Thanks for the posts, everyone. Bahia, it turns out that I have exactly the location you suggest: coastal influence, and even with the killer freeze (ice in my birdbaths), only a touch of damage hit my bananas, mango, and iochroma. I swear the grevilleas got brighter red, and none of the aussies were damages by mid-20s temps - much to my relief. I'm a big fan of Buena Creek, and was out there last week. They got hit pretty hard, as did their suppliers, and I suspect they'll restock in time for their Spring sale. They've got the best demo gardens around, including the awe-inspiring hillside full of proteas, grass trees, and a 15' pencil cactus - all of which survives on benign neglect. Another location with excellent botanical gardens is the Wild Animal Park, with a section devoted to Aussie natives - protea, leuco* and leuca*, banksias, stenocarpus and some amazing Silver trees (Leucodendron argentum). I swung by Anderson's La Costa yesterday, now that they've recovered from the powerful windstorm that destoyed their greenhouses - I've always admired and appreciated the vast selection they offer, and they've really got a sweet assortment of Aussies (Leuco*, Leuca*, net bush, silver tree, grevilleas). I've got a wide selection of grevilleas already (Gilt Dragon is my fav, and doesn't scratch), and a weakness for Leucospermum, which are curiously ignored by the hummingbirds. Leucadendron 'Jester' is eye-popping, and "more silver' put out yellow cones this spring. Every banksia died on me - maybe too much coastal influence - sigh. I've never seen Hakea, Kunzea, Dryandra or one of the various flame peas growing in this area, and I'm thinking of getting seeds to give it a try. Anyone have luck with that approach? ...diana

Thanks for the feedback. We had thought to compare GA3 with soaking the seeds in biochar or peroxide, along with a control group, to get an idea of relative germination rates of our native SoCal salvias, particularly white, black, purple and hummingbird sages. The nusery sells firewood and the owner always has a fire going, so we have plenty of free char to work with. I'm unsure about propagation and then retail or wholesale sales of open pollinated sages, but we aren't opposed to it either. Given what Rich and others have said about the ease of salvia cross-breedings, we've discussed whether it might be a disservice to CA's urban ecology to obsess on only finding pure seed lines to propgate and to simply collect wild and urban seed and sell the plants as unknown hybrids instead. And in a region that is majority non-white, "native plants" doesn't always strike a chord with all customers anyway, they want plants that are drought-resistant, water-wise or butterfly/bee friendly, which the hybrids still are.

Looks like Powdery Mildew, a kind of fungus. I've never had Neem oil or any organic spray work well for Powdery Mildew unfortunately. You might try "Bayer Advanced Garden Disease Control for Roses, Flowers and Shrubs". The people on the Rose forum recommend it. It's systemic, in that you water it in and it protects pretty much all season. It is not organic but you apply it by watering it in so it goes up through the roots. So no spraying. Even organic spays can be irritating to the lungs. And you're not going to eat it. Is it in the full sun? Like for all day? Lilacs love full sun and will mildew in shade or part shade. Sometimes full sun plants will mildew in a shady area. If so, than just moving it into more sun will help too. That being said, they really don't do well in California in general, especially in the south. Lilacs love and need winter chill. Like several months of ice and snow. If they don't get it, they tend to not bloom. They also love humidity, which we also don't have much. There are low chill varieties, but their blooms are generally smaller. And truthfully for me, a plant that only blooms for about 4 weeks a year and is just an average green bush the rest of the growing season, and just sticks in winter isn't worth my garden space. But that's just me. If I'm going to have a plant be bare in the winter here, without the beauty and cover of snow, I want it to have some interest in fall, like pretty leaves, or winter itself, like pretty, colorful or interesting branches. Lilac has none of that. I really think it's just the scent. Not enough draw for me. But that just my rant. It all may be worth it to you. If it is, you should get the Bayer product.

Good attitude! Counting sunglasses, I have 3 pairs that I'm constantly changing through the day, but none help much with pics on this laptop.