Perennials in So Cal?

Hi guys! I was hoping you could help clear some things up for me. I have a thread going over in the curb appeal forum http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/587710/ regarding my upcoming project, planting my foundation planters in front of my house. I am trying to learn very fast so that I can start planting in a few weeks, and apparently I have much to learn!
Throughout the thread, a couple of people have made comments about the fact that perennials go dormant and "aren't winter foliage" and thus aren't all suited to California where we garden all year long. Can someone help explain this to me?

I thought perennial meant that it lived all year long (up to 3 years, according to the garden terms), and annual meant that it only lived for one year. Is there a special name for a plant that lives all year long and provides foliage during the winter time? I am wondering how this works. I just now learned from the garden terms that "herbaceous" foliage dies back to the ground in the winter, so I'll keep an eye out for this from now on. But how is it obvious that Balloonflower dies back to the ground in the winter? http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/72/index.html Where in this info does it tell you that? I am trying to do all of my research, but apparently others are seeing things I'm not, probably due to my ignorance of some of these terms.

What does it mean that my zone is not listed under the hardiness range - obviously it's not too cool for the plant here, right? Does that mean that it is too hot? I thought that hardiness had to do with how cold it got in winter (this is what garden terms tells me, anyway). I am very willing to try to research all of these terms, and I'm trying to do so before posting and asking y'all, but I am feeling a little confused and overwhelmed.

Anyways, I'd appreciate any insights you can give me in choosing plants over here in a zone that is apparently very different from the rest of the country. I keep putting together garden plans and people tell me I'm crazy or planning for Michigan weather or something! hahaha
Thank you!!

Some perennials do go dormant in winter and die back, these are called herbaceous as you mentioned above. There's probably a word for perennials that don't die back but I don't remember it off the top of my head. If you go to good nurseries the people there should be able to advise you on specific plants you're interested in on whether they're herbaceous or not, but there are definitely a bunch of perennials that do stay nice and green and even sometimes bloom all winter.

As far as zones, you might want to invest in a copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book, they have made up their own zones which take into account things like summer high temps, rainfall, etc in addition to the winter lows that the USDA counts. The book will show you what zone you're in, and it has a huge number of plants listed with their zone info so you can figure out which plants might do OK for you. I've found their zones to be much more helpful than the USDA zones when planning my garden.

Hi Wifeygirl: I live in Los Angeles too, and I've learned a lot from trial and error. What part of L.A. do you live in? We have a variety of micro-climates here. I'm in Eagle Rock, where the sun just burns like fire all summer, so I've learned to plan for this.

"Perennial" means that the plant comes back year after year. Some perennials are herbaceous, which means they basically die back to the ground every year and then grow back. Some are deciduous, which means they lose their foliage every year. Some are evergreen; they never die back or lose their foliage. And then many which die back in other parts of the country grow all year here because of our climate! It just takes awhile to figure it all out. A lot of L.A. is in a mediterranean climate zone, which is actually very small worldwide. Lots of heat and sun with relatively little rainfall. That's why sages and lavenders and such do so well here.

Anyway, let's converse! I don't have any gardening "friends" here!

Lynne

Hi Margu! I live right near you - in Azusa. So I'm assuming we have basically the same zone. I'm interested to hear any tips you have for me, because I am rather new to all of this. I'm now in the process of prepping my front foundation planters and choosing plants to go in them, and they are going to get our lovely LA version of full sun. So any recommendations would be welcome! =) Happy to meet another local gardener.

Oh, and thanks for the recommendation for the Sunset gardening book, Ecrane! This is probably the fourth time it's been recommended to me, so I've decided that perhaps I need to get off my butt and go buy it! I'll let you guys know when the book makes me an expert gardener. Suddenly I'll be on here giving tons of advice, you'll see. =)

This message was edited Apr 13, 2006 10:05 PM

Tip number one before I go to bed, and believe me, I've learned this the hard way (meaning lots of wasted cash!): plant everything at LEAST a month before it starts getting hot! Usually this has meant for me getting everything into the ground by mid-April, but it looks like we have a bit of a break this year, how nice! Last year I dallied and didn't get my last little plants in the ground until mid-May, and then it was too late, most of them burned up. That's the small pots. If you plant gallon sized you can maybe get away with it as long as you water water water! Also, I installed a small sprinkler system (from home depot; $20 per kit) and a timer and during the summer I water 3 times a week for an hour at 3am so it soaks in before the sun hits. Saves a lot on the water bills. In planters you may need to water every day in the summer, depends what the plant is. What are you thinking of planting? It's fun, isn't it?

If a perennial is listed as 'evergreen' then it definitely will retain foliage in the winter. However a perennial that is not described as evergreen may still retain its foliage or bloom in the winter--you can get some of this information from the 'bloom time' field in the DG entry.

Plants I have grown that are suitable for year round gardening are

1) Argyranthemum frutescens (marguerite daisy) blooms year round
2) bidens ferulifolia also blooms year round
3) spider plants have nice green and white foliage year round
4) solanum jasminoides (sweet potato vine) blooms year round
5) variegated fig trees retain their leaves year round
6) osmanthus fragrans trees and shrubs retain leaves year round and bloom September-April

I too would like to hearing from anyone with assistance in the Covina area. In this area I am successfully growing plumeria, brugmansia, alstroemeria, digitalis, aquilegia, etc. One section of the back yard is cactus and and succulents, the other side are roses, iris, bird of paradise, azalea, etc. The back third (formerly a vegetable garden) is a low water area wih rosemary, sage, lavender, etc. The back third is primarily fruit trees and an avocado. The front is primarily potted plants on one side because of the driveway. Eager to hear about suggested additions, etc.