Fire Resistant Plants for Your Garden

Fire-resistant plants share characteristics that reduce flammability and help them survive fires. These traits include high moisture content in leaves and stems, fewer volatile oils and resins, and a tidy growing habit with minimal leaves, twigs and bark that can ignite. Additionally, some plants have thick bark that help protect against heat.

Before choosing plants, lower the fire risk around your home by setting up a Home Ignition Zone (HIZ). This space includes your home and surroundings with a 100-foot perimeter. If your home is on a steep slope, the area is 200 feet. Within this zone, you’ll want to reduce materials that can become fuel for fires.

Tip: To keep your home fire safe, avoid planting any plants within five feet of your home.

Groundcovers are visually appealing and fill in spaces that are typically covered by lawn.

Choose fire-resistant groundcovers like:

• Creeping thyme: This herb is a drought-resistant perennial well-suited to borders and walkways.
• Ice plant: A succulent groundcover with bright, colorful flowers that can spread throughout your garden.
• Lamb's ear: Also called stachys, this plant has soft, fuzzy leaves that hold in moisture.
• Sedum: These tough groundcovers look good through hot summers and spread easily in your landscape.
• Vinca minor: Known as periwinkle, vinca has tough, glossy foliage and blue flowers.

Perennials add color and texture to your garden, with the advantage that they come back every year. Many are favorites of hummingbirds, butterflies and other pollinators.

Here are some tough perennial options for your garden.

• Daylilies (Hemerocallis): Each daylily bloom lasts just a day, but the plants flower for most of the growing season.
• Echinacea: Commonly called coneflower, durable echinacea is a favorite for butterflies.
• Salvia: A resilient choice, salvia thrives in hot, dry locations and brings in the bees.
• Lavender: Lavender likes dry, Mediterranean conditions and rewards gardeners with fragrant flower buds.
• Penstemon: This drought-tolerant perennial flowers in spring and attracts hummingbirds to your garden.
• Yarrow (Achillea): Yarrow’s feathery foliage holds in moisture and makes a fire-resistant choice.

Broadleaf evergreen shrubs keep their moisture-holding foliage throughout the year.

When building out your fire-resistant landscape, look to these evergreen shrubs:

• Coast rhododendron: Also called Pacific rhododendron, these evergreen shrubs bloom in brilliant colors in early summer.
• Camellia: Like rhododendron, camellia shrubs have evergreen foliage and stunning blooms every spring.
• Leucothoe: This well-rounded low maintenance landscape shrub is suited for sun or shade.
• Manzanita: Manzanita is a fast-growing, wide-spreading shrub used for groundcover.
• Oleander: Known for its colorful blooms and spiky, evergreen foliage, oleander is hardy in zones 8 to 11.
• Oregon grape: This coastal favorite is a staple for wildlife gardens. It features yellow flowers in spring and deep, blue berries in summer.

Shrubs, along with trees, are the foundation of a successful landscape planting.

Consider these shrub options for your fire-resistant landscape.

• Agaves are fire-smart plants because of their fleshy, water-retaining leaves. Their unique shapes make them perfect candidates for contemporary gardens.
• Bottlebrush: Look for compact size varieties of this popular evergreen shrub.
• Mexican bush sage: This salvia is known for pest-resistance, drought tolerance, and lovely purple flowers from spring to fall.
• Rockrose: a tough, drought-tolerant shrub suitable for natural landscape designs, especially in coastal ares.
• Spiraea: Plant spiraea for colorful blooms and foliage that last into fall. Grow best in part shade to full sun.

Fire-resistant trees typically have thick bark, fewer volatile oils and their leaves hold in moisture. Consider these tree options for a fire-resistant landscape:

• Oak trees create a shady escape from the sun’s rays and are an important resource for wildlife. Oaks can grow 15- to 40-feet high and 20-feet wide, so allow plenty of room for a mature tree.
• California sycamore is a durable tree that can grow to heights from 40 up to 100 feet high. It's known for sending out deep roots that grow straight down instead of outward.
• Chinese pistache grows to a height of 25 to 40 feet tall and is prized for its rounded mature shape and rich, orange fall color.
• Crepe myrtles can be either tall shrubs or small trees. Their tidy habit and thin bark makes them a fire-wise choice for your landscape.
• Ginkgo trees are among the oldest trees in the world. Plant them for their fan-shaped leaves and spectacular golden color in fall.
• Olive trees are Mediterranean plants and thrive in heat and full sun.