Try These Beautiful & Tough, Drought-Tolerant Plants
Every plant at Skyline Meadow Farm in Oakland, California was chosen to thrive in conditions that would challenge many others: wind, compacted clay, searing sun, and recurring drought. The selections below combine California natives with Mediterranean and drought-adapted ornamentals to deliver year-round interest while supporting the region’s pollinators and conserving the water table.
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1. ‘Santa Barbara’ sage
- Name: Salvia leucantha ‘Santa Barbara’
- Zones: 8–11
- Size: 2 to 3 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide
- Conditions: Full sun; poor, well-drained soil
- Native range: Garden origin
‘Santa Barbara’ sage is a fragrant subshrub prized for its soft silvery foliage, whorls of lavender flowers, and relaxed, coastal beauty that evokes the wild hillsides of the California Coast.
2. Firewheel
- Name: Gaillardia pulchella
- Zones: Annual
- Size: 1 to 1½ feet tall and wide
- Conditions: Full sun; adaptable to most well-drained soil types
- Native range: North America
Vibrant flowers in hues of red, orange, and yellow make this annual (sometimes short-lived perennial) an eye-catching addition to almost any garden.
3. ‘Cousin Itt’ acacia
- Name: Acacia cognata ‘Cousin Itt’
- Zones: 9–11
- Size: 2 to 3 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide
- Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; well-drained soil
- Native range: Australia
This is an odd little shrub with cascading, fine-textured blue-green foliage that forms an unmistakable mop-like mound, providing softness and playful textural contrast along borders, slopes, and retaining walls.
4. Desert willow
- Name: Chilopsis linearis
- Zones: 7–9
- Size: 15 to 25 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide
- Conditions: Full sun; well-drained to dry soil
- Native range: Northern Mexico and Southwestern United States
A deciduous small tree prized for its extravagant, orchid-like blooms in shades of pink, lavender, and white that repeat from late spring through fall, this woody attracts hummingbirds throughout the season.
5. Western redbud
- Name: Cercis occidentalis
- Zones: 6–9
- Size: 10 to 18 feet tall and 10 to 20 feet wide
- Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; well-drained, alkaline soil
- Native range: Southwestern United States
You’ll love this standout native for its magenta flowers that erupt along bare branches in early spring before the leaves emerge, followed by heart-shaped foliage and rich fall color. It tolerates clay soil.
6. Variegated Italian buckthorn
- Name: Rhamnus alaternus ‘Variegata’
- Zones: 7–10
- Size: 8 to 12 feet tall and 6 to 10 feet wide
- Conditions: Full sun to partial shade; adaptable to most well-drained soil types
- Native range: Hybrid
This upright, densely branched evergreen shrub forms effective privacy screens and windbreaks quickly, with deep green and white foliage that holds on even through drought.
7. ‘Grace’ smokebush
- Name: Cotinus coggygria ‘Grace’
- Zones: 5–9
- Size: 10 to 15 feet tall and wide
- Conditions: Full sun; moist, well-drained to dry soil
- Native range: Temperate Asia and Europe
With its large, wine red leaves and billowing clouds of smoky pink plumes in summer, ‘Grace’ delivers dramatic foliage color and textural contrast on a grand scale.
8. ‘Yankee Point’ California lilac
- Name: Ceanothus griseus var. horizontalis ‘Yankee Point’
- Zones: 8–10
- Size: 2 to 3 feet tall and 8 to 10 feet wide
- Conditions: Full sun; well-drained, lean soil
- Native range: Coastal California
A spreading, fast-growing ground cover smothered in deep powder blue flowers each spring, it suppresses weeds, stabilizes slopes, and supports native pollinators with minimal irrigation.
9. ‘Marina’ strawberry tree
- Name: Arbutus ‘Marina’
- Zones: 7–10
- Size: 25 to 40 feet tall and 20 to 30 feet wide
- Conditions: Full sun; well-drained soil
- Native range: Hybrid
An evergreen hybrid tree with spectacular cinnamon-red peeling bark, clusters of urn-shaped pink flowers, and strawberry-like red fruit, ‘Marina’ provides year-round multiseason interest as a specimen or large screen.
Nina Mullen is a landscape designer and the principal of Mullein Designs, based in the Bay Area of California.
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