Gardening with Texas Native plants @ Wildflowers. Part 3.

Thank you Sweezel, I did add it to the plant files, the ones they had didn't show the whole plant. I don't have this one either, I guess we can only have so much, there are limits to our time and space.

Here is another blue flowered plant that they claim is easy to grow, but I haven't had any luck with it. Mealy Blue Sage, ( Salvia farinacea ) This is a native perennial up to 3 feet tall and makes a lovely accent in the middle of a bed, mixed with yellows and pinks.
Picture taken at the wildflower center,

A close up of Mealy Blue Sage, this was a very healthy palnt.

Here is a lovely yellow annual, Texas Yellow Star, ( Lindheimera texana ) of the Sunflower family. Growing up to 20 inches it is not a tall plant as Sunflowers go and it is really adorable.
It was named after Ferdinand Lindheimer, a German-born botanist who settled
in New Braunfels,Tx, I guess that is why we have so many plants named Lindheimer this, and Lindheimer that. He was a very busy man.

Photo taken at the wildflower center.

Here is the wildflower slope on March 15th. Things are coming along, Queen Anne's lace. Prairie Primrose, Brazos Penstemon, Prairie Parsley, in bloom now. Lots of other things to come. The Crossvine is basically done.

Prairie Parsley ( Polytaenia nutallii ) Is an upright stout biennial to 3 feet tall. There is one type of butterfly that feeds on the foliage, but for the life of me, I cant't remember which one.
Close up of emerging plant.

Prairie Parsley is sometimes called Wild Dill, and the seeds can be used the same way.
Here it is next to Brazos Penstemon.

Other well known members of this family are parsley, chervil, caraway and celery.
Close up of the flower cluster.

This is probably the butterfly: http://users.htcomp.net/weis/blackswallowtail.html And, will be on my must have list!!

John, thank you for the wonderful link, and now that I have found out, I do recall seeing quite a few black swallowtails last year, they sure are beautiful. I will be sure to save some seed of Prairie Parsley for you, and whoever wants some.
Josephine.

I'd/w'd be much obliged :-)

Hello Everyone, I was blessed with a visit from Mel, Paige, and Cathy, Sunday afternoon.
What a lovely time we had getting to know each other, I am still excited, from all the talking,
laughing and learning. Mel has some lovely pictures too. I hope she will post some here.
Here we are, starting from the right ( Paige, konkreteblonde) , ( Mel, texmel),
( Cathy, not a member of Dave's, yet) and ( me, frostweed ).

And here we are in front of the wildflower slope with my cat Angel, she wanted to be in the middle of everything. Don't we look great?

I had never paid much attention to these, but this year I have a patch of at least 100 and they really stand out. Woolly-White, Hymenopappus scabiosaeus. Each little flower looks like a white underwater mine, round with little knobs projecting off the surface.

We had a great time visiting Frostweed! We are so lucky to be so close. Her plants are just beautiful, even before they are blooming. Big, green and all healthy. The slope is just breathtaking in person! Thanks again Josephine!

What fun we had touring Frostweeds garden. I came away with so much information, I was looking up plants until very late last night and some more today.

I can't wait to see updates through the seasons. I also am excited about starting more natives in my garden, as I never new they existed!

Thanks again for sharing your time and infomation!

mel

Hi all,

Just put down a flagstone walk in my front yard. Is there a native groundcover that would do well in full sun? I'm in the Dallas area.

Love this topic!
Karen

Karen, I grow Frogfruit, which is a native groundcover. I have it because most of my plants are for butterflies, and the Buckeye and Crescent butterflies use it as a host plant. It is low and spreads good by rooting from nodules. This makes it really easy to control. Just pull it up and scoot it over or pinch it off. You might look into it. It gets small white flowers on it in the summer.

This is a toad in my Frogfruit. You can see the leaf shape and where the tiny little flowers were. I'll try to take a different pic later.

You guys are as nice to look at as the Texas native flowers!

Bettydee, that is a great picture of the Woolly-White, you are so lucky to have so many.
I have seen it in pictures, I have never seen it growing around here, could you please save me some seed? I hope I'm not being a pain with my requests, but I don't know where else I could get it. Do you think that if I planted the Senecio seed now it would come up? I am not sure since it is an early spring annual. I think what I will do is plant some of it, and save the rest for the Fall, just in case.
Josephine.

Konkreetblonde, thank you for all the flattering comments. I feel very lucky to have found such a wonderful group of people, and being close surely helps. Let us keep a good thing going.
What a coincidence that Krazyrabbit inquired about the Frog-fruit, you were the perfect candidate to help her, by the way, do you happen to know why they call it Frog-fruit? It is a very funny name and there must be something behind it.
Josephine.

Josephine, later this week, I'll go and put some bags on the Woolly-White flowers. Maybe, I should wait until I know that the flowers have been pollinated which seems to progress from the inner most flowers out.

You could try planting a few of the Senecio now, but it is a fall sown annual. Around here they start sprouting in the Fall and overwinter as small rosettes lying close to the ground. I'll see if I can find some hardiness information on the Senecio.

The Brown-Eyed Susan will take a little longer to get to you. I had a patch of early blooming ones marked off. My husband who likes to do things at night, didn't see the markers and mowed everything. I have many, many more but they are a few weeks from blooming.

Texmel, Thank you also for all the great comments, learning is so much fun. Isint it?
We all have much to learn from each other, it makes life so much more fun when we can share.

It is too bad that we don't see many of these plants sold commercially. Granted, some may not be as showy as the hybrid varieties, but they are ceartainly unique, and many of them just as showy as any hybrid. I think it is our duty and priviledge to preserve our native flora. Wouldn't it be sad if all these lovely and interesting plants dissappered?

Let us be an example, and raise the awareness in our neighborhoods, so that more poeple may discover the joy of native plant gardening.

Here is one the showy ones, Jimson Weed, ( Datura wrightii) This is a native perennial two to four feet high, rather sprawling and all the parts of the plant are poisonous. It likes full sun to partial shade.
Here is a picture of the emerging plant.

And a picture of the plant in bloom. The flowers open at dusk, and if you are patient, you can watch them unfold, they are amzing, and the scent if beautiful. They close about 10 in the morning, may be later if it is cloudy.

A close up of the flower. We come out at night and watch the hummingbird moths drink from them. They have a very long feeding tube, called a proboscis, that can reach all the way down the long throat of the blossom, while they hover. Try it, you will be impressed with this plant.
It is also called Sacred Datura.

Back in the 60s the hippies searched high and low for this plant. Its a very dangerous hallucinogen. I have seen it as the only plant growing in an abandoned feedlot. Pretty tough plant!

Karen, here is another picture of my Frogfruit. Maybe I should actually call it ToadFruit. lol Frostweed, I have no idea why they call it that. I don't think I know how to find that out either? I guess I can start by Googling!

Frog-fruit, frog fruit (Phyla nodiflora) is one of my favorite groundcover native plants. The blooms are so pretty. Here are some photos of the blooms.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/62730/index.html

Bummer, doesn't look like it will work in zone 7. Could have used it to replace some grass!

John, it may be pushing the zone to try this one there. But there is a Nothern frog fruit that would work. I don't know if koncreteblond's is the northern or the southern frog fruit. I betcha there is one type of it growing somewhere near you. It should be blooming now or pretty soon.

Thanks, I will do a google for it! I really want to replace my lawn and use grasses (indigenous) more like a specimen plant when I can.

This plant is a favorite of mine because of the gorgeous color, Coral Bean or Cherokee Bean,
( Erythrina herbacea) This is a native, tender perennial in this area that dies to the ground and comes back every year. The interesting thing is that it blooms before it sets leaves. It normally gets to about four feet high, although in warmer climates it doesn't die to the ground and gets to be a taller shrub. These pictures are from last year, it is just starting to form buds now.

And a closer shot, I just love it. I will try to save some seed for all of you this year.

Thanks Frostweed, those things are beautiful. They look like hummber plants. What kind of sun do they want and how much water?

They like full sun if possible, but a little shade is o.k. Regular watering, I have it on the wildflower slope in full sun, and it does fine.

Last year, I bought 2 E. herbacea and 1 E. bidwillii, a hybrid of E. herbacea and E. crista-galli. I planted each one in 14" pots. The plants were about the same size when I received them. The pots were identical — green plastic. The only difference is that the E. Bidwilli's pot was shaded by other pots while the E. herbaceas' pots received afternoon sun. Water and fertilizer provided were the same. I'd never grown either species before. By the end of the season last year, E. bidwillii was about 4 times larger than the E. herbaceas. All three overwintered in my greenhouse. The thermostat was set to turn the hearter on when the temperature dropped to 40ºF. The E. bidwillii survived and has put out a lot of new growth (It blooms after it has leafed out.) Both E. herbaceas died.

I'm scratching my head wondering what happened. I thought that the E. herbaceas were hardier. You never read about soil temperature requirements for most plants. Could that have been my problem?

Hello Veronica, The soil temperature may have been the problem, I do know that some plants which survive the winter in the ground, will not survive it in a pot, because there is a lot less protection from the cold. I do leave my Coral Bean in the ground out there in the slope and it does get quite cold, sometimes down to 20 degrees, so may be in the ground would be better.
It does seem that the temperature you had was not too low, may be they were just sick, and the winter did them in.
It is always a mistery why some things work and some don't, but there must be a reason, if only they could let us know, that would be nice, wouldn't it?

The woman who runs Mercer Arboretum (can't recall her name right now) once told me that, basically, our gardens are one experiment after another. Problem is that when things work, we don't always know why, and when things don't work, we don't always know why.

Well, at least some of the fun is in just trying.

Here is a lovely, Red Salvia, Scarlet Sage, ( Salvia coccinea) This native plant is widely cultivated and easy to find, but sometimes gets overlooked in favor of the fancier ones.
It blooms all summer and attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, so it is a great plant to have, especially since it is perennial. Picture taken at the wildflower center.

Rose Penstemon, ( Penstemon cobaea) at the wildflower center. I had never seen this one and it sure is pretty. I love Penstemons, they are perennial and so easy to grow,
( after you get the fine seed started) I have had better luck with volunteers than trying to germinate the seed in a certain place. I just scatter it around, and when thay come up, I move them to where I want them, or pot them to give away.