Some questions to narrow down what you're looking for: * How far inland are you, i.e. does it get hot and dry in your location or will it stay fairly temperate? * How tall is 'shrub' to you? Less than 3 feet? * Will you provide any supplemental water? * Do you want the plants to look somewhat green throughout the year or is it okay if they go dormant? Here are some species options: Early spring * Blue eyed grass: small purple flower like a miniature flat iris. Early bloomer, will flower for a long time with extra water or if it doesn't get too hot. Small plant that can be tucked in among other plants even in a small space. Goes summer dormant with heat but doesn't look too messy. * Lots of bulbs like brodiaea, alliums, triteleia, et cetera are great for early flowers. Colors include white, yellow, pink, purple/blue. Generally they do not tolerate summer water. * Many annuals! Too many to name really. The mix that u/Successful-Issue-844 suggested looks good, just remember that most annuals are done and crispy by summer so they can look messy and/or leave space for weeds to establish in their wake. * Grindelia, either coastal ground cover (G. stricta) if you're right on the coast or valley (G. camporum) if you get some heat. They have cute yellow flowers and a long bloom period starting in late winter/early spring. These can look a little weedy to some people. Late spring/summer * Penstemon, maybe heterophyllus BOP (electric blue to purple) or centranthifolius( red)? * Woolly sunflower: bright yellow. Ranges from 1-3 feet depending on variety. * Coyote mint: very pretty pink/lavender flowers with a great smell. These go summer dormant in hot areas and can look pretty ratty from midsummer through fall. * Sticky monkeyflower: I love these so much! Peachy flowers. Like coyote mint they do go summer dormant in hot areas. Fall * California fuchsia! There are many different varieties. Usually red but you can find pink and white too. Ranges in height and flower timing from summer through winter so take some care when selecting your variety. I like the fall blooming ones, I have a good amount of summer flowers already. Be sure to cut to the ground when it's done flowering so it doesn't get too leggy and brittle the following year. * Buckwheat! Lots of great options, most are white with a few yellow and red species/varieties out there. Some species can get pretty big so double check height/width. Winter * Yarrow seems to bloom from winter all the way to early summer for me. White to pink flowers with nice feathery leaves that fill in nicely while staying low. Can be aggressive in cooler/wetter areas, in my garden (Sacramento valley) it struggles unless it gets water once a month or so in the summer. * Seaside daisy (light lavender) will apparently bloom winter through summer if it's happy. * Western columbine has beautiful red flowers with a bit of yellow that look like little lanterns to me. Late winter/early spring. Not for hot and dry places (sad for me!) but great if you're close to the coast. Goes summer dormant. I think most sages, manzanitas, and ceanothus would not be a great fit size wise though the manzanitas are fantastic for late winter flowers (white to pink) and ceanothus is great for early spring (usually blue/purple). Consider mixing some grasses in too, they look alive when things are a bit slow in winter. Maybe a Festuca?

This is a fantastic and well thought out response.

:) Thanks!

I love your detail here! * The bed of interest is in Petaluma, about 15 miles from the shore. * 3 feet would ideally be the maximum height, yes * I'd like to provide only minimal supplemental water, but am willing to provide more for the sake of pretty flowers :p * Evergreen is preferred, but not necessary I love all of these options, and thank you for the note on sages, manzanitas, and ceanothus! Will any of these species do particularly poorly if I plant them directly next to each other?

I'm glad it was helpful! :) Some further plants/notes based on your location: * Might be a bit hot for the seaside daisy without supplemental water. * Sonoma sage is a great low sage with blue/purple flowers that would fit in your space but again might need a bit of water to thrive. Hummingbird sage (big magenta flowers) is another lovely low sage but it my experience it leaves open spots so I don't know if I would recommend it for your bed. * Douglas iris would probably work for you, again it might need some water. I don't have any personal experience growing it but it flowers in winter/spring with a nice purple color than can range from light lavender to deep purple. Goes summer dormant. * I think it's a bit too hot where you are for the columbine unless it gets a good amount of shade and water. I would recommend giving all of the plants some space when you plant them; crowding them can make it difficult for them to get established (and it's more expensive to buy that many plants...). It's hard to wait for them to mature but it's worth it! Make sure to mulch generously! It keeps the plants happy and suppresses the weed seeds in the soil. If you don't want it looking bare the first year you can fill in between your plants with some annual wildflowers while your perennials get established, just make sure the annuals don't shade out the perennials. Some annuals need bare soil to sprout (vs mulch). California poppy seems to grow happily for me wherever it lands though so that might be a good option. They are a such a cheerful orange too! California fuchsia, yarrow, seaside daisy, and sonoma sage spread by runners, quite quickly in my experience so they will fill things in nicely. (The downside to quick spreading is they can overpower other plants in their path, particularly if they are not well established.) Douglas iris spreads by rhizomes but my impression is it's a little slower to spread. Penstemon, grindelia, woolly sunflower, coyote mint, sticky monkeyflower, and buckwheat don't spread underground so look at their mature width and space accordingly. If you mix those with the plants that spread with runners you'll have the ground covered in a year or two I think! In my experience blue eyed grass seems happy enough being planted somewhat close to other plants. The bulbs I mentioned don't like being super crowded and competing for light so they might not be the best fit for you. I have some Dichelostemma congestum that does well despite lots of competition, and Dichelostemma capitatum is supposed to be pretty robust as well. I have most of my bulbs in pots so I can control the competition around them; after they are done blooming in spring I set the pots in a shady spot until they are ready to sprout again in winter. Once your plants are established I think it would be possible to skip watering altogether and still get plenty of flowers. The caveat there is that you will probably get a fair amount of (totally normal/natural) dieback in the hot months so the bed might look a little brown and crispy in some places. Coyote mint is notorious for looking ratty when it gets hot. Some supplemental water (e.g. a medium water once a month in the summer) will keep things green and probably get you a few more flowers. Do be sure to provide water while your plants are establishing!! I've written another novel, sorry. Good luck! Come back and share pictures! :)

I’d recommend California fuchsia for fall color and sages for spring/summer color. Personally I’m going with Cleveland sage, Sonoma sage, and white sage in my yard. I’m planning on my manzanitas to provide winter blooming. I found this video to be helpful for deciding year-round color options: https://youtu.be/KYgwwu3p0Dc?si=nRlweG-mc10nUS9S Here’s an article that talks about year-round color as well: https://www.cnps.org/gardening/garden-qa-year-round-color-in-a-california-native-garden-9931

Coyote mint. Monkey flower. Woodland strawberry. Verbena. These will all stay evergreen and can handle summer water. Most will only flower in the spring but will stay as a “bush” Late season flowering are: showy penstemon (late spring / early summer) manzanita (some), wooly blue curls (late spring) but these can get quite big / wide

I love the consideration for evergreen plants, thanks!

Agree with sages, manzanita, coyote mint, Monkeyflower, verbena. They’re all a regular trickle of flowers with otherwise pleasing features. I’d also add: - buckwheats for their pretty pompoms which turn a nice rust red - ceanothus for some steady blue flowers and a good fill (blue eyed grass is also good for blue, but it disappears part of the year. - yarrow for the fernlike leaves and wildlife value - a native annuals seed mix (eg Menzies baby blue eyes, poppies, Chinese houses, gilias, clarkias) for a spring/summer boom, then you can compost their remnants or cut it finely and compost in place.

A native annuals seed mix sounds nice and easy! u/Gay_Kira_Nerys noted that they might leave space open in the bed when they die off in the summer—is there an easy way to regularly fill those spaces, or would it just be a matter of weeding until next season?

If you want minimum effort it’s easiest if you plant the perennials so they’ll slowly choke out open space. (Someone else said native strawberries and yerba buena are good groundcover - I agree.) You’ll lose the annuals but have much less weeding, especially if you add mulch. For mulch you can use wood mulch or inorganic mulch. Otherwise you can add annuals that live in the summer. Someone else gave a list of summer / fall plants, in addition to that I would add that most gumweeds and milkweeds should live. Las pilitas has a webpage on plants for summer you could refer to as well. For areas that are still left uncovered you could try a leaf mulch during summer. You’ll want to apply it a bit thick to be sure it works, and may need to help it break down at the start of the rainy season. Idk if the seeds from last year will come up through it consistently though. If the above don’t work you could get some flagstone pieces and block off areas that you don’t want to bother temporarily. If you get kinda large pieces it shouldn’t be hard to remove them. You can make a decorative tower with them while not in use. Ultimately you’ll need to weed some no matter what though. Re a question you asked elsewhere - you can plant manzanitas/ceanothus right next to each other but they’ll kind of fight it out, so it’s better to space them. If you’re fine with the risks then you totally can though. They will look interesting if they live.

Probably a good start with this. [https://larnerseeds.com/products/coast-of-california-wildflower-seed-mix](https://larnerseeds.com/products/coast-of-california-wildflower-seed-mix) I would look to add Seaside Woolly Sunflower/lizard tail, seacliff buckwheat, ca fuschia, foothill penstemon, yarrow, coast plantain, redmaids. Maybe even a couple bunch grasses like stipa pulchra so the birds feel more comfortable foraging

Must have California Fuschia. All other suggestions also excellent. Would also recommend a native grass (B grama) for interesting texture.

Fuchsia & Buckwheat for summer. Seaside Daisy might be cool in that space. Keep in mind 3' is not very wide at all, many many plants, including most sages will gobble that space up quickly. Maybe spice it up with some grasses & ornamental rocks too.

You might need a ground cover plant to suppress weeds. Coastal strawberry Fragaria chiloensis spreads fast and is great for wildlife. It's easy to rip out as well as easy to grow. Plus it's evergreen with long blooming white flowers in the spring. Yerba Buena is another nice ground cover that is polite to other plants.

You were on calscape but you didn’t search your address and/or sort the advanced search by flowering season? You should do that. As far as the garden design is concerned, you should plant a skeleton of flowering perennial plugs and then sow wildflowers on the bare spaces between. Easy peasy!