Stayin' Alive: Landscape Plants That Survive Red Bluff

If I was a plant, I would be O.K. in Red Bluff until about May.  At that point I would head somewhere I wasn't literally melting from heat and lack of water until Halloween.  I can't say how much money I have wasted on plants I *hoped* would work in Red Bluff.  If I had only had this list when I started.  Sure, the Red Bluff Garden Center is a great place to get plants acclimated to Sunset Zone 9 and advice to go along with them.  They are, however, still selling plants after all, so they can't be completely unbiased.  My philosophy on plants is: if they don't survive my current climate and general lack of care, it wasn't meant to be.  Here's the list of magical plants that have somehow managed to stay alive despite the odds:

Annuals:
(I don't plant annuals unless we can eat them-not enough bang for my buck.  I also water these a lot more than other plants who are just looking pretty)

Spring/Summer
tomatoes (technically a biannual-some of these have even come up as volunteers in the yard!), pumpkins,   zucchini, peppers, sunflowers, green/string beans, eggplants (from a seedling, not from seed), basil, snap peas

Fall/Winter
onions, garlic, lettuce, broccoli, chard, spinach, cilantro (from a seeding).

Perennials/Trees:

Sun

Desirable
rosemary, lavender, vinca (does spread a bit but is cute), all my fruit trees have been doing great unless they were knocked down by a 2 year old and crepe myrtle (if ants "get all up in here", the aphids leak annoying sap on your car, so don't plant it near your car).

Weed-like
(All grow way too fast even with out water.  Additional disadvantages listed)
fire thorn (pyrocanthia)-thorns, California privet-grows back from nothing and spreads seeds everywhere, mulberry-fruited drops berries on pavement and both male and female roots wrap around pipes, quince-thorny, but does make little sour fruits and fun winter flowers, oleander-VERY poisonous especially if you have kids, ivy/boston ivy/orange trumpet vine-climbs stuff like houses and leaves marks plus climbs trees to strangle them, and of course just random weeds like dandelions somehow do super well here.


Shade/North Side of House
lilly of the nile (agapanthus) regular and dwarf, strawberries, lemon scented geranium, roses and mini roses, dwarf nandia bamboo, sweet olive bush (my favorite, flowers smell like apricots year round), camellia, lilly/tulip/daffodil bulbs, rhododendron (but this is poisinous if kids eat it as are the bulbs), ornamental garlic, shasta daisy, sage, columbine and carnations.

Happy Planting!