Gardening in southern California begins with a design but is sometimes said to depend mostly on judicious pruning. But that's not really all. Some plants die, despite all care. Idria columnaris, for example (aka "boojum tree") won't tolerate water in the winter, which is the only time it rains in southern California. It grows extremely slowly and it survives here if it's situated so that the water can run off. We watched two die after a couple of years (though they are successfully grown at UCI's Arboritum and at the Huntington). But when you lose even rare or very slow-growing plants, unless you simply neglected them, there's no debt or blame.
In this website, all the colors come from the garden.