Check which varieties grow in California. My friend in Missouri can't get it to grow but she also has a lot of clay in her soil. Here in northern Minnesota it is hardy. My sister has a patch in her garden that was put in by my grandfather around 1950. Yep, it is still growing. I have a patch in my yard that was started about 30 years ago. I just dug a hole in my yard and plopped the plant in. I had to clear the grass and weeds around it for the first couple of years and it was pretty spindly. Then it took off. It does not spread too fast. We have never divided our plants but I think that can be done. I read somewhere it actually does better in poor soil but I guess that is as long as it is soil not clay. It goes fast in the spring, then it goes to seed, then it dies back towards the end of summer around here. I just cover it a bit with fall leaves towards winter and it does fine. Again, we can get 6 months of winter up here and it seldom gets to 90 during the summer.