There are so many that I like. I favor drought tolerant/heat tolerant plants that like conditions as they are in my garden, with little to no soil amendments or fertilizer, and onlly light watering. That means plenty of California natives thrive, along with my many species roses and European/Middle Eastern origin roses. A number of these plants, both roses and others, want to go summer dormant (and if watered and/or fertilized then they won't be able to rest and often will not flower the next year) as they would naturally in the areas where they are native. Of course this kind of care goes against the grain with lots of rose gardeners in mediterranean climate areas like mine, who are then surprised that roses in these classes won't bloom for them. Salvias are in general wonderful here. Salvia 'Celestial Blue' is a CA native and has the most gorgeous blue flowers. No pictures I've seen online truly capture the stunning color. Foliage is silvery and smells heavenly. Likes full sun, lean soil, and little to no summer water. Salvia dorrii 'Gayle Nielson'. CA native. Desert sage. Foliage is silvery grey green and delightfully scented. Heat tolerant and surprisingly shade tolerant too. Winter bloomer. Has pale lavender flowers. Since it is from the desert where sporadic rainfall may occur, this plant likes a few drinks in the summer. Salvia mohavensis. CA native. Newly-planted baby plants last month. I had to wait nearly a year to get them from a specialty grower. Mine haven't bloomed yet but the pictures online show small charming blue flowers. Salvia namaensis. Native to South Africa. Has delicate lacy, crimped leaves which are deceptive because this plant is as tough as nails. Extremely heat and drought tolerant. It has lovely small pale lavender blue flowers and blooms almost year round. I have never fertilized it and rarely water now that it is established. My soil is very sandy loam and quite lean. Salvia spathacea 'Avis Keedy' (yellow flowers) and 'Powerline Pink'. Both are very shade tolerant and actually need some shade and summer water (not a lot). Powerline Pink in particular has especially yummy smelling foliage (lemony sagey scent). Various Salvia greggii and Salvia jamensis or crosses of either or both. Including Salvia 'Hot Lips' (red and white or combination flowers), Salvia 'Elk White Ice' (pure white flowers, heavy bloomer in 90+ degree heat), Salvia 'Elk Lemon Light' (beautiful clear yellow flowers and bright green foliage, nice bushy shape, blooms well in high heat), Salvia 'Mesa Azure' (striking purplish blue flowers, heat and shade tolerant, stays bushy, branches stay flexible rather than going woody and brittle, long bloom period), Salvia 'Teresa' (prolific bloomer, very bushy, lush foliage a nice shade of green, heat and drought tolerant, pretty white flowers touched with pink), and Salvia 'Moonlight' (pale yellow flowers, shade tolerant, heat tolerant, stays small). Ceanothus. My favorites include C. spinosus (almost lime green stems and trunk, yep prickly spines, will tolerate some shade, dislikes summer water, grows quickly, pretty blue flowers, bushy), C. cyaneus (aka lakeside ceanothus, absolutely gorgeous 'cyan' blue flowers, wants to be a small tree, grows fast, likes some shade, will tolerate some summer water, very nice foliage, scented flowers), C. 'Lemon Ice' (variagated yellow and green foliage, blue flowers, will tolerate some shade and summer water, small to moderate sized shrub), C. 'El Dorado' (very similar to Lemon Ice, too new to comment on ultimate size), C. 'Diamond Heights' (groundcover!, needs some shade in high heat areas, variagated foliage, small blue flowers), C. 'Arroyo de la Cruz' (bushy and low growing, mine is in a huge pot in partial shade, and seems quite happy, small foliage, gets water once or twice a month in summer), C. arboreus (very fast growing, somewhat shade tolerant, will be a tree, does not like summer water). Mimulus, aka monkey flowers! I recently planted 2 and am closely watching their progress. So far they have bloomed heavily and appear to be settling in for the worst of the summer heat. I have M. aurantiacus (sticky monkey flower, peachy color flowers) and M. aurantiacus 'Buttercup' (orangey flowers, which I usually don't like, but I do this one). Eriogonum. Wild buckwheat. CA native. I have 3 different kinds, all very drought tolerant. E. fasciculatum 'Dana Point' (has the nicest foliage and prettiest flowers (snow white in color) of all the fasciculatums I've seen--has been smashed multiple times by my big dogs and keeps on growing!), E. parvifolium (seacliff buckwheat, mine has white flowers, but some, depending on grower and where they collected their mother plants, have pinkish flowers), and Eriogonum umbellatum var. polyanthum ‘Shasta Sulfur’ (very low growing, bright yellow flowers). Miscellaneous CA natives: Asclepias fascicularis (narrow leaf milkweed, very attractive foliage, food source for Monarch butterfly caterpillars) Erysimum menziesii (menzies wallflower, in a pot and very happy) Monardella antonina (coyote mint) Monardella odoratissima Monardella 'Russian River' Isocoma menziesii (golden bush) Penstemon 'Margarita BOP' Penstemon grinnellii Penstemon 'Electric Blue' Penstemon azureus Penstemon spectabilis Lotus scoparius (deerweed, nitrogen-fixer, yellow flowers) Olneya tesota (ironwood, a nurse plant as it is a nitrogen-fixer, eventually a small tree, but so slow growing that will take many years, now a tiny shrub, gets small pea-like violet flowers) Helianthemum scoparium (the only CA native rockrose/sunrose, bright yellow flowers) Lonicera subspicata (southern honeysuckle, likes to grow in chaparral, white and pale yellow flowers) Arctostaphylos purissima 'Vandenberg' (a groundcover manzanita with fuzzy white hairs on the stems and snowy white flowers--needs afternoon shade in hot inland areas) Not a shrub, but I have interplanted with them multiple of the CA native, sun-loving, and very drought tolerant grass Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition' (eyebrow grass, and the "eyebrows" are blonde). It's a very feathery and delicate looking grass, really lightens an area. Photo is of Salvia namaensis. Melissa This post was edited by Tessiess on Thu, Jul 17, 14 at 18:26

I go back and forth on all this - I will be 66 end of the week. I just got through 2 years of intensive careing for my mother who was bedridden and living with us. The gardens got a lick and a promise - hubby did most of the work tho. Mom passed in February so I thought now it is my time to devote 24/7 in the gardens - started out great then we hit this 50+ days of Heat Indexes of 100-110 and no end in sight. I found I really can't take the heat like I use to so the gardens suffer again. I will always have flowers and always have more than I can handle but that being said yes I am going to scale back some - add more shrubs (hydrangeas, viburnums, camellias, ect) and go for lower maintenance. I love starting my annuals from seed and taking note of what is doing good in this oppressive heat - I have some real standouts - blackeyes susans, megellan zinnias, vinca, caladiums and coleus. Fussy plants are getting the heave-ho. This has been a great thread - I had no idea there were so many of us 'seniors'. It was very theraputic reading other gardeners responses because I was thinking I was losing interest because I wanted to scale back and was feeling bad about 'old age' setting in -. I was feeling that life was passing me by. In the last 10 years I retired, moved to a different state, lost a husband of 38 yrs, moved my mother in with me, met and married a wonderful man - now it is time to garden :) thanks for listening ...... Lynne

Your exposure sounds about right. Your climate is not ideal but hopefully you are close enough to the Atlantic to buffer temperatures. The vast majority of Fuchsias like mildly cool, humid weather year-round. Hot, humid weather is bad because it breeds diseases that kill them, hot dry weather turns them crisp and dead. Generally, they get sluggish in hot weather; their chemistry is optimized for cool temps. Most of them can stand mild frosts BUT a few can't, and growing in hanging baskets their roots are exposed and if their roots freeze, that kills them. Ideal places are like coastal Oregon and northern California, Madiera, Ireland, west coast of Great Britain, Atlantic coast of France and Spain, much of New Zealand, south-central Chile (where some are native), Tasmania, etc. 1. Watering Fuchsias are NOT particularly fussy about OVER watering. Just make sure that their soil stays reasonably aerated. Because they are in hanging baskets they are unlikely to have standing water at their roots (unless you have one of those types with a saucer under it--which is bad), which would suffocate them. In hot weather you might have to water them DAILY. I would water over misting. They like humidity, but the problem is that fungal spores stick to wet leaves. Misting works better in drier climates like that of California. 2. Fertilizing (chem. breakdown) FEED ME, SEYMOUR! Fuchsias are heavy feeders. They are not picky about brand or type, but liquid fertilizers work well with Fuchsias so that's probably the most common thing to do. Miracle grow works fine for Fuchsias. Besides, in hot weather you'll have to water frequently so you have to fertilize frequently to avoid leaching out all the fertilizer, OR you can use time-release pelleted fertilizers. The usual warning about nitrogen making growth at the expense of blooms doesn't seem to apply to Fuchsias--they bloom on new wood and they NEED some new growth to bloom. A "balanced" all-purpose type is usually OK BUT if they get chlorotic, check if you need fertilizer for acid-loving plants. That's usually only necessary in parts of the country with strongly alkaline water. 3. Dead-heading/'New Arrival Pruning" As for new arrival pruning, I suggest waiting until you can see how the Fuchsia is responding to its new environment, and see how vigorous your particular type is. Highly-bred (overbred) Fuchsias are sometimes lacking in vigor; if yours is one of them go easy on it and only pinch it when it needs it. Wild Fuchsias and some hybrids are rampantly vigorous, and if that is so you can safely prune them fairly severely without worrying. Fuchsias have amazing regenerative abilities and can regrow vigorously from seemingly badly damaged wood. The "pods" are actually berries and by the way they are edible although usually bland (I happen to have the one exception, F. boliviana, which produces mildly sweet and somewhat palatable berries). When ripe they are soft, juicy, and dark reddish-purple. If you get hummingbirds (that would be "Ruby Throated" in your part of the world) then you might actually get berries. Most of the time yours probably won't be pollinated and will fall off on their own. Darker and shiny--hmm, maybe something IS pollinating them! If you do get berries, you can snip them off if you like. Exactly where isn't too critical--you could snip the stem that connects the berry to the branch (ie, just past the berry, before it connects to the branch), but leave the branch alone. The stem that connects the berry to the branch doesn't do anything else and is expendable.

Hi A Next time ask me an easy one.... I went out and did a check on what I have and give or take half a dozen there are 101. And before you ask... they are... ALBERTINA ALISON PATRICIA ANNABEL ANOTHER LITTLE CRACKER ANTHONY HEAVENS AUNTIE JINKS BABY BRIGHT BARBARA EVANS BARBARA WINDSOR BEACON BECKY REYNOLDS BORDER QUEEN BORDER RAIDER BRENDA WELTON BRIGHT LITES BROOKWOOD BELLE CAMBRIDGE LOUIE CARADELLA CELIA SMEDLEY CENTRAL SCOTLAND CONSTANCE COMER DANIEL REYNOLDS DAVID DAWN FANTASIA DIANNE WRIGHT DOLLAR PRINCESS EDIE LESTER EMA MARIE EVA DAWES F. ARBORESCENS F. BOLIVIANA ALBA F. DENTICULATA F. FULGENS VARIEGATTA F. MAGELLANICA F. MINIMIFLORA F. PROCUMBENS FIRECRACKER GARTENMEISTER BONSTEDT GINA GINA BOWMAN HARRY GRAY HAWKSHEAD INSULINDE JACK SIVERN JACK STANWAY JANICE ANN JIM WATTS JJ ROBERTS JUBILEE QUEST KAREN ISLES KATIE SUSAN KEN SHELTON KENNY WALKLING KOBOLD KORALLE KORALLE SPORT LADY THUMB LAMBADA LEONORA LILLIAN ANNETS LINCOLN CASTLE LINDA MARY NUTT LONDON 2000 LONDON EYE LOVELY LES LYES UNIQUE LYNNE PATRICIA MAGARET BROWN MAKING WAVES MARGARET JENKINSON MARGARET LOWIS MARGERET MARINKA MIEKE MUERSING MILLENIUM MY LITTLE CRACKER OLD SOMERSET OLIVE SMITH PAT ROGERS PATIO PRINCESS PAULA JANE PINK FANTASIA PRESIDENT GEORGE BARTLETT ROESSE BLACKIE ROSE FANTASIA ROSLYNNE ROSWITHA SHEILA MARY MASON SMARTY SNOWFLAKE SON OF THUMB SOPHIE LOUISE STEPHANIE WHEAT THALIA THISTLE HILL TIME AFTER TIME WALDIS WAVENEY GEN WIGAN PEER WINTERS TOUCH Far too many.... Tight....