Planting with water rationing: Deep-rooted trees may help. You don't need a dwarfing rootstock to keep deciduous fruit trees small. Choose rootstocks suited to your soil. Prune when the trees are not dormant to limit growth. Prune apricots when rain is not expected for several weeks, to limit disease spread. When trees are just getting started, you can haul water out in a bucket if you need to, using water which you would otherwise waste (keep a bucket in the shower, etc.) Watering deeply, not too frequently, is preferable. Or, you can use drip irrigation which lowers your total water usage. Multi-grafting: You can purchase multi-grafted trees to increase the number of varieties in your yard, or plant trees close together and keep them small. Either option is especially appropriate for early-blooming trees which need cross-pollination before bees are very active, like many of the Pluots. Multi-grafted trees need care to keep the most vigorous variety from over-taking the others. Prune when the tree is dormant where you want to encourage tip growth, when the tree is not dormant where you do not want to encourage new growth. If you want to try grafting your own varieties, you can get some valuable instructions on this forum. See link below. If you love to cook, there are several possibilities among the plums, in addition to Santa Rosa and the European plums. Laroda was named by Sunset several years ago as the best Japanese plum for cooking. It resembles Santa Rosa, but is sweeter and hangs on the tree in good condition longer. Santa Rosa is still a classic for flavor (some may come from a wild California plum), as a pollenizer and for ease of care. Laroda is not self-pollenizing like Santa Rosa. Other Japanese cultivars recommended for cooking are Mariposa or Satsuma (for jam), Wickson (for sauce), Nubiana (turns red). Queen Anne is said to keep its shape when cooked. Flavor King Pluot is also recommended for cooking. As in cobblers and sauce for ice cream. And of course apricots and cane berries are great for cooking. Here is a link that might be useful: Grafting tips

Sorry I didn't see my first post I thought it got deleted. Please ignore if you've already posted a reply. Thanks Brenda

I live in the central valley about 160 miles south of Sacramento, with similar heat related problems in the summer. I've had success with Warsaw Nike as a lovely purple with a faint red hue (sort of royal purple, with a velvety texture). For me, it produces a mass of blooms in the upper several feet in May. Last year toward the end of May and this year the first week in May. It has contrasty yellow anthers. There is a lesser flush toward the end of August. I've combined it with Justa, which is a smaller medium blue, with yellow anthers. It blooms at about the same time in May as WN and lasts most of the summer. Justa is advertised at 4-6' but grows to about 7' for me. Both have been able to handle the heat, but both need a tremendous amount of water and WN needs a lot of food. Good luck...

Deborah....your garden is so beautiful.....what a setting! I am not on the CA coast, but I thought I would chime in as I grow Polka. It's been in my garden since 2017, so three years now. This is one of my favourite climbers out of the many I grow. Firstly, it's very vigorous. It's planted in the hottest, driest, poorest soil part of my garden and it took off like gangbusters from day one. Mine was a grafted plant. It throws big canes from the base and they are somewhat stiff and very thorny. I have mine bent around a teepee and I have to get in their a few times a year and tie it down. I'm growing it in a formal rose garden....I think it would do better in a spot where it could get bigger. If I had a pergola to cover, this would be the perfect rose! The foliage is a light green color and very healthy...extremely healthy in my garden. Now let's talk about the flowers...my favourite part!! Polka is an apricot rose, not orange. It doesn't have any pink tones in it, just pure apricot. I love love love these flowers! And, it flowers continually for me. There are always beautiful blooms to pick all season long. It has a wonderful scent too. The flowers last very well in a vase, and they are very large and fluffy and somewhat ruffled. They are soooo grorgeous! Here are some pictures. Let me know if there's anything else I can tell you about this beautiful rose. Here you can see how the color compares to other roses...the Polkas are the three blooms in the very front (the middle one is squished). This is the only picture I have of the whole plant....it's planted at the back of the border. It's the rose on the middle teepee on the left hand side of the picture, the rose that's the tallest.