What are Future Favorite Plants?

At the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, we are dedicated to promoting sustainable horticulture and helping the public understand how climate change impacts gardens, pollinators and wildlife, and the broader environment. In today’s world, it’s more important than ever to create landscapes that are not only beautiful but resilient—landscapes that contribute to local biodiversity, our personal well-being, and environmental health.

In 2015, UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden launched the Arboretum All-Stars plant list, which quickly became the gold standard for making plant choices in our Central Valley region as well as throughout the state. Each plant on this carefully curated list was selected for its year-round beauty, low water requirements, and ability to thrive in California’s diverse climate, making it an invaluable resource for sustainable gardening.

But the climate is changing, and so are our plant recommendations.

Enter Future Favorites, a new and evolving list of plants that our horticulturists have identified as thriving in today’s shifting climate. Many of these plants overlap with the original Arboretum All-Stars, while new additions reflect observations about how specific species are responding to increased heat, changing rainfall patterns, and other environmental challenges.

While our Future Favorites have not yet undergone the same level of rigorous evaluation as the Arboretum All-Stars, our horticulturists are seeing them thrive and believe they hold great promise for sustainable gardens now. Looking ahead, we are considering the development of a refreshed Arboretum All-Star program that we believe will incorporate many of the plants currently listed as Future Favorites. Until that program is ready, we will continue evolving this list based on our observations.

Learn more about these plants and gardening in today’s climate:

• Visit our Future Favorites Webpage.
• Browse our Climate-Ready Gardening Toolkit. 
• Take these plants home! Most will be available at our upcoming plant sales.