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

An own root Banksiae will withstand water stress much more successfully than many own root types, particularly evergreen roses (Teas, Chinas, HTs, etc.). They are harder wooded and are able to shut down and exist when conditions are terrible. They have tremendous root systems compared to many, even Dr. Huey. When rating commercial roses for any kind of soil and climate performance, what kind of roots they have makes a tremendous difference. Huey is rather extensive and persistent, but even it suffers greatly in heat, aridity and extreme drought. I have a very large, double white Banksiae in the very loose, very dry, un irrigated slope at the southern side of the rear deck which receives direct, full southern sun about 80% of the time. The ONLY "irrigation" it ever receives is either rain or the extremely infrequent hosing off the deck. I cut it off the deck a month ago and it already has a good fifteen feet of "wands" thrown up on to the deck, both from out side it as well as through the openings between the floor boards. Everything on that slope requires watering except that Banksiae and the volunteer black walnuts and peppers. There is a newer terrace which begins about fifteen feet away from that spot, but in the same exposure. It contains seedlings, the Atmore Lamarque, Reve d'Or, and George Washington Richardson. These MUST be deeply watered weekly if temps are in the eighties or above. That blamed Banksiae was planted there 35 years ago, watered weekly its first year, then left to its own devices. The Myrtus communis compacta in that line was well established when the house was bought in 1975. In all that time, it has only received rain and it is nearly six feet tall and much wider. Until I began planting back there last year, only the three existing roses and one crepe myrtle were irrigated and that was weekly (at most) by the gardener who kept the place trimmed and leaves blown off. Otherwise, there is no irrigation system and no one else dragged a hose around to water. Lili Marleen, a well established plant in 1975 when the house was bought, has Manetii stock escaping from under it. the Lili Marleen was nearly gone, but the Manetii has inch and a half thick canes exploding in all directions which I'm working back so both can be maintained. Manetii made it all these years on weekly watering and rain. If the wood is hard and dense enough and the root system sufficiently vigorous, it MAY work with weekly supplementation. Softer wooded types or those whose root systems aren't as invasive, are going to struggle terribly, or outright fail. And this is in the Encino Hills where we get more coastal fogs and generally more rain than many hotter, more inland areas. This is the Wunderground calendar for Historic Lincoln Park in Pomona showing temps and rainfall for the month. I selected it as the elevation is similar to ours here. http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KFUL/2012/11/19/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar This is the closest one to here, though it is 200' lower than I am. http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KVNY/2012/11/19/MonthlyHistory.html#calendar It might be interesting viewing the historic data for the month as it shows comparative heat and precipitation. I know the performance of many plants here in Encino as well as the Santa Clarita area, where I grew over twelve-hundred roses for over eighteen years. I can well imagine what should be expected from them with little to no irrigation there in Pomona. If you select wisely, plant properly and irrigate sufficiently until they are well established, you might well succeed. But, your selections would be better skewed toward Banksiaes, Fortuniana and deciduous, xerophytic species. They possess the extensive, vigorous root systems, harder wood with greater sunburn resistance, and the ability to suspend their activity sufficiently to withstand the extremes in heat and drought with the least damage. Kim

Kaspar, if you're still looking in....just to give my tuppence worth, or 2 cents for the locals.... ...to be perfectly frank, the appearance of the wall with it's broken fencing and tatty exterior generally in the background, bins and other debris lying around... doesn't warrant anything too exotic in my opinion, even though your climate supports it... unless you have ambitions to upgrade the site... ...I would keep it simple and plant a hedge of Euonymus japonica 'ovatus aureus' along that wall, for a bright variegated effect, if you don't mind that... alternatively the plain dark green version with an occasional variegated plant thrown in... ...you have some useful wire netting fence behind, on which I would grow an easy Clematis viticella 'Etoile Violette'... which would cover that fence by mid summer and contrast with the hedge to startle all passers by... but without being too fussy... it flowers June-Sept and pruning is simple, cut to the ground in February... ....to go a bit further and if you want to startle and amaze, then Clematis 'Bill Mackenzie', another easy pruner, would cover that fence and half way up your tree I should think...but I would use the dark green hedge for this... Alternative hedging suggestions that appeal to me would be Rosemary 'Miss Jessups Upright' or Lavender intermedia 'Grosso'... ...none of these would object to your conditions... ...put some soil into those gaps in the wall and you could grow some attractive Cornish wall plants like Lampranthus, Aubrietia or Alyssum etc... to cascade down... ...at least cover that white pipe to the left there... happy choosing....

Very happy to find "Ace Hardware pine bark mulch", which are well-composted this Oct, and have plenty of pine-fines inside. I make my rooting-area in advance for next spring .. by that time the pine-mulch/pine-fines will be more decomposed & less acidic. The rooting powder that Bluegirl mentioned helped TREMENDOUSLY. Things take roots much faster. Do you make a slit at the side of the lower cane like Connie of Hartwood? Or do you slice a piece of outer-layer off like Kitty of California? I'm too lazy, so I do it California way, scrape a vertical piece off from the end, with my paring knife. For indoor & winter: I still don't like covering the plant with a plastic dome, it goes against my logic: cover anything up, and it will surely rot & get moldy !! My kid sprouted some mung-bean in a plastic cup, she covered it, and within a few days white mold grew on it, so gross !! This winter I plan NOT to cover with plastic, and simply squirt the soil lightly with a hand-mister. My neighbor kept a geranium through the entire winter. In freezing March I visited her: she kept the geranium on the window-sill (morning sun), and squirt it twice a day. And it was blooming tons !! I kept house-plants indoor in the winter and was foolish to water it, that was messy: water dripped on carpet, then whiteflies, then rotted stem (too wet). Hand-mist lightly is so much better, since leaves do take up water & nutrients .. same with stem I also put hydrogen peroxide inside my hand-mister to prevent rot. Bluegirl shared how Josh in TX put a paper towel on top of the rooting area to hold in moisture, great idea !! I'm convinced that hard-wood and thick cuttings NEEDS MUCH LESS MOISTURE. Versus the "greener & thinner" stems which dry out faster, thus need more moisture. The "alfalfa sprouts" type of root need constant moisture ... folks do keep alfalfa sprouts in a plastic pouch at grocery store. But the woody & chunky Dr.Huey-rootstock rots easily in poor-drainage clay. As own-root matures from "alfalfa sprouts" to hard and woody roots, they become more sensitive to standing-water and acidity.