I'm not a native specialist, but almost anything you plant is going to need regular water the first year until established. Depending on drought and heat conditions it might appreciate some water during summer.

Are you sure you can plant something? I would hate for the county to come in and fine you and yank it out.

Thanks for the quick reply. :)

>almost anything you plant is going to need regular water the first year until established.We have some volunteers that, for the past two summers, have been watering the handful of trees we planted in the median, so I'm sure we could get them to continue for one more summer. But hopefully after that they'd be on their own!

>Are you sure you can plant something? I would hate for the county to come in and fine you and yank it out.Well, the Mayor and the City Council are well aware of the project. I would think they would have said something by now if they intended to prevent us from enhancing its blighted condition. :/

Ray,

I see that you're in the Sacramento area... The California native Plant Society (Valley Chapter) is having their annual fall sale at McKinley Park in downtown Sac. this Saturday. There are some pretty knowledgeable folks at the sale that would be able to give you much better advice than I could. Nice prices too! I've included a link to their site.

I'll be there...

Mike

Here is a link that might be useful: Native Plant Society

You'll find lots of information at the below website. You can type in your zipcode and get a list of suitable plants.
Check out the links at the top of the page. There's info on planting, watering, etc.

Here is a link that might be useful: las pilitas

Mike, yeah, I'm headed to the plant sale myself tomorrow. That's why I'd hoped to get some input before then. I don't know much about native plants yet I'm in charge of a fairly large neighborhood project. Yikes. I was hoping to get some ideas of which plants to zero in on and which to avoid, which would put on a nice floral display but not get too big, etc.

Thaks for the link, Wanda. Looks like a nice resource.

-Ray

Well,

There are at least two CA natives that I can think of that absolutely can not take summer water (except possibly the first year while getting established). Fremontia (Flannel Bush) and Bush Lupine (there are is a blue-flowered and a yellow-flowered species). I've tried to grow both, but I have a real hard time laying off the water; it just doesn't seem right to skip them when I'm giving everyone else a drink ;]

I've created a raised bed for these plants this year and have promised myself that I will not give them summer water no matter how much I'm tempted! I'm going to mix in a few Mariposa Lilies and native grasses that I also know don't like summer drinks...

Mike

Here's another site for socal, but I am sure they can help you anywhere on native.
Notice on their home page is a link to list of native websites.

Here is a link that might be useful: Theodore payne

I was thinking flannel bush too, but I think it would need drainage during the winter???

Here is a (semi-small) listing of perennials native to Sac County -

Anemopsis californica
Artemisia douglasiana
Asclepias fascicularis
Aster chilensis
Carex praegracilis
Chlorogalum pomeridianum
Dichelostemma capitatum
Distichlis spicata
Dudleya cymosa
Elymus glaucus
Eschscholzia californica
Grindelia hirsutula
Hibiscus lasiocarpus
Hordeum brachyantherum
Leymus triticoides
Lotus scoparius
Melica californica
Mimulus cardinalis
Muhlenbergia rigens
Nassella cernua
N. lepida
N. pulchra
Oenothera elata
Poa secunda
Sisyrinchium bellum
Solidago californica
Triteleia laxa

And shrubs -

Baccharis pilularis
B. salicifolia
Ceanothus cuneatus
C. integerrimus
Cephalathus occidentalis var. californicus
Cercis occidentalis
Corylus cornuta var. californica
Heteromeles arbutifolia
Malacothamnus fasciculatus
Mimulus aurantiacus
M. puniceus
Rhamnus californica
R. crocea
Rosa californica
R. gymnocarpa
Symphoricarpos albus var. laevigatus

Just a list, but the folks at the native sale will be very helpful, as mentioned! :)

Brenda

Looking at Brenda's list, redbud (cercis occidentalis) is a really striking small tree, tremendously drought tolerant, with four-season interest (cherry-like pink flower display in spring, lush blue-green, heart-shaped leaves in summer, some fall color, red-brown seed pods in winter).

Over here in the Bay Area I frequently see ceanothus "Ray Hartman" used on median strips. It's super fast growing, evergreen, no water after establishment, intense blue-purple flower display in spring. It can easily be grown as a small tree. If other ceanothus are native to your county it will probably do fine.

Both of those are spectacular in groups.

You could underplant either of these with snowberry (symphoricarpus albus, get the cultivar "Tilden Park") or coffeeberry (rhamnus californica, try the cultivar "Eve Case"). Both are very elegant shrubs that can compete with the roots of the redbud or Ray Hartman and take some of their shade as well.

If you water all these plants through their first summer and look in on them during the second, they will probably be just fine after that.

I'm not so sure about the Ceanothus. We have lots of them around the gardens. This summer we lost one because it wasn't getting any water because of a stopped-up spray-head. The rest all get at least weekly water.

Oleander is one that doesn't need much water once it's established. There are dwarf ones now that might be good in a median.