Coming soon to a nursery near you: One hundred landscape plants, all field-tested and shown to be ideal for your water-thrifty home garden. The plants are reliable, easy to grow and have few or no problems with pests or diseases. They also possess standout qualities such as color, fragrance or seasonal good looks.

Called the "Arboretum All-Stars," the plants were developed in the past several years by experts at the UC Davis Arboretum and now are being mass-produced for widespread sales.

The arboretum is a 100-acre public teaching garden on the Davis campus that promotes sustainable gardening practices and environmentally friendly garden plants. Many of these plants are California natives, providing food and habitat for wildlife and beneficial insects.

In order to receive the Arboretum All-Star designation, plants must have been grown and tested in the arboretum’s gardens. The majority of these select plants thrive in the arboretum with infrequent, deep irrigation — only once every two weeks during the dry season.

A list of retail nurseries currently selling Arboretum All-Stars in the Bay Area, Sacramento region and Davis is available online at: http://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/arboretum_all_stars.aspx.

Eventually, nurseries throughout California are expected to be offering All-Stars, and the names of those retailers will be added to the online listing as they become available. The arboretum Web site also includes a searchable All-Stars database with photos, descriptions, and information on how to grow these plants.