Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Not a Brug, but beautiful anyway, 1 by bettydee

bettydee wrote:
I know these are not Brugs, but I just had to share a thread I started in the Texas forum. This year out pastures were blanketed with hundreds and thousands of Herbertia lahue var caerulea. For a week, the pastures turned bluish lavender for part of the day. It was spectacular. Usually the display is spread out over a month, but his year, it was concentrated into a week.

I love wildflowers. I spent the first year on the ranch photographing and cataloging all the wildflowers found on the ranch. When we purchased the ranch, the grass had been overgrazed and mesquite and weeds had taken over. Many of the wildflowers, as pretty as they were are toxic to cattle so they had to go. Since this is a working cattle ranch, I have had to make some hard choices. I've been trying to salvage patches of the non-toxic wildflowers, but some of them are so dense that they kill the grass. Last year it seemed that all the Lemon Balm seeds decided to germinate. It was hard to justify having acres of them even though walking or driving through it stired up a heavenly fragrance. According to my DH, if it's not grass it's a weed." I may have to settle for keeping the native grasses alive. Supposedly, after the pastures are renovated, I can seed some small patches with wildflowers. Wish me luck. There is a downside to having tall plants growing in the pastures — snakes can easily hide in it. We have a lot of water moccasins on the ranch because of all the water around. This afternoon, there was a dead copperhead, down by the front gate. The welder who is building the heifer corral must have run over it. That is the fourth copperhead found on the ranch. I have a problem with poisonous snakes!
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/838162/