants that are happy with less fertile soil and can handle the heat.

For now, I am not working on my front yard. That's deer territory ... It's actually quite small and once I am happy with the house pad garden, I'll work out there. The house pad garden is half of my back yard. Most of the back yard is taken up by a steep slope that the previous owner, Mrs. J, planted in four different types of juniper. I am certain those junipers are keeping the slope in place ..

I've planted a lot of roses in several beds and they are doing well, but this is not really a rose-friendly climate. I can keep them happy as long as I am willing to do the work. No, I am not growing exhibition roses, so I don't have to give them the care that most people think roses require, but they do need more attention than they would require if I had better soil. I am now living in an older body and need to simplify my garden and learn about other plants.

To my surprise, my California poppies re-bloom all season because they do get water all through the growing season. In nature, they only get the spring rains, so they are thought to be once blooming. I wonder if that is true for other wildflowers.

I starred your post for research this winter. I am giving away a LOT of roses, so I'll be needing more plants in spring.

Just throwing this out there so experts can agree/disagree.
Wonder if any sages would do well? They certainly don't mind heat. And they do ok for me in Zone 8a. But it's flatland here and I don't know if the elevation would be a factor? There is a forum called Salvias and Agastaches (or something like that). You might ask about sages there.

Does your county have a Master Gardeners group? Are there any small local nurseries? (not HD or other big box stores)
Have you already answered these 2 questions? I didn't go back to read what you said. (my bad)

Hi Joan ...

No big box stores up here in the mountains. They are an hour's drive down the mountain. The climate in the valley is very different than our mountain climate and that is where I can get lots and lots of native plant information for that climate ...

We do have some knowledgeable people up here, but, for me, it has been very hit and miss. I am not fond of the one nursery we have up here. Steve is a good guy, but he often sells what is "pretty", not necessarily what is best for the climate, because it truly is hard to say what is best. It does depend a lot on what micro-climate the garden in located in up here. That's mountain gardening.

As for sages. I do know that white sage does not work ... at least according to my research.

I am only growing one salvia and a couple of lavenders. They do seem to be happy because I do have very good drainage. I don't have sandy soil, but there is so much rock in the soil, it does drain well.

No, you are not bad. I am just learning about how much the heat plays a role in this garden. btw .. my summers are very, very arid. I don't know if you are gardening in a more humid part of Texas.

It is not too humid in the Dallas area, although probably more than your region. Most plants slow down their flowering in our summertime even with regular watering. Phlox (John Fannick) , lantana are a few that bloom all summer.Spring and fall are glorious time here. What are your high's and lows?

Hi Anna ...

During the summer months, for about four months, the day temps are in the mid to high 90s and low 100s, with low humidity. During the winter months, the night temps are around 20F to 10F, but can sometimes drop to single digits.

The soil in my garden never freezes and I have very little die back with the roses. When I do get snow, it rarely sticks for more than a few days. There have been times when it has hung around for a month or more, but that is the exception. I don't live in a snow belt.

Rainfall varies. They say our average rainfall is 33 inches a year. A dry year is around 25 inches. A wet year is around 40 inches. Last year we got 44 inches.

My garden does not retain water, so even in a very heavy rain storm, you won't see puddles of water. That's the nature of a water shed. There are so many crevices in the rocky-clay soil, the water drains down and out very quickly. It's also why it is difficult for me to build sustainable soil in the garden.

I don't know if flowering really slows down all that much here in summer. I do know that things fry ...

@RoseBlush1 your description is nearly the same as my growing conditions. You get a bit colder with night temps in the winter. What about the night temps during the summer? Do you cool off? The summer night temps don't cool off enough here and that really affects how plants will grow - or not grow too often.

Donald ... that's a good question. We have a 40 to 50 degree temp swing between day temps and night temps. Day temps may be 100 F and night temps will be 50F.

In normal circumstances, cooling starts about an hour before dark and temps start to rise about 10 am, but that was really distorted this year, even tho' we had a wet year and a good snow pack. The temps started dropping after dark (9 pm .. still 90F +) and started rising just before dawn because our lake is at historical low levels due to the low lake levels. That is because of the insane California water politics that allow for an irrational water grab for central California. (I don't want to go into that here.)

This year, we had the low temps for only about two hours before they started rising again. This was a whole new gardening experience for me. Usually, the plants had time to recover from the lost of moisture through high transpiration rates during the high day temps during the night because of cooler night temps, but that didn't happen this year. My old mulching and watering practices really were quite inefficient. In other years, the plants had sufficient moisture in the root zones to pull moisture up to the top growth and were fine for the next hot day. Not this year. Even tho' the moisture was readily available for them, it was already HOT before the could move the moisture up to their top growth. Many of the plants were quite water stressed.

I don't know how long they are going to keep draining the lake, which has a significant impact on our climate, so I need to change how I mulch. I know that much, but I don't know what mulch material will be most economic and most effective.

I tested several materials this year and the combination of low humidity and heat is making the choice of mulch materials a problem, too. I've left a lot of space between my plants because I had planned to "fill in", but hadn't gotten that far with the garden and because I didn't want to plant while the drought was ongoing in my part of California for the last four years. The drought is over for my part of California, so I can think of planting again.

I've experimented with several mulch materials and am having a hard time finding what works in a hot and dry climate and still is a good weed inhibitor.

It's always something.

That's a huge difference between me and you, then. Once the daytime temps are reaching into the 90sF and above, the nighttime temps are in the 70s-80sF. It generally stays warm overnight. After a few weeks of it, the soil temp rises and stays warm well down into the fall months.

I think that's going to impact on which plants will perform well for you. The other really big inhibiting factor here is the erratic temperature swings in the winter months. We might have 3-4 weeks of really warm day temps with lows only into the 50sF, followed by a week where the night temps are in the teensF and day temps hovering somewhere in the 30sF. Those temperature extremes can happen even into the early spring months. Plants have to have the ability to recover if they've been tricked into active growth by a spell of warm temps. That ability is variable among plants and, as a grower, even when they do recover a whole season is lost as far as the purpose of growing the plant.

needrain said:That's a huge difference between me and you, then. Once the daytime temps are reaching into the 90sF and above, the nighttime temps are in the 70s-80sF. It generally stays warm overnight. After a few weeks of it, the soil temp rises and stays warm well down into the fall months.

I think that's going to impact on which plants will perform well for you.

Absolutely. It was a real "first" for me and it was difficult for me to understand exactly what I was seeing. I knew I was giving the plants more than enough water, but they were still looking water stressed. It was only when I couldn't sleep at night because of the heat that I realized that the night temps were not cooling off ...

The other really big inhibiting factor here is the erratic temperature swings in the winter months. We might have 3-4 weeks of really warm day temps with lows only into the 50sF, followed by a week where the night temps are in the teensF and day temps hovering somewhere in the 30sF. Those temperature extremes can happen even into the early spring months. Plants have to have the ability to recover if they've been tricked into active growth by a spell of warm temps. That ability is variable among plants and, as a grower, even when they do recover a whole season is lost as far as the purpose of growing the plant.

Generally, I only have that problem at the end of January and then temps get cold again and then gradually start warming up through the end of March. No more real ups and downs. It doesn't seem to hurt the plants much, but then I don't have a wide variety of plants in the garden, yet. The roses just stall until conditions are right for them to get going.

Our climates are similar in that our winter lows are about the same. But we get more rainfall and it mostly occurs from mid Fall thru Spring. It also is a little slower receiving warm spells here also. I started with a small cactus collection and decided to incorporate desert plants as well. Our natives are planted as also, but they're mostly blooming in Spring. Included a lot of Southwest perennials, annuals, and shrubs. This keeps the hummers, butterflies, and bees happy thru Fall. They can be coaxed into reflowering by sprinklers simulating rainfall. The soil here is awful, decomposed shale, and 1-2 feet deep. So layed about 1 foot thick mixture of sand and gravel to compensate for the 30-36 inches of seasonal rain. After 3 years, it seems to be working. The heat is quite hard on the traditional annuals one plants. Water has become a concern here too.

@Frostweed, can you tell me for sure if this is a Missouri Wild Violet? I think the leaf shape is wrong, but I have a fair number here and even more at my old house that could stand some thinning

Gypsi I wish I could tell you for sure but violets are very variable, this link from the Wildflower center might help.
I love Violets.
https://www.wildflower.org/pla...

Thank you Frostweed.

Gypsi - If you thin them, what do you think you'll do with the leftovers?