Drought tolerant plants for a Poway, Rancho Bernardo garden.
In the 1500's
California went through an 80 year drought. During the winter there
were blizzards in Central California, the Salinas river froze solid
where it flowed into the Monterey Bay. During the summer there was no
humidity, no rain, and temperatures in the hundreds for many
months. During one year in the 1840's there was no measurable rain in
Santa Barbara. (The highest measured rainfall in an hour also was in
Southern California, 11 inches in an hour) The same native
plants that lived through that are still on
the hillsides of California. California native plants that do not
normally live in the creeks and ponds are very drought
tolerant.
The best way to find your plant is to check www.mynativeplants.com or the internal search on laspilitas.com, and do not water at all. But if you want a simple list of drought tolerant plants that can work for your garden here are some for Poway, Rancho Bernardo, California.
Tecate cypress is native to the southern California mountains looking down into Tijuana, Mexico.
Perennial shrub, 3-4 ft. high, good large scale ground cover with 2 inch daisy.
An evergreen perennial shrub like Lepechinia calycina but flower is pink and leaves a little fuzzier.
Deer grass is a 3 foot perennial with 2 foot plumes rising above the plant.
Rhus ovata, Sugar Bush is an eight foot evergreen shrub that can grow to maybe 8 ft.
Fuchsia flowering or fuchsia flowering gooseberry is a four foot nearly evergreen shrub with red fuchsia-like flowers in Jan.-May.
