You're warmer zone and more alkaline water than where I am, but you can check out my garden website where I have a fair number of 'long' shots so you can see the various combinations of plants.

Warning - it's very photo heavy so suitable only for broadband users!

I've got a lot of partial shade due to neighbors, trees, and a sloping lot. Also, I'm not big on watering much. About 2000 sq. ft. of garden beds takes maybe $15/mo in water during the dry months.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cottage Garden in Oakland, CA

I always love those photos kom51, but we need UPDATES!!

I have had callas in a few places, they did OK but not so great. My friend has some large white ones with AM sun, Pm, mostly shade (from the house) and they were at the bottom of a downspout area. GORGEOUS, although the soil is more acid than yours.
Our rudbeckias, depending on the type do not always come back. Natives do - but hybrids from seed and gloriosa don't unless they seed.

GGG

I wonder if callas would ever do well for the OP, though - the soil gets awful warm in Orange Cty. Maybe Z. elliottiana or Z. rehmanni are possible. They could be grown in partial shade in OC. But they are never as floriferous or vigorous as the stand-by white callas Z. aethiopica.

GGG, I know, I have to update my website. Just too pressed for time lately, though. Lots of personal and business stuff keeping me busy - maybe after I retire in Oct 2008!

castarter, I'm surprised you don't grow more heat- and sun-lovers in your garden, judging from the list of plants that are doing well for you right now. How about things like lantana, pennisetum 'Rubrum' (non-invasive unlike many grasses), citrus, oleander, canna lilies, and any of the New Zealand, Australian or South African plants that are increasingly available in CA.

Here's a photo of my front yard from April 2006 that shows two other plants you might try - Lavender stoechas and annual nasturtiums. They're a great jolt of color together:
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Most traditional "cottage gardeners" in cooler climes would kill to have the long extended growing season we enjoy in CA, with hardly any frost days! They have to grow things like agapanthus in pots, and wheel them into greenhouses during the winter, treating them like prized specimens, instead of the strip median "trash plants" that we think of them.

I think if you widen your sights a little on the types of plants you can combine in a California-style cottage garden, you might be surprised at how varied and expressive your garden can become. Too many people think in terms of flowers only, when in our region it's better to concentrate on evergreen shrubs and mini-shrubs with interesting shapes and foliage color/texture. The flowers then provide different spots of interest for the garden throughout the year as they come and go in "waves" of colors.

For example, this is the same garden bed, but photographed in October rather than April. It's still interesting, but different. The roses and lantana are blooming, and the agapanthus (yes, I have them anyway!) have finished up and are only seedheads now.
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Castarter, your plants are doing exactly what mine are doing at the moment.

Give your rudbeckia a little more time. Mine is breaking ground and this is my third year.

My foxgloves are not as active as they were last spring. I think it's because of the lack of rain and then the temps shot up. I think they'll take off for sure next month.

My coreopsis self sow every year. I see sprouts everywhere. Don't worry, yours will too.

Shasta daisy is a weed in my yard *lol*. In the summer, during the height of the heat, mine wilt and stand right back up in the evening. Trust me, you can't kill them. Try growing some in morning sun and late afternoon shade. I can't see how you could stake them.

Mint is also going crazy. Last year it attracted the most beautiful little moths. They are so colorful and are active during the day. I swear they would play with me by following me around the yard. Skippers do the same thing. So mint is a keeper in my yard when I discovered the moths lay their eggs on it and the caterpillars eat the mint.

My hydrangeas are also leafing out and I see heads beginning.

New things I'm trying this year is (sorry I don't know the Latin names). English daisies, cupids dart. trying lupines again, beets (mixing them with my flowers for the leaf colors), St. Catherine's lace, nasturtium 'Black Velvet', bulls blood for the purple foliage and so many more but I forgot the names, got to go out and look at my seeding pots.

Stella cherry tree had three blooms, three cherries last year. This year I have a whopping seven buds.

Edna

Here is a link that might be useful:

I'm in North Carolina, not CA, but coreopsis, echinacea, asclepias, asters and shasta are all slow to emerge here every spring. Just be patient. Mine are barely showing a bit a green. I just noticed that my saliva black & blue has a few little leaves today after a good rain and lots of sunshine.

My dianthus is about to bloom. The lavender has started up. The clematis literally jumped out of the ground and I had to tie them up out of the roses yesterday! The shrub roses have a full flush of foliage. My scabiosa bloomed all winter (mild this year). My daylilies also jumped up with lots of foliage already. My creeping jenny is bright gold now. The spirea and itea are leafing out. The lilac has a good flush of foliage. The Dutch, Japanese and Siberian iris foliage is also zooming up fast. The last week has been like magic.

As for calla, I grow the big white variety in my waterfall. I just cut off three shoots, planting two in the stream and one in the rain garden. Mine stayed green all winter in the waterfall, even encased in ice some days. Mine bloomed regularly all last year and I don't fertilize it there in the water feature.
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Cottage Garden plants that seem to be overlooked are Agaves, Sedums, Rose Moss, Cactus, Succulents of all kinds, and even plants like Pigmy Date Palms to name a few. These are planted in many of the English gardens and would do well for many of you who live in areas with gentle winters, alkaline soil and more arid climates.

I grow my tender ones in large pots and containers. Some, like my tall, yellow-flowering Prickly Pear Cactus and bright Magenta flowering Chollas do fine here in the ground and bloom every year in late Spring.

They add such interesting texture to a Cottage Garden and when they bloom, the flowers, although short lived, are just divine.

Anyway, just a thought.
~Annie

Dry. I am watering somewhere, daily.

My calla lilies are suffering from drought. Their leaves are ragged from winter frosts that nipped them. With enough water, they've bloomed in the past, but never the show I've seen elsewhere.

I suggest trying a different cultivar of Shasta Daisy. Some are worse 'floppers' than others. Mine are old, old, from seed and they stand up, nicely. Fertilizing with high phosphate may strenthen their bones, too.

Nell

Here's a peek at what's blooming:

Here is a link that might be useful: Late March in the Garden

I'm in a totally different zone form you so we are just starting to see things popping up. It's so nice to see some green for a change!

I just read an article today on the use of wickets for floppy plants. Fairly easy...super cheap. You'll need 6 - 3ft. bendable branches (try getting some from some shrubs that need pruning maybe, or willow, grapevine etc. work too) Place three pieces of the branches over the top of your floppy plant sticking both ends of the branch into the soil as far as possible until the arch this makes is just above your plant. Place the other three branches in the same manor only going in the opposite direction. As the plant grows the wickets will help to support it so it doesn't flop so much. Wickets are also good for marking where new plants are so that you don't step on them so easily (something I tend to do wayyyy to frequently). Good Luck, I'm sure your lovelies will sprout up very soon.

MeMo

things are starting to come alive here in Oregon also. the only things blooming are the daffs a few tulips. grape hyacinths and creeping phlox. my echinaceas are coming up. even the ones in my green house I thought were dead. lots of stuff up though, delphs are about a foot tall, lupines from last yr and I planted 73 more in the last 2 days that I grew from seed. poppies, I did find out i am allergic to CA poppies. that wasnt fun. my orientals are starting to bloom. I love this time of the year when life starts anew in the garden world!

Drowning...but oh so green. We've had several inches of good rainfall in the last few days. Everything is standing in water. Thankfully, the sun is out today and the water is draining off. Weeds are gleefully waving at me while they make faces. They think they are safe because I can't get the mower out and it is too wet in the beds to hoe. But, I'll get them in a day or two and it will be fun to mow their little heads off. :0)

The roses are beginning to pop. Both the May Night and Black & Blue Salvias are blooming. The bearded iris' are sending up buds. The bridal bush is glorious. The daffs and tulips are done and they were very nice this year. The cannas are poking up leaves. I see morning glory seedlings every where.

As soon as it is dry enough, the tomato plants *have* to get in the ground.

All my roses are loaded with big fat buds just itching to open. Irises blooming like gangbusters. Yarrow bushy and green. Purple cone flower standing tall with lovely buds just about ready to open. Larkspur up and green. My Sarah Barnhardt peony is putting up greenery. Mock orange loaded with blooms about to open. Azaleas in full bloom. Hydrangeas putting out bright green leaves. Hostas up. Lantana putting up new growth. Verbena blooming. Phlox up and looking good. Sweet William blooming and taking over the bed. Hollyhocks that I started from seed last year growing good. Wild ferns coming up and unfurling their lacy stems. Crape myrtles putting out healthy leaves. Clematis montana showing small lovely pink blooms. Day lilies green and standing proud. Sedum multiplying rapidly. Salvia "purple beauty" (I think) looking much better for its second year. Tulips blooming and dianthus bloomed all winter. Snapdragon seed dropped by a bird last year was green all winter and is getting greener. Also have liatris potted up along with vitex and some tiny red maple seedlings ready for son's house along with a lot of other stuff. It seems like it all started popping over night! One day it was kinda bare and ugly and the next day...bammmm! it looks like spring! Oh, and I forgot to mention that I pulled out a wheelbarrow full of mint that was taking over a bed in the back yard. Planted a big decorative metal 3 tier planter with trailing coleus, geraniums, straw flower, margarita sweet potato vine and orange and yellow osteospermum. And, two redwood planters of dill, flat leaf parsley, greek oregano, lemon thyme, regular thyme, onion chives, cilantro, and sweet marjorjam.

Nanahanna