I'd agree with the general advice given, but I do disagree about Eastern Redbud(Cercis canadensis) not being drought tolerant. It grows wild well into Central Kansas where many other Eastern species of tree don't make it out to because of heat and drought(average precipitation in this area is as low as 25"(6350mm) and summer highs can be as high as 115F(46.1°C)). It also grows in full sun and nearly full sun in this area. In fact in the beginnings of creeks and erosion channels in the upper 1/3(elevation) of hills in the largely treeless Flint Hills it is one of the tallest trees, forming in some parts somewhat of a canopy growing over the top of Chinquapin Oak(Quercus muhlenbergii) among others. So, it is quite drought and heat tolerant. Although Phoenix, AZ is even hotter and drier than Central Kansas, at least for a much much longer period of time during the year. So, it would most likely do best in full shade and definitely need regular watering, but not excessively like many other Eastern trees would need in your climate. There are other Redbud species which would look very similar and be even more heat and drought tolerant than Eastern Redbud. 'Oklahoma' and 'Texas' are both popular cultivars of Oklahoma Redbud(Cercis reniformis), which was first described from Southern Oklahoma's Arbuckle Mountains. It has a smaller thicker glossy leaf, with generally darker flowers(except the cultivar 'Texas' which has white flowers), and grows a bit smaller than Eastern Redbud. Western Redbud, or California Redbud(C. occidentalis) is native to Arizona, even not too far from Phoenix. It grows all around the Grand Canyon also and I've seen it in full sun surrounded by baking hot exposed rock there(i.e. it was growing out in the open with no other plants around). It has smaller, duller, more blue-green, thicker leaves than Eastern Redbud and grows smaller with multiple trunks. It's leaves are also often notched at the tip giving them a kidney shape to them, but otherwise rounded at the tip and not pointed like Eastern Redbud. It should do well for you in Phoenix. Lastly, Mexican Redbud(C. mexicana) is native from South Central and SW Texas(starting around San Antonio) down through much of Eastern Mexico. It's leaves are even smaller(1"-1.5"(2.5cm-3.8cm) long and wide) than C. reniformis with an undulating leaf edge and very thick and glossy even more so than Oklahoma Redbud. It's also very closely related to and probably should be lumped with Texas Redbud(C. texensis) which has slightly larger leaves, which are less glossy, and doesn't have an undulating leaf edge. Both will grow smaller than Eastern Redbud. Some also try to lump C. reniformis with C. texensis also(putting them all under the name of C. reniformis and calling them all "Texas Redbud"). Historical treatments of these different Redbuds have lumped most all into the same species or just mere varieties, but based on current information I think they are well justified as their own species. But, if a plant tag says something like Cercis canadensis reniformis or Cercis canadensis var. mexicana, etc. you can just delete the canadensis part to get to the scientific names I used. Mexican Redbud, Western Redbud, and Oklahoma Redbud are all in the nursery trade, with Western Redbud being the most difficult to find, at least in my experiences(only found it offered in a couple of nurseries in California). Mexican Redbud is the next most difficult to find, but I've seen it at nurseries in Texas and Arizona. Sorry, but I can't remember which nursery in Arizona, but it was in Tempe or Scottsdale.

Carolinaflowerlover - I am so excited to hear your starsister dahlia's came back. I think these are some of the prettiest dahlias I've ever had, and I can only find them at Walmart of all places. Two years ago I put some in pots, but this year I put them in the ground. I'm anxious already to see if they'll return next year! Thanks! I have a bare space in the bed in front of my porch where I can't get anything to grow because the dog jumps off the porch to chase some random squirrel and lands there every time. Some lily bulbs I planted there a few years ago send up shoots every year, get a few inches tall, and are smashed at which point they retreat until next year. But they always come back and put out those couple of inches. I don't even know what color it blooms. I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. This post was edited by sara82lee on Wed, Sep 4, 13 at 19:20

Okay, here's my list! As you can see it's a real mix of veggies, herbs, and annual and perennial flowers. :-) (BTW - the formatting of posts sure leaves a lot to be desired in terms of flexibility and formatting it the way you want to! Oh well, hopefully it's legible.) AMARANTH Golden Giant Greek ARTICHOKE Imperial Star Purple of Romagna BEAN, FRESH Kentucky Wonder Empress Contender Asian Winged Red-Seeded Asparagus BEAN, SOUP Hutterite October Tiger's Eye Jacob's Cattle Gasless Speckled Cranberry Cherokee Trail Good Mother Stallard BROCCOLLI Packman De Cicco BROCCOLLI RAAB, Zamboni BROOM CORN SSE mix CARROT Scarlet Nantes Chantenay Thumbelina Purple Dragon CAULIFLOWER, Early Snowball CUCUMBER Lemon Crystal Apple County Fair Hybrid Mexican Sour Gherkin Early Fortune Richmond Green Apple Poona Kheera Thai EGGPLANT Fairy Tale Hybrid Rosa Bianca Japanese White Egg Thai Long Green Thai Dark Round Green ORNAMENTAL Gourd Mix KOHLRABI, Kolibri LETTUCE Black Seeded Simpson Salad Bowl Mesclun Mix MALABAR SPINACH MELON Noir des Carmes Delice de Table Early Silver Line Charantais Ambrosia Ananas d'Amerique a Chair Verte Tigger Collective Farm Woman MUSTARD, Southern Giant ONIONS (thanks to Dawn!) PEA Sugar Snap Oregon Giant Oregon Sugar II PEPPER Blushing Beauty Garden Sunshine Golden Bell Jupiter Sweet Banana Orange Bell Purple Beauty Tolli's Sweet Italian Bounty Hybrid Fat 'n Sassy Giant Aconcagua Giant Marconi Hybrid Golden Marconi Socrates X3r Hybrid Sweet Spot X3r Sweet Cayenne POTATO (all they had at the feed store...) Red LaSoda Yukon Gold PUMPKIN, Small Sugar RADISH Cherry Belle French Breakfast SPINACH, Bloomsdale SUNBERRY SQUASH, SUMMER z. Italian Harvest Multipick z. Eight Ball z. Black Beauty SQUASH, WINTER Waltham Butternut Potmarron Lakota Queensland Blue Buttercup Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Sweet Dumpling Gold Nugget Buttercup Rouge Vif d'Etampes TOMATILLO, Dr. Wyche Yellow WATERMELON Moon and Stars Crimson Sweet Blacktail Mountain ORIENTAL GREEN Shanghai Green Choy Extra Dwarf Pak Choy ANNUAL & PERENNIAL FLOWERS AMARANTHUS (ornamental only) Autumn Palatte Magic Fountains Coral Fountain ANGELONIA BACOPA BEGONIA Show Angels Mix Nonstop CALENDULA Triangle Flashback Flashback Citrus Smoothies Apricot & Oranges Pink Surprise Chrysantha Citrus Cocktail Porcupine CLEOME Violet Queen Rose Queen COLEUS, Giant Exhibition COREOPSIS COSMOS Cosmic Orange Bright Lights Polidor Mix Sunrise Yellow Garden Redcrest FOUR O'CLOCK, Marrakesh GAILLARDIA Arizona Sun aristata mix GAZANIA, Daybreak Petticoat Mix GERANIUM Inspire Appleblossom Horizon Rose Ice Orbit Salmon GODETIA GOMPHRENA, Strawberry Field HELIOTROPE Mini Marine Blue Wonder "garden" (heirloom) HOLLYHOCK Fig Happy Lights mix Single Mix Spring Celebrities HYACINTH BEAN VINE IMPATIENS, Fanciful Mix Improved MILLET, Foxtail White Wonder NASTURTIUM Caribbean Cocktail Alaska NICOTIANA langsdorfii sylvestris Tinkerbell Marshmallow Lousiana Piroque NICONDRA, Splash of Cream PETUNIA, Aladdin Nautical Mix POPPY o. 'Coral Reef' p. 'Angel's Choir' Danish Flag Imperial Pink Heirloom Corn poppy RUDBECKIA Cappuccino Spotlight Autumn Colors Goldstrum Cherry Brandy Prairie Sun RUELLIA SALVIA f. Victoria coccinea Coral Nymph SUNFLOWER Van Gogh Mix Arikara Mix Italian White PRAIRIE SUNFLOWER Ox Eye THUNBERGIA TITHONIA VERBASCUM Southern Charm Snow Maiden Copper Rose YARROW Summer Berries Love Parade ZINNIA white star Apricot Blush Whirligig profusion, Apricot profusion, Coral Pink profusion, double golden profusion, deep apricot profusion, white Bennary's Giant, Orange Bennary's Giant, White Bennary's Giant, Salmon Rose Bennary's Giant, Lime Bennary's Giant, Golden Yellow Bennary's Giant, Coral Bennary's Giant, Bright Pink Starbright Mix Old Mexico LADY'S MANTLE, Thriller HERBS - BASIL Genovese Sweet Poppy Joe's Thai Holy Kaprao BORAGE BRONZE FENNEL CATMINT Felix blue carpet Select Blue CATNIP CHIVES CHINESE CHIVES CILANTRO CULANTRO aka Vietnamese Coriander ECHINACEA White Swan Magnus Bravado Yellow (native wild) Prima Donna Deep Rose Prairie Splendor THYME English (vulgaris, sometimes also called German) and creeping LEMON GRASS PARSLEY SAGE common white broad leaf SUMMER SAVORY GREEK OREGANO Here's looking forward to it all going great guns and a happy planting season! Ada

I hope Susan is right and that El Nino will give us all some drought relief. Sometimes El Nino brings us a really wet summer....does anyone remember the summer of 2004? It wouldn't quit raining here at our house. Other times, though, El Nino peters out in April or May, so I guess we'll have to keep our fingers crossed. What worked for me in the summer of '06: Lots of mulching. Mulching early and often. Watering very early or very late in the day to minimize evaporation. Using soaker hoses and drip irrigation. Grouping plants together with similar needs, that is....put all your "thirstiest" plants in one bed and give them more water if they need it. Growing more stuff in containers. Water gardening is great, but I did have to keep adding water to the smallest pond so it wouldn't dry up completely. I moved all my water plants to that one pond and let the big ponds dry up. Planting mostly native plants and a few very well adapted non-native plants. One of the most important things I have done these last few years is to observe how all the native plants on our acreage react to the weather. I watch to see which ones are the hardiest, which ones come back even after going dormant and losing all their leaves. I try to learn from the native plants, and it guides me in making decisions about what to plant and what not to plant too. In the veggie garden, I always try to have plants in the ground as early as possible in the spring so they can produce before the hot weather and lack of rain kill them. I evaluate the veg. garden in mid-June and decide whether it is worth it financially to continue to water, or whether to turn off the hose and finish out the summer with 'dry-land' gardening. I do always put a few tomato plants and pepper plants in containers so I keep them going by watering them even if I let the rest of the veg garden go dry. I select varieties carefully. Vegetables that have been grown for many years in the southwest do better for me than many of the modern-day hybrids that guzzle water. The same is true of many flowers. And, I'm hoping for a grasshopper year this year EXACTLY like we had last year. It was our best year ever as we had hardly any grasshoppers at all. Our county had lots of grasshoppers, but they weren't at our house. I think the guineas had a lot to do with that. Also, I've put out semasphore every other year or so, so it is probably well established on our land and is doing its job in keeping the grasshopper population down. My poor guineas had to range far and wide to find the grasshoppers they wanted to eat. Luckily my neighbors are very tolerant and didn't mind having the guineas coming over to eat their ticks and grasshoppers. As far as I know, except for the vegetable garden which mostly died after I quit watering it in late June, I didn't lose many plants. I did lose some of the common big green elephant ears that were in dry shade. And I lost my banana shrub. Plants that survived the drought of 06: Native redbuds (I watered them once a month, just when they seemed about to die. I usually don't water them at all.) Native oaks, hackberries, pecans, willows, walnuts, hickories, ashes, some sumac, wild blackberries, wild grapes, trumpet vine and elms all survived (unirrigated). The native roughleaf dogwoods and persimmons suffered greatly and had lots of leaf scorching and lost some but not all leaves. They didn't die though. The wild plums that grow along all the fence lines here in southern Oklahoma all died, or at least went dormant. We're waiting to see if they green up in the spring. The Mexican plums handled the heat well. Native cottonwoods had a little dieback near the top of the crown, but were otherwise unscathed. Understory plants in the woods did better than prairie plants in the meadows in full sun. Guess the shade helped them. These included black cherries, American beautyberries, indian currants, redbuds, black haw viburnums, virginia creeper, greenbrier and poison ivy (in the shade they lived, in the sun they died), possom haw hollies, `and many others I can't identify. The river oats grasses went dormant exceptionally early. All the prairie grasses went dormant early and many wildflowers did the same. However, the native sunflowers hung in there all summer as did the milkweeds and a few other flowers like the greenthread daisies. Some of the plants we've planted in the yard around our house that did well: desert willow, chaste tree, four o'clocks, American cross vine, sweet autumn clematis, Burford hollies, southern wax myrtle, cannas, verbena bonariensis, purple wintercreeper, the low, spreading ground-cover type junipers and Madam Galens trumpet creepers. Most sumacs along the roadside went totally dormant (we thought they were dead) and then revived in the fall. Some Eastern Red Cedars turned brown and died but some didn't. As far as the ones that survived...they'll be dying soon as we continue to cut them down and remove them. With our large wooded area, this is an ongoing job. We had a small amount of rain at the end of July and then again at the end of August. This caused many of the wildflowers that normally bloom in spring/early summer to suddently sprout and bloom. Maybe they were there all along, but were dormant and so we hadn't noticed them. The fall bloomers like liatris amd goldenrod and helnium and the little fall asters started a little late but put on a great show. Of course, it doesn't take much water to keep them happy. The plants that surprised me the most? Eggplants and my sweet peppers and hot peppers. Long after I stopped watering the veg garden, they were flowering and fruiting and carrying on, business as usual, in spite of the drought. They were still fruiting when they froze in late November. Okra, sweet potatoes and back-eyed peas fared better than most of the other veggies. On the edge of the garden, the white-flowered daturas (aka jimsonweed) hung on through the heat. The devil's claw did not. The black-eyed susan vines got really sad looking after I stopped watering the veg. garden (they grow on the fence that surrounds it), but stayed alive and put on new leaves and new flowers in the fall after small amounts of rain began to fall. They were tougher than I expected them to be. Sadly, despite my best efforts, the bermuda grass DID NOT die. Hoping for a better year, courtesy of El Nino, in 2007. Dawn