kerrican2001(z9b CA), nonaberrie(sf bay area), sandylighthouse(7), fruithack, teajm_yahoo_com Can you tell me more about fig trees? Ive never noticed them up here in the SF Bay as much as I did in Venice/Santa Monica in LA. Which varieties do well here? Do they grow tall? Can they be pruned so that they grow tall and stay narrow? I have a small front yard that is mandated to have a tree and I just cut down our existing one and am considering putting in a fig tree on both sides of the driveway. ( I started a separate thread in this subforum for it as well)

There are plenty of Salvia growers but you might want to rethink using them for cutflowers. They're not the best for that purpose; they "shatter" quickly. Take a look at some of these: CALIFORNIA NATIVES FOR CUTTING For flowers, foliage and/or berries Arctostaphylos MANZANITA Artemisia californica CALIFORNIA SAGEBRUSH Bloomeria crocea GOLDEN STARS Brodiaea elegans HARVEST BRODIAEA Carpenteria californica ÂElizabeth BUSH ANEMONE Cercis occidentalis, C. o. ÂAlba WESTERN REDBUD Chlorogalum pomeridianum AMOLE, SOAP PLANT Clarkia amoena GODETIA Clarkia unguiculata ELEGANT CLARKIA, FAREWELL-TO-SPRING Collinsia heterophylla CHINESE HOUSES Comarostaphylis diversifolia SUMMER HOLLY Corethrogyne (Lessingia) californica CALIFORNIA ASTER Dichelostemma ida-maia FIRECRACKER FLOWER Dichelostemma pulchellum BLUE DICKS, WILD HYACINTH Dudleya pulverulenta CHALK LETTUCE Epipactis gigantea GIANT STREAM ORCHID Eriogonum arborescens SANTA CRUZ ISLAND BUCKWHEAT Eriogonum giganteum ST. CATHERINEÂS LACE Eriophyllum confertiflorum GOLDEN YARROW Eriophyllum lanatum arachnoideum GOLDEN YARROW Galvezia speciosa ISLAND SNAPDRAGON Hesperocallis undulata DESERT-LILY Hesperoyucca whipplei CHAPARRAL YUCCA Heteromeles arbutifolia TOYON Iris Pacific Coast Hybrids PCH IRIS Isocoma menziesii COAST GOLDENBUSH Juncus balticus BALTIC RUSH Juncus effusus COMMON RUSH Juncus mexicanus MEXICAN RUSH Juncus patens RUSH Juncus xiphioides FLAT-BLADED RUSH Leymus condensatus GIANT WILD RYE Leymus triticoides BEARDLESS WILD RYE Lilium "Corallitos Hybrids" CORALLITOS LILIES Lilium rubescens CHAPARRAL LILY Madia elegans ELEGANT TARWEED Mahonia ÂGolden Abundance G. A. BARBERRY Mahonia ÂSkylark SKYLARK MAHONIA Melica californica CALIFORNIA MELIC Mimulus aurantiacus and Hybrids BUSH MONKEY FLOWER Monardella crispa WAVY-LEAF DUNE MINT Monardella villosa COYOTE MINT Myrica californica PACIFIC WAX MYRTLE Perityle incana GUADALUPE ISLAND ROCK DAISY Philadelphus lewisii californicus CALIFORNIA MOCK ORANGE Polystichum munitum WESTERN SWORD FERN Rhamnus californica COFFEEBERRY Ribes aureum gracillimum GOLDEN CURRANT Ribes sanguineum glutinosum RED-FLOWERING CURRANT Solidago californica CALIFORNIA GOLDENROD Solidago spathulata COAST GOLDENROD Symphoricarpus SNOWBERRIES Trichostema lanatum WOOLY BLUE-CURLS Triteleia hyacinthina WHITE HYACINTH BRODIAEA Triteleia laxa PRETTY FACE, TRIPLET LILY Vaccinium ovatum EVERGREEN HUCKLEBERRY Wyethia angustifolia NARROW-LEAF MULE EARS Zigadenus fremontii STAR-LILY Joe

Like Al, my R. californica is also only a little more than 4 feet tall (though it is only a few years old; may get taller with time?). The variety I grow (it was labelled as the species only, no var.) is also not very densely foliaged; I usually prefer a denser shrub. Mine is quite drought tolerant, though, which for me is its main virtue. I am planting more as fillers in the garden. I have successfully grown them from cuttings, albeit at a paltry 10% success rate so far; I'm trying more.

I have a few in my San Jose yard. One (the oldest one) is around 10-12'. I keep it trained as a multi-trunk tree with the bottom area pruned. It really is a 4-season interest tree/shrub. It's getting ready to flower now with beautiful white clusters of flowers against dark green leaves. The berries will start as little light green balls and become bright red by winter (Dec.) until the birds strip them in Feb/March. I have one in the All native front yard that doesn't get much (maybe late August) in the way of supplemental water that is a tall shrub (maybe around 6-7' right now). I have 2 others (I really, really like this shrub/tree). One is trained/being trained as a single trunk tree and the youngest is planted at the base of an invasive self-sowing privet that will one day replace the privet. I wish I had problems with the Toyon self-seeding... It's a great smallish evergreen tree or shrub. Pitt tenufolium tends to be less wide. It does put out some seedlings, but it drought-tolerant and quite useful as a screen. You can lop it off at the top and keep it at any height you wish. Toyon responds well to pruning, too, but is not as narrow as the Pittisporum. Another useful native that can be easily pruned to a screen is the Pacific wax myrtle (Myrica californica). wanda