Re: Natives and Exotics

I'm in Northern California, and I think I'm in Sunset Zone 16 too, although parts of the description for 17 apply, it is hard to tell. Anyway, I have a mix of natives and mostly drought resistant plants, with the additional aim of attracting wildlife, namely hummingbirds, but also bees and a few butterflies. I have a variety of salvias, lavender, rosemary, a few agastaches, some fuchsias (I know these aren't drought resistant, but the hummingbird factor won out), some penstemons and the Galvezia speciosa and Zauschnerias you already mentioned. I've been collecting salvias from the Cabrillo College sale every year, but the big performers are the greggis and the microphyllas - they are hard to prune because they are never not flowering! I have one Salvia Microphylla Belize the hummers are nuts about that gets about 5 feet tall, but it finally got so woody, I pruned it to the ground, and it is coming back strong. Anyway, most of my salvias are drought resistant, but they get watered about once a month in the summer just to keep them in flower and the birds happy. Most of my salvias are 2-3 feet tall and sounds like what you are looking for. One of my favorite salvias for the color is Salvia Silke's Dream, which has the best salmon/orangey/apricot color I've ever seen in a flower. It contrasts wonderfully with the dark vivid blue of my Salvia Marine Blue - yum. I'm also a big fan of my Salvia disjuncta. I was a little disappointed with it last year, but this spring, it is now tall (about 3 feet), erect (it sprawled last year) and the scarlet flowers are incredible. I have more, but I'm risking boring everyone...just know that your Salvia leucantha is a small taste of what salvias have to offer.
I just ordered 4 agastaches from High Country Gardens, and they sound even more drought resistant and hummingbird friendly. I already have a A. rupestris which dies back quite a bit in the winter, but is already twice as big (width wise, the height is about 18 inches -2 feet) as it was last year and doing well, even with the freezing temperatures we had this past winter. Speaking of the freezes, a lot of my salvias died to the ground (most are usually green during our winter), but with the exception of my S. Lady Strybing (one of my very favorite salvias - very upright, 2-2.5 feet high, with gorgeous scarlet flowers) all of them are growing back, small maybe, but doing fine. I'm going again to the Cabrillo College sale just for the sole purpose of finding another Lady Strybing! High Country Gardens also has some penstemons that are worth a look; I ordered the P. pinifolius, which is pretty similar to the Zauschnerias in their habit and color, but I thought it'd be an interesting experiment.
Don't forget lavender, either. I grow mainly the Provence lavender because it does very well here, and I even managed to start about 10 new plants from my 8 year old lavender that had finally gotten too woody to keep. I have 1-2 other lavenders, but Provence is my hands down favorite - the foliage is just perfect and it needs very little water in the summer.
I wanted to ask why the Galvezia speciosa isn't supposed to do well here. Mine was planted last year and didn't do well with the frost, but is finally coming back and I'm hoping for the 5-6 feet that was on the plant label at the sale instead of the 2 feet height it obtained in my garden. I know I need to be patient with it, but now I'm wondering if it is a lost cause. Finally, if you happen to be SF Bay Area, there is a Bringing Back the Natives sale and tour the weekend of May 4-6th, with lots of opportunities for looking at established native gardens and buying them at the same time (there are multiple places holding sales and tours). 

Kris K.
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