Plants for Your SoCal Garden That Will Remain Green All Year Long

Written by Kelsey W.

Raking the lawn and jumping into great big piles of leaves is a time-honored autumn tradition, but it also signifies that many of the trees and greenery will soon look bare or turn brown for the wintertime. 

The turning of fall leaves into bright colors is a beautiful sight, but then there are many months of waiting until the greenery returns. But is a brown winter inevitable?

Not only is it possible to choose trees and plants that don’t lose all of their leaves each fall, but it’s even possible to choose plants that will keep their green leaves throughout the winter, even when temperatures fall.

Depending on your location in Southern California and the amount of rain the region gets for the “rainy” season, it’s definitely possible to keep your garden green all year long. Let’s look at a few plants you might want to bring home to add to your winter greenery.

Choose Southern California Native Evergreen Plants

Inserting native plants into your yard is always an excellent choice for keeping the environment healthy, but you’ve got several options when it comes to plants that will remain green all year long. These plants shouldn’t turn brown in the winter and should remain green all year long as long as conditions are right for their growth and happiness.

One of the best bush options for your yard that’s native to California, drought-resistant, and offers varieties that remain green all year long is the California lilac. Not only will you get pretty purple flowers in the spring (and usually well into the summer), but you’ll also have a green bush all year.

Another flowering shrub that offers the dual benefits of year-round greenery and bright flowers during the growing season is desert broom or “Baccharis sarothroides.” Although it does lose some leaves in the summer if you grow it in the desert, the stems of the plant are actually green, so it remains somewhat green even in the middle of the desert.

An excellent option for xeriscaping where you still get to enjoy a lot of greenery is coyote brush (bush) or “Baccharis pilularis.” It’s an outstanding shrub for its drought tolerance. There is some flower die-off that occurs in the winter, but the leaves will remain on the plant unless ultra-severe drought conditions exist.

If you’re interested in a truly beautiful year-round patch of dark green on your lawn, you might try Yankee Point ceanothus or “Ceanothus griseus horizontalis.” The little shrub is great for front lawns because it only grows about two feet tall and is easy to prune, and it even grows lovely little blue flowers.

If your home sits a little further from the coast and is a little higher in elevation than sea level, you might try a California juniper shrub, which is related to the cypress family of trees. They’re quite drought-resistant but are easy to keep super green when you water them semi-regularly.

You may also want to look at planting a toyon shrub, which is also an evergreen bush that becomes wonderfully colorful in December when its little white flowers turn into red berries. The bush is another excellent drought-resistant plant for water-wise Southern California yards.

Introduce Some Winter-Loving Flowers to Your Yard

Another way to ensure you have some color in the depths of winter (even if it’s a mild winter) is to include some cool-season plants in your landscaping, so any loss of color is replaced by plants that will naturally bloom when the days are short.

Pansies are an excellent choice as they’ll bloom throughout the entire winter in Southern California and will often bloom well outside their traditional blooming period because the weather doesn’t get cold enough to force them underground.

Primrose plants are another really colorful option to add some interest to your yard in the winter, as they start to bloom really early in SoCal. They traditionally bloom in the early spring, but you’ll see them blooming way earlier in Southern California with their gorgeous rainbow of colors.

If you have a shady lawn, you might choose some cyclamen, which generally thrive in cooler environments. The only thing you have to avoid is making sure the soil around them isn’t soggy, which can be a mild challenge when you’re watering plants in the shade.

Another cool-weather flower is the stock flower, which has been hybridized to appear in just about every color of the rainbow. Although they’re not native to the United States, they’ve been in the country since the 1700s, brightening winter gardens for hundreds of years.

Try Growing California Grapes in Your Garden

California grapes are grown throughout the state, and you can actually grow this native plant in your own garden, where the vines will actually produce grapes for you to eat. The best part is that the vines remain green all year long, meaning you can create a beautiful green wall or trellis at your home.

The two most important things to remember when planting grapes (and to ensure you maintain healthy growth in the winter) are that grape vines love full sun and they need a lot of water during their first year of development to get established. 

Some varieties are more drought-tolerant than others, but giving all grape vines a healthy serving of water during their first year in your garden is always a good idea. You can even grow grapes like concord grapes as long as they’re a heat-tolerant variety.

If your aim is to actually grow a lot of grapes, the winter is when you’ll want to prune your vines, but you can also let them grow with wild abandon (with just a little trimming to keep them nicely shaped) in the winter. 

Winter is also a great time to plant grapes, and you’ll get to enjoy fruit from your vines after just a few years of care. If you like seeing birds in your garden, leave some of the grapes you grow on your vines, and they’ll start to eat the grapes when they begin to get all wrinkly and turn into raisins.

Watering Efficiently Keeps Your Yard Green

Most plants will start to turn brown when they don’t get enough water, even if they don’t normally lose their leaves on a yearly basis. It’s a survival tactic that plants use to reduce how much water the plant requires, so it can survive until non-drought conditions return and the leaves can return, too.

And while one of the most beneficial facets of creating a green garden at your home is choosing one that doesn’t require a lot of water, it’s actually pretty easy to balance watering your plants enough so they remain green in the winter while still avoiding water waste and over-watering.

After all, many plants enter a dormant or semi-dormant phase in the winter anyway, and they often require fewer trips with the watering can. Cactuses and succulents, for example, may go a month or two without water in the winter and not feel an ounce of stress over it. Some plants even prefer not getting any water in the winter because they’re effectively sleeping and don’t want to be bothered.

Two of the best methods for maintaining a healthy watering schedule for your plants while limiting water waste are sticking to early-morning watering sessions and watering deeply but infrequently. You should also ensure the water goes to the roots rather than the leaves since they don’t drink from their leaves (unless they’re a redwood tree, of course!).

Another way to keep your lawn green while also limiting water use is to use an irrigation system like a drip line. You can target very specific areas of your yard for watering, keeping your plants hydrated on an efficient and effective timer throughout the seasons. Conveniently, you can even adjust the timing and frequency of the drip line to accommodate different seasons and watering needs.

Make Your Home Green with Plants and Help from Green Thumb Nursery

Let your garden become a respite from your busy days at work with green plants that will greet you with their beauty all year long. You can find those plants and advice on what greenery will suit your home best with a trip to your local Green Thumb Nursery in Southern California, your gardening and nursery experts. Come by today to get started on your next gardening project.

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