I'm trying to get perennials going, especially gypsophilia paniculata, but it hasn't bloomed yet, tried some crushed drywall (chalky) to lower the ph a little. Coreopsis went double on me, loved that, but hard to train right, cut it back. I have grown annual salvia 2 years now but want to go perennial where I used that, blue crystal this year and sangria last year, also a freebie yellow coneflower looks nice, meadow sage is good, haven't had time to mulch it yet and can't get that bed watered much. Some Color Parade lilies. Trying to get some delphs and white foxglove going. Crazy daisy should bloom next year. And catmint, not doing much this year but hangin' in there. Annual alyssum is very drought tolerant. White, pink and purple phlox. I stuck in some Rudbeckia Prairie Sun, very striking but not where it is, supposed to self-seed. I want something medium height or tallish with purple bells. What might that be? Failed twice trying to get campanula? ladybells going from seed, will give it one more shot. Russian sage I love but it gets too big, should try to find the smaller variety. Finally, clematis. Have two kinds going well now; one too young yet, one won't bloom, and one isn't happy where I put it. Many of the plants people in warmer zones are using doubt will grow in my zone.

Claudia, most of mine are on or beside the back deck, which faces toward the east (slightly southeast). Since they choose to come up very freely in the planters and pots back there I assume they are happy with that exposure. They do get direct sun for part of the day there but it is morning sun, not the blazing afternoon light. This year they also came up in my part shade bed for the first time and some even appeared under some towering cosmos where they couldn't have been getting much light. I didn't even know they were there until I cleared the cosmos a bit. I consider them a "bright shade" plant and wouldn't put them in full sun even though one has recently popped up in the front of my aster bed where it has full sun all day. Go figure. Probably the trick to having torenia reseed is not to be too religious about deadheading. It's one of the few plants whose spent blooms do not make me itch to remove them so they get overlooked when it comes to grooming. Heaven knows there are enough other ones that MUST be seen to! Since I absolutely love finding the torenia popping up all over that works out very well. If you don't mind that they are several generations away from named varieties, Claudia, I'd be happy to see if I can catch you some seeds. I have at least two purples with yellow - both have dark purple markings but one has a white background where the other is a lighter purple.

I'm gardening in Santa Monica and going for a more drought tolerant garden while keeping roses in the mix. I haven't been checking the forums for a bit and I'm sure I'll echo many recommendations already made, but I like the following so far: Lavenders of all sort, but especially Fern-leafed in tighter spots. Eschscholzia in a myriad of colors. Platystemon californicus. Annie's carries this absolutely charming California native. It has lovely light yellow flowers that close up at night. It looks great right now for me. I really love this annual/companion. It's definitely for the front of the border. Penstemons in darker purples, blues -Marguerite BOP amongst others- and red. They can fill out nicely. Salvia of all sorts. I like gregii hybrids for sunnier spots, but check out the selection at Annie's. It is terrific! Cerinthe. I love the blue-grey-green foliage and purple flowers. It's very easy from seed. Centranthus or Jupiter's Beard in pink/red and white is all over my garden. It spreads almost to the point of invasiveness, but it looks good with little water and the volunteers are easy to rip out. I like the way certain ornamental grasses blend with roses. Smaller Pennisetum, Calmagrostis, Bouteloua, and Deschampsia varieties can be blended with roses and other drought tolerant plants fairly easily. Nicotiana mutabilis is very low maintenance and low-water for me. It looks great Spring-Fall with tall stalks of multi-colored flowers. Limonium -statice or sea-lavender- comes in all sorts of colors besides purple and is very easy to maintain with little water. I like the apricot and white varieties a lot. I really enjoy variegated Euphorbias like 'Blue Glacier' and 'Tasmanian Tiger.' They can lend much needed foliage interest and form very shapely mounds. Columbines fare a bit better in light shade for me, but I love to grow them. I have a Rosa rugosa alba in light shade under planted with black/dark purple columbines that looks wonderful right now. Eriogonum or buckwheat can be mixed at the front of drought tolerant borders with great success. I like E. latifolium and E. grande v. rubescens a lot. The former has terrific light pink flowers if I recall correctly and the latter red. Some dwarf Correa varieties look great with roses. The common name is Australian Fuschia. They bloom in winter/spring and require little water. Consider South African bulbs that go dormant in the summer when there's little or no rain here anyways. Ixia, Aristea, Ferraria, species Gladiolus, and others can be unbelievably beautiful and very drought tolerant. Lewisia looks terrific in Spring in containers or in areas where it won't be covered up since it is quite short. Check out Annie's Annuals in Richmond for plenty of ideas if you haven't. I can't tell you how many wonderful plants I've seen on their site that I wish I could have ordered without thinking about it. Being able to go in person removes the need to save on shipping and you can see their demo gardens with mature examples of most of their offerings. Jay

I would not recommend the Mexican Feather Grass, it's pretty but has been found to be very invasive. They will end up taking over the area and are not super drought tolerant anyway. What you should be really after is "Low water use" plants, not drought tolerant. Gry_falcon is right, many of those don't look very good especially if they don't get much water. "Drought tolerant" can mean just that; it tolerates drought. It means they will live through a drought but it doesn't mean they look good doing it. Many will lose leaves or turn brown if they don't get enough water, they green up when rains return. Good trait in the wild, not so good in a commercial landscape. And if you try and keep them green and lush with more water they often die outright or are very short lived. Most natives fall in this category. And Babka is also correct in that you will get your water savings in a few years, not in the first couple as they all need normal watering to become established. Some I can recommend that are low water use and look good are; Lantana Rosemary Aloes and yucca (be sure to check the cold tolerance of what you get, some are frost sensitive) Salvia leucantha "Mexican bush sage" Dymondia Euryops (get leggy in 5-7 years but grow fast and are cheap to replace) Many dwarf pittosporums such as Pittosporum tobira "Creme de Mint" Senecio cineraria "Dusty miller" Erysimum "Bowel's Mauve" Festuca gauca "Blue Fescue" Limonium perezii "Sea Lavender" Nepeta "Cat Mint" Scaevola "Mauve Clusters" Carissa spp. "Natal Plum" Grevillea spp. (some newer ones are quite compact) Punica granatum "nana" "Dwarf Pomegranate" Rhaphiolepis indica "Indian Hawthorn" Mugo pine Many of the dwarf and shorter Phormiums, but beware some "revert" to the larger species when older, but the dark bronze "Jack Spratt" seems to stay small. A lot of these plants are very common. They also may seem boring and are in many commercial plantings. But that's for a good reason, they work, they look good almost all year, and are easy to find.