Caveats & sources
Sizes, bloom months and planting windows are typical for Moraga (Sunset 14–15, USDA 9b) and will shift with
exposure, irrigation and how much of the hillside a plant gets. Clay ratings describe unamended adobe:
fair means plant it high on a mound or berm and give it drainage help.
Deer ratings are relative — Lamorinda deer will browse almost anything in a dry year, and nothing is
deer-proof while it is young. high means “usually passed over once established”, not
deer-proof; cage every woody plant for its first two to three seasons.
Moraga sits in a CAL FIRE Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. Nothing on this list is offered as a
“firewise” plant: what may be planted near a structure is set by defensible-space and ember-zone
rules (including keeping the first 5 ft next to the house free of woody shrubs and dead thatch), not by plant
choice alone. Check current CAL FIRE and Moraga-Orinda Fire District guidance before planting near buildings.
Illustrations are stylized silhouettes generated from each plant's habit and mature size, not portraits.
Every plant up to 20 ft is drawn on one shared scale, and the few larger trees on a second
(0–50 ft), so heights can be compared card to card. The ruled scale up the left edge and the 6 ft
person beside each plant show which of the two you are looking at.
A photograph of the plant sits over that drawing — hover a card (or tap Scale on a
phone) to fade the photo out and read the size again. Photographs are credited to their photographers
and licensed for reuse via Wikimedia Commons; see photo credits for the full
list. Where a photograph is missing, the drawing simply stays.
The Garden ideas link on each card runs a Pinterest search for that plant in a Northern California
planting, which is the fastest way to see how it actually reads in a yard rather than in a botanical
close-up. Results are whatever Pinterest returns and are not vetted.
Care links point to Calscape, UC Master Gardeners and comparable references where a page was confirmed;
links labeled Search: are unverified web searches. Verify with a local nursery before planting.