In chilly winter it’s great to plan gardens of bright, hot colors. Yellow flowers are like captured sunshine. For daisy lovers – and who isn’t? - the happy low-growing Angelita daisy which loves rocky, dry landscapes and the 4’ x 4’ El Dorado Coast Sunflower will give you golden color most of the year and are good cut flowers too. Mounding ‘Sunshine’ Monkeyflower has large bright flowers. Plant happy little surprises throughout your garden with star-like Yellow-Eyed Grass, which blooms into early summer. Next to its yellow cousin, plant Rocky Point Blue-Eyed Grass for more summer surprises.

For an explosion of stunning flowers there is nothing like Flannelbush, which needs good drainage and very little water; try Ken Taylor for smaller yards.

Set off the yellow with pops of red. The tubular flowers of California Fuchsia,  Bert’s Bluff Fuchsia, the ground-hugging Everett’s Choice or the taller (3’) Catalina Fuchsia  take inland heat and clay soils, and thirsty hummingbirds and small pollinators swarm to them. The bottlebrushy blooms of the Baja Fairy Duster add fun, interesting shapes to your garden. Watch native bumblebees sip from the pitcher-shaped blooms of California Figwort.  Nearby plant its bright cousin, Firecracker Snapdragon. Covered with dangling hot red flowers is the thorny and gorgeous Flowering Gooseberry, which grows a tasty berry for you and the birds. Vining through your garden can be the beautiful Heart-leaved Penstamon.

 Balance your hot garden palette with violet shades, such as the tough mounding Valley Violet Ceanothus which is covered in lilac blooms in early spring. Pair it with the slightly taller (3’-5’) Julia Phelps Lilac, one of the most beautiful ceanothus hybrids. Planning a garden is always fun in the winter, and the best thing about California natives is that you can plant them now!