Be ready for weather whiplash; plant for resilience
Drought or deluge, record heat or freezing cold; our landscapes need to be ready for anything.
Weather whiplash pushes plants to extremes. When choosing new shrubs, perennials or trees, look for plants that are resilient when subjected to a wide range of conditions. Many of those choices are low-water, too.
Longtime landscape consultant, educator, and designer Cheryl Buckwalter of Landscape Liaisons has seen the impact of extreme weather conditions – weather whiplash – throughout Northern California.
“Some years and seasons have longer periods of dry, drought-like conditions and prolonged higher temperatures,” she says. “Then, we may have milder summers, as we experienced this year. And then one year, we’ll have a welcome number of inches of rain and then the next year or two the opposite. It can be challenging for home gardeners and landscape professionals as well to know what to plant.”
Plants need to be resilient to put up with these drastic swings.
“Especially for the past several years, I have been in observation mode,” Buckwalter notes. “Wherever I go, I’m observing plants and trees: How are local California native and other plants from Mediterranean-type climates weathering and adapting to all these various conditions, which ones seem to be thriving and which ones are not.”
Buckwalter combines her observations with those of researchers, urban foresters and other experts along with firsthand experience. Choosing varieties that can cope with weather extremes is important, but so are other River-Friendly Landscape Guidelines. With an eye towards sustaining the health of our watershed, these guidelines include planting native plants, supporting wildlife and nurturing soil health while conserving water and other resources.
“These principles are interconnected; they work as a team,” Buckwalter says. “Putting them into action will help us set up our landscapes for success.”
Buckwalter’s own garden is proof of plant resilience. Her home in Cool, El Dorado County, is at about 1,500 feet elevation. In recent years, she saw her water-wise native garden buried in snow, plants bending under the weight. Yet, those bushes and perennials bounced back stronger than ever.
Among the featured plants in her resilient garden: Western redbud (Cercis occidentalis); Dark Star California lilac (Ceanothus ‘Dark Star’); toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia); Harmony manzanita (Arctostaphylos densiflora ‘Harmony’) and deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens).
Focus on trees
Keystones to any landscape are trees. Vital for shade and cooling of our neighborhoods, trees take the longest time to mature and likely will face the most challenges.
“We need shade, and we need to listen to and learn from the experts,” Buckwalter says. Among those experts: the Sacramento Tree Foundation (sactree.org), the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) (https://www.treesaregood.org/), and the Urban Tree Foundation (https://www.urbantree.org/).
“Trees need to be installed, watered, and cared for properly,” she adds. “These resources will help people learn what to do, so each and every one of us can be stewards of our urban trees. It truly is in our hands.”
Besides whiplash weather, trees in our Sacramento urban forest likely will need to put up with a lot more heat. California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment, published in 2018, forecast that the Sacramento Valley can annually expect 100 more days of at least 95 degrees, perhaps as soon as 2050. That’s well within the lifetime of trees planted now.
A recent study published by Western Arborist suggested climate-ready trees for the Sacramento Valley. These trees can withstand drought, heat and wild weather swings.
Two on this list are Buckwalter favorites: Bubba desert willow (Chilopsis linearis ‘Bubba’), which can be seen at the City of Roseville’s Inspiration Garden at Mahany Park; and Red Push pistache (Pistacia ‘Red Push’), which can be seen in the courtyard of the Roseville Utility Explorations Center.
Desert willow is a favorite of pollinators with its orchid-like blooms. Red Push pistache offers vibrant fall foliage.
Also recommended as “largely proven” for hotter climates are: Kentucky coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus); thornless mesquite (Prosopis cvs.); Texas red oak (Quercus buckleyi); Texas live oak (Q. fusiformis); Chinquapin oak (Q. muehlenbergii); New Harmony elm (Ulmus americana ‘New Harmony’); and Triumph elm (Ulmus ‘Triumph’).
Grown with River-Friendly Landscape Guidelines, these trees should thrive for decades to come – no matter the weather.
Says Buckwalter, “The overarching objective of the River-Friendly Landscape Guidelines and the watershed approach to landscaping is to continue to use practices that we know are helping our environment, ecosystems, and communities to become healthier and resilient – all in harmony with nature.”
