Common name:Italian Cypress
Botanical name:Cupressus sempervirens 'Stricta'

Italian Cypress is often associated with Italian and Spanish architecture, providing columns in the landscape. They often reach 60' tall. 'Stricta' is compact, columnar and produces long, straight branches with deep green foliage.

Common name:Jerusalem Sage
Botanical name:Phlomis fruticosa

This hardy perennial is a useful, old-time garden plant with coarse, woolly gray green, wrinkled leaves and yellow, 1" flowers in ball-shaped whorls. It handles drought and poor soils but needs full sun.

Common name:Azure or Russian Sage
Botanical name:Perovskia X atriplicifolia

This broad perennial will grow 3'-6' tall and has small, gray green leaves with blue violet flowers that bloom in the summer.

Common name:Dome Euphorbia
Botanical name:Euphorbia characias

This perennial will reach about 4' tall and has blue green leaves with bright green flowers that bloom from late winter to early spring.This plant can be invasive in some areas, so use caution.

Common name:Dymondia, Rock Ditty
Botanical name:Dymondia margaretae

This foliage is gray/green/silvery; it is a very dense, mat forming ground cover. It tolerates drought, cold, salt spray and poor soils. It's deep rooted and produces small, inconspicuous yellow flowers. Rock Ditty is great for use in between stepping stones or pavers.

Common name:Camphor Tree
Botanical name:Cinnamomum camphora

This beautiful evergreen tree has glossy foliage that is light green in color. The new foliage comes in with a tinted red color. Eventually, this tree becomes quite large in size (50'-60' tall and 60' wide).

Common name:Erodium selections
Botanical name:Erodium hybrids

This Mediterranean island ground cover stands less than 3 to 6 inches tall and has small, dark green leaves with white or pink flowers that bloom during spring, summer, and fall.

Common name:Iceberg Floribunda Rose
Botanical name:Rosa 'Iceberg'

This is a shrub rose (there are climbing varieties) with an abundance of fragrant, medium sized, white blooms. It is one of the most popular roses and very tough.

Dealing With Drought

More than half of the water used at your home is for outside purposes. Studies show that on average, half of the water used outdoors is wasted. The leading cause of waste is incorrectly set and poorly managed irrigation controllers. The second biggest cause of wastage is broken irrigation equipment that goes undetected. There are a few basic things you can do to make a big difference in your water use.

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