Reimagine Your Landscape: Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Landscape
Many forget that Sacramento is a Mediterranean climate. There are many plants that thrive in our climate and require less pest management, tolerate the cycles of local precipitation, draw beneficial wildlife, and look attractive all year.
We’d like to share a few recommendations that might help you choose water-wise plants for your landscape. Whether you’re looking for a groundcover for the slope on the side of your home, simple privacy screening shrubs, or plants that will completely replace your lawn, this is the place to begin.
Thyme
- Groundcover
- Perennial forms a dense, spreading cushion of aromatic foliage
- Clusters of short, small flowers bloom in summer
- Choose from several different varieties: Elfin (pictured), Creeping, Woolly, Lemon, and more
- Attracts bees; deer resistant
- Full sun to partial shade
- Companion plant: Lavender
Manzanita 'Emerald Carpet'
- Groundcover
- Evergreen shrub forms a dense, uniform carpet of deep green foliage
- Red stems contrast nicely with foliage; tiny white flowers appear in spring
- Attracts birds; deer resistant
- Full sun
- Companion plant: Grevillea 'Noellii'
Indian Hawthorn
- Small- to medium-sized shrub
- Evergreen shrub with a dense, rounded habit
- Dark green leaves with bronzy new growth
- Deep pink or white flowers in spring
- Attracts birds and butterflies
- Full sun or light shade
- Companion plant: Lavender
California Wild Lilac
- Small- to medium-sized shrub
- Evergreen with an open, spreading habit
- Tiny, dark green leaves with dark, cobalt blue flower clusters in spring
- Attracts birds and butterflies; deer resistant
- Full sun
- Companion plant: Daphne
Sweet Bay
- Large, screening shrub
- Evergreen with a compact, pyramidal habit
- Use as a screen, tree, or topiary
- Wide, leathery, aromatic leaves have culinary value
- Attracts birds; deer resistant
- Full sun or partial shade
- Companion plant: Indian Hawthorn
Smoke Tree 'Royal Purple'
- Large, screening shrub
- Deciduous with a rounded habit
- Use as accent, hedge, mass planting, border
- Purple leaves emerge and hold color through summer, turning red in fall
- Purple puffs of "smoke" from fading flowers in summer
- Deer resistant
- Full sun
- Companion plant: Crocosmia
Wisteria 'Cooke's Purple'
- Deciduous vine with a twining, woody habit
- Provide strong structure to climb on
- Impressive show of large, fragrant, beautiful purple blossoms in early spring, smaller spikes during summer
- Attracts butterflies; deer resistant
- Full sun
Arbutus 'Marina'
- Evergreen multi-trunk tree with an upright habit
- Use as screen, border, firescape
- Oval, deep green, glossy leaves
- Smooth mahogany peeling bark
- Showy, drooping clusters of rosy pink urn-shaped flowers from fall to late winter
- Attracts birds and butterflies; deer resistant
- Full sun
- Companion plant: Flower Carpet Rose
Deodar Cedar
- Evergreen tree with a pyramidal, weeping habit
- Use as accent, privacy screen, living Christmas tree
- Gray-green needles cover pendulous branches
- Deer resistant
- Full sun
- Companion plant: Japanese Blood Grass
Citrus
- Evergreen tree with glossy, bright green foliage
- Typically bears fruit late winter to early spring, depending on variety
- Over 30 varieties of citrus to choose from: grapefruit, lemons, limes, mandarins, oranges, and kumquats
- Full sun
- Companion plant: Lemon Balm
Lamb's Ear
- Evergreen perennial with a mounding, creeping habit
- Add contrast and texture to borders, pots, or water-wise gardens
- Grown mostly for velvety gray-green foliage
- Spikes of lavender flowers appear occasionally in summer
- Full sun to light shade
- Companion plant: Rockrose
Lavender
- Evergreen perennial with a low, mounding habit
- Use as low hedges, in containers, or in pollinator gardens
- Tall spikes topped with blue or purple flowers blooms summer through fall
- Attracts bees and butterflies; deer resistant
- Full sun
- Companion plant: Pittosporum 'Golf Ball'
Salvia
- Semi-evergreen perennial forms a mound of aromatic foliage
- Use in mixed borders, containers, water-wise gardens
- Flowers, often on spikes, in a wide range of colors including red, blue, yellow, white, pink, and purple
- Attracts pollinators; deer resistant
- Full sun to partial shade
- Companion plant: Red Fountain Grass
Yarrow
- Perennial with a low, mounding habit
- Use as companion plant or cut flower
- Flat flower clusters on upright stems, late spring into summer in a range of bright colors
- Fragrant, feathery foliage
- Attracts butterflies; deer resistant
- Full sun
- Companion plant: California Wild Lilac
Euphorbia
- Evergreen perennial with large clusters of showy flower bracts
- Foliage and inflorescence range in color depending on variety
- Blooms through summer
- Height and spread differ depending on variety
- Use in borders or as a container filler
- Deer resistant
- Full sun to partial shade
- Companion plant: Gaura
