I live near San Francisco, in California , which also has one of the few Med. climates. We have 3-4 months of continuous drought, each year during summer, so water preservation is a concern. Any plant i list here regarding water use, is a mature sized plant. Drought tolerant: I've never watered any of the Mexican Sage, which were on my property when I bought it, because they never need it. Long flowers of a deep lavender hue attract hummingbirds every day. c. 5 feet tall by just as wide. There are many forms of salvia that are drought tolerant. - It took me a long time to take to Succulents, but after I remembered my grandmothers growing ' Hens and Chicks' in her cottage garden, I added a dozen or so to my rose garden. I have several growing in a low bowl shaped container to show off their growth habit. I find their smooth texture adds interest to a rose garden. Pomegranite I keep mine to c. 5' tall by 6 feet wide, by never watering it. Since reading that the climbing rose, 'Sombruiel' is drought tolerant in our area, I plan to move mine so it is in the same bed as the Pom. Mexican Primrose, pink flowers that bloom nearly constantly through summer. plants are about 2 and 1/2 feet tall. can be invasive if given the right conditions. -Allysium, the white form has longer roots and needs less water. -Many of the native Med. plants are drought tolerant, allysium, lavender et cet. Shrub;'Breath of Heaven' has a great scent, and can be grown as a fragrant hedge. Last year I decided that any plant in my garden was going to receive a minimal amount of water during our drought and those that lived could remain. This did, to my great delight. Snow in summer' sorry I forgot the Latin name which begins with C... a low growing plant that spreads over an area of c. a yard. silvery green foliage and small white flowers. Rose Campion, another med. native that has silvery gray leaves. a flower that has been growing in cottage gardens for hundreds of years. I have it growing beside 'Westside Road Cream Tea' I do like herbs planted amongst my roses: smaller forms of rosemary, oregano, there's some fancy forms 'Kent Beauty ' is one of those, mother of thyme makes a deep green carpet and the flowers keep the bees happy. Lemon verbena near a path gives off a lovely and refreshing scent as one walks by and touches it. Poets Jasmine, again on a north facing wall so the shade lessens its' need for water. I'd plant it by a pink remontant rose as the jasmine does not re-bloom. Nasturtium. The hummingbirds love 'Empress of India', a red nasturtium. Forget-me-nots, I plant them on the sides of rosebushes where they only get half a days sun, and need less water that way. Average water: Scabiosa, there's a mauve form and a purple form that are very pretty. Violets and Parma violets give winter interest, Parma violets are water wise plants when grown in partial shade. Pelagoniums, I grew up calling them Geraniums, I have 'Roxanne' and 'Electric Blue'. Lilys. I prefer the scented Oriental lilys to the scentless Asian hybrids. I had to move all my 'Casablanca' lilies to a pot on a pedestal because snails ate an entire bed of my lilies. Water Wise, (Not quite drought tolerant, need to be watered twice a month in summer here) Lavender. I water French Lavender 2-3 times during a summer and Spanish lavender once a month. I find the shorter forms of lavender need watering more often so I don't grow them anymore. I plant any of my largest rosebushes which don't need support furthest out from the faucet, because they get watered only once a month in summer, and rarely in the other seasons because we do get some rain (usually) the rest of the year. Large self-supporting rosebushes: spray 'Cecille Brunner' I've seen this grown so it has one large basal cane and been pruned: -Into a large balloon shaped shrub. -into a hedge. Each plant makes a wonderfully fragrant hedge with good re-bloom, c. 8 feet long, by 3-4 feet tall, depending on how tall the person wanted it. My neighbor grows hers on the side of a shed. Mme. Alfred Carriere, this is drought tolerant when mature, in our climate. I only watered it twice this summer. I keep it to c. 6 feet tall by c. 5 feet wide, by shearing it 2-3 times back, each summer. Monsieur Tillier, can reach 10 feet tall by nearly as wide. In general the larger the canopy of a large rosebush, the deeper the roots grow, and are able to access levels of water that shorter rosebushes cannot. Susan Louise' a marvelous Hybrid Gigantea that blooms from February through December locally. Produces large roses in profusion that are a fresh hue of pink. Can be grown as a self supporting shrub, c. 18' tall by 9' across, which has the sillouette of an apple tree if limbed, I've also seen it grown as a 25 foot long climber on a 4 foot tall fence. A nice but light fragrance. - since your sister loves Lady Hillingdon, perhaps she'd like 'Anna Olivier' a shapely honey hued Tea rose with an intense fragrance, it's more richly hued sport is called 'Lady Roberts' and I envy her having such a sublime rose given her name. -Mrs. B.R.Cant' big pink roses on a big plant. I water this only half as often as I do my smaller rosebushes, such as my Hybrid Teas, and it doesn't seem to mind. Clematis; I plant them on the North side of the house so they get shade, and therefore need less watering. c. jackmanni is easy to grow. Best wishes Luxrosa

Thanks for the replies guys. I was surprised that the blooms came so quickly this year; I didn't expect any activity until at least June. I've convinced myself that the rains and wet weather had a lot to do with the failure, and I don't know that any additional soil amendment could have kept their feet from a little wetness. The stand still looks very healthy, and I will probably move a few shoots to my mother's lawn as an apt gift for Mother's Day (what good mother has not done a little hot prodding in her time?). She has better full sun sites anyway. All of the literature on this plant seems to advise against disturbing the rhizomes, but the offshoots on the edge are fair game for me. I bought the original plant from Marcum's Nursery, along with some great phlox. I've been very happy with all the plants, and I am a little leery of the big chain stores' offerings. Some of my chain store glad hybrids and bleeding hearts failed to materialize. I did, however, just add a Walmart six pack of salvia to my herb/butterfly garden. I'll try not to lurk any longer. Happy Gardening!

I am a geologist, and I love all the natural stones making their way into homes. I don't have sandstone (SS) on my floors, but I did look at it as a wall tile. The SS is not really scratched. SS is by nature 'friable,' which means that the grains are lightly held together with cement and the cement breaks down with time and 'weathering.' When the cement breaks down, the grains come apart. Keep in mind that the SS tile was probably on the order of several million years old (yes, really). Before it was quarried, it was not subject to chemicals in the air, cleaning products, feet, etc. Basically, it will weather to a pile of sand over time. A BETTER choice would be a quartzite, which is the metamorphic equivalent of a SS. Metamorphic rocks have been subjected to heat and pressure, which make them less subject to falling apart in your hands. Travertine and marble are the metamorphic equivalents of limestone. They are harder, but they are not chemical resistant. My bathroom is limestone, and I have to be very careful what cleaning products I use. We even discovered that shampoos with color (think Head and Shoulders) discolor the tiles. The stain eventually wore off, but do keep the nature of the rock in mind when choosing. I bet you can get the same color/look in a ceramic tile. I wish I had done that in my shower stall at least. Here is a link that might be useful: Friable

karin_mt, you are awesome! I've been sifting through your threads for the past few days and can confidently say this is the most I've ever understood about science related topics... I did the testing you suggested (thank you!!) and here were my results: Our sample is a super white "quartzite"... We put red wine, ketch-up, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and a slice of lemon on sealed material (although our sales person couldn't specify how recently it was sealed and I know, from your education, that this won't help with etching just staining). We left everything for about 5 minutes and wiped it off and saw very very very faint etching, you could only see it on one extreme angle from the lemon juice and red wine and really only on the white parts. We left everything overnight and there were no stains at all, just etching. The worst etching was from the actual slice of lemon and you could see a faint out line and the white area seemed whiter to me. We did the glass test and it easily scratched a glass bottle. Only thing left for me to try is heat... My questions are: 1. If this material is closer to marble than granite, why didn't the red wine or red wine vinegar stain? I've not considered marble at all because of the staining factor and was really sad to hear that this super white would be along the same lines. 2. Why does the white in the super white etch more than the gray? In fact, I could hardly tell with the gray that it was etched at all. 3. If a true quartzite will not etch, then this isn't a quartzite... BUT if it's not staining, then is it not a marble either? Thank you!