Choose plants for the climate I actually have

Planting something meant to live for twenty years in a climate that is shifting.

Help me choose plants that suit my climate, including how it is changing.

1. **Characterise my climate** from the location I give: rainfall pattern through the year, temperature range, frost dates, humidity, wind, and the extremes that actually kill plants here rather than the averages.
2. **The stress that matters most.** Usually one thing does the killing: summer drought, winter wet, late frost, salt, or heat at night. Name it for my site.
3. **Plants that handle it**, grouped by how much they tolerate, with mature size and how long they take to establish.
4. **Plants to stop planting here**, including popular ones that are increasingly marginal.
5. **Site and soil work** that buys more resilience than plant choice does: improving drainage, mulching, shade from established planting, water capture.

Be specific to my place and honest about uncertainty in longer term projections. If I describe a microclimate that differs from the regional picture, work from the microclimate.

Where I am, and my site:
What has died here before, and what thrives:
What I want to plant:

Choosing plants. Matching plants to your light, your climate and the small print on the label before you buy.