That is a pretty plant... tell me which one you grow? http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/search.php?q=wallflower
Fragrant Xeriscape plants...
Perennial Wallflower
Erysimum 'Bowles' Mauve'
Heres a photo of it in my yard. Home Depot and Lowes are selling them now, I bought mine at Target a couple years ago.
THAT is a very pretty plant, beautiful color and fragrant too? I need to look for that one here. Thanks for the suggestion... pod
You might try a native plant nursery for your area. I know here in California, some of the native sages are very fragrant, but I don't know how they'd do in your area.
Really? I just always assumed sages were only fragrant when rubbed. We are a bit humid here so will need to check and see how they would take it. Thanks.
Yes, there's one that goes by the common name of Winifred Gillman sage. Oh, gosh, you can smell it for 30 feet or so after a rainfall. It's a California native, but might be something you can plant there.
Here are the salvias that occur in the wild in TX...not all of them are necessarily native, but at the very least they must like the climate. I know some parts of TX are drier than others so you might investigate a bit which ones occur in your particular part of TX but it's a place to start (if you click on the name of the plant, then click on TX on the map it'll show you the counties it occurs in. Don't take it as being 100% accurate, if there are counties in your general part of TX that have it there's a good chance it's in your county too but just not enough of them that it got recorded) http://plants.usda.gov/java/stateSearch?searchTxt=salvia&searchType=Sciname&stateSelect=US48&searchOrder=1&imageField.x=57&imageField.y=6
Great, thanks for the sage/salvia information. I'll check that link...
The Winifred Gillman sage sounds terrific. I do need to research that one also. Thanks.
Aha ~ Winifred Gillman is a Clevelandii sage like the one MWPerry suggested earlier. I have seeds but have had no luck with germination. They may be older as they were sent to me with the leaves ~ I DO love that fragrance!
I wonder if after mine flowers, I could send you some seeds. I don't know about all of these interstate rules about plants though.
I have a tulasi (or tulsi) plant that has a wonderful fragrance. It is a basil and it likes my sub-tropical climate. It has lived for several years and seeded itself here and there. I could send some seeds if you are interested.
katiebear
Mary ~ thanks for the offer... I think I will locate a plant. I really did like that fragrance. Thanks for the offer tho.
Katiebea ~. I have some Tulsi seed. I really didn't think about it being fragrant. I will have to plant some. I appreciate the reminder.
There are online sources if you can't get your hands on one. Las Pilitas Nursery has them.
All right! Another online plant site... LOL Boy, can I get in trouble easily. I always think how I can buy more to get more for my shipping costs. Looking forward to touring their site... thanks. pod
I have both cat mint and clevelandii Sage, and both go nuts, one is in a heavy soil and one in a 2 gallon old nursery container and blooming, it seems happy with or without watering and loves a lot of direct sun. I try to cut out pieces to put in other spots but the big cuttings with roots seem to wilt, but the small ones do ok. I have a hard time getting them to grow from seed though. I don't know why.
Trailing petunia, "Wave" petunias are low water plants and have mad color, they seem to be ok in my crappy soil and in containers and in good soil... they turn yellow if they are over watered in the clay though, no fragrance but the color is dynamic, in many varieties and it spreads like crazy.
I have bad luck with rosemary here. I need to find a good area with great drainage and not a lot of water, which I don't have, yet.
I am needing a lot more xeriscape plants too experiment with . Too many green or grey plants that spread and look to messy. I need to edge them or something so they don't look so unruly.
Have you tried planting rosemary slightly above ground level? That worked for me very well with Huntington Carpet Rosemary. It actually started rooting in the areas surrounding it that we slightly moist.
Or try it on a slope--I have it growing on a hill in nice clay soil and it's doing great.
I can't believe it is growing in clay. I don't know if it does not like the alkaline soil. I need to try to put in another area in a raised bed or something. I grew it in another house in the same zone and area, but in different soil, in a track, here it is part of an old river bed in some areas and it was once a flood plane, which I found out a few years back, so odd too, since it floods once every 100 years supposedly, but it makes me have calcium, salt and clay, not to mention there is a lot of arsenic in our water now. Grrrr!
I have alkaline soil too, probably not as alkaline as yours though and I don't have the problems with excess salt and arsenic (at least that I know of!) Your clay may be heavier than mine too. I have some other rosemary plants growing in an area that's more of a raised bed vs being on a hill and it's doing well too, although I did lose one plant in that area to overwatering last year. A raised bed could be a great solution for you, it'll probably help you with other plants besides rosemary too--growing drought tolerant plants in clay is always a challenge so if you can make your life easier with some raised beds I'd say go for it.
Katie my x mil lives in Tecate and they have a lot of the cactus growing there, the types used for Nopales. It goes mad there. Also Olive trees seem to love it there too and lantana.
Yeah I know, I go a Leucophyllum and think it may not be happy unless I amend more. I have been putting bags of alphalpha crumble mix that has molassis and watering it in, in prep for more worm activity, in those areas it is much better draining now, but I do have several containers and some raised areas started but need to add more stuff in the beds before I can plant, in the raised areas. It is at soil level and need the garden mix and perlite.
I have some lasagna gardens that I am working on to be ready for fall planting hopefully, but not now.
ecrane3, what is that beautiful silver shrub in the background? Is it an acacia of some sort?
It's my neighbor's Buddleja davidii--not sure what cultivar it is since it isn't mine but it's definitely B. davidii. They don't prune it very often so it's more of a small tree than a shrub.
Hello Podster,
I have rosemary that has seeded itself in pure gravel. during the heat of the summer, I will water them once a wekk, though they probably could do fine without it.
Now, I have another rosemary "volunteer" that I did not plant, and it is right by my house, in a bed that is watered frequently during the summer, and is also near where the rain falls off the roof and the snow melts there as well. It does not look as well as the ones up front that are in pure gravel. So the key here is full sun, and well-drained soil. I think that would apply to the lavenders as well. I have a sage that is in bllom right now, inside the fenced garden, which I attempted to dig up, and it would not budge. It sits right next to it's friend, the Greek Oregano. they do not require anything, once established, but a thorough cutting back after blooming. I have so much Oregano and Sage, I should go into the herb business! (Also many Rosemary!)
Evelyn
I need to try those again when I have my soil better amended. I have a 5 ft. mountain of horse poo and decomposed grass etc. at my house. Maybe then I could have a better shot at the herbs again. I have tried before in this home and no luck in the clay. My other home here was fine, but this is bad, bad soil here.
I would like to see pictures of them.
I love the herbals and it sounds like they do well in y'alls area. I planted two different rosemary plants in a high dry area. They have grown but slowly ~ and volunteers? Never! lol Although we stay parched for most of the summer, plants like the lavenders resist this humidity. I do love the herbs tho...
I need to try some herbs in pots
Herbs in pots do really well for me. I can control the soil type and moisture alot better. I haven't found anything to be invasive here but for those that would, a pot helps contain it also. I would encourage you to do so... what herbs are you thinking of?
I saw some cool kind of lemon oregano in a magazine that is easy to grow in pots, so that if I can locate it, rosemary since here I have poor drainage and killed all in ground rosemary, maybe some basil with variegated ornamental garlic, which would add to the texture of a pot of herbs. I love the smell of cilantro, so if it grows here and in a pot, that was one I was thinking of, with some chili plants too.
What do you grow Pod? Have pictures of them. I saw in this container garden magazine from this month, it said, it Texas terra cotta pots are like a crock pot for plants? It said you have night time temps of 90 deg. Is that right? Man in this desert, no matter how hot the day, the nights, almost always get cool and even cold sometimes.
Nights stay hot and humid here which can be a death sentence for things like French tarragon and lavenders. I have pots of basils, mints, oregano, lemon balm, lemon catnip, chives, comfrey, TX tarragon, fennel, a bay tree, an allspice tree and probably more that won't pop into my mind. Planted in high ground are pennyroyal (struggling), fennel and two rosemarys.
The problem I've found with terra cotta pots is they dry out too quickly for me. We get excessive moisture in early spring and then total drought for the balance of the summer. I use plastic pots but have to be careful if it is a dark pot. They will absorb heat and raise the temps in direct sunshine, frying roots. I try to place the darker pots in bright light only.
My pots aren't attractive but utilitarian. This is the bay or Laurus nobilis with an underplanting of verbena.
Being water conscious, I resist watering or try to use it efficiently. I look for plants that will be more tolerant here. That is what brought me to this forum. But when you brought up herbs... that is another passion for the "touching fragrances" as well as useful.
Now, you HAVE baited me naming some plants I am unfamiliar with. I have variegated society garlic in a pot but never heard of variegated ornamental garlic and lemon oregano sounds wonderful. Must go shopping!!!
This is variegated society garlic ( sorry but the bloom is out of focus ) after a soaking... I let the pot absorb water from the bottom. In the background an oregano is taking a drink.
Same plant, different common name for the garlic.
I will look up the plant that I called lemon oregano and tell you if it is what I said, I may have been mistaken, I am so new to the herb thing, with exception to a plant or two at my other house, I am new to it. Do you use the water moist crystals. I have these big Attriplex Canescence shrubs, that loose a lot of under leaves, where you never see them, but man that crap makes the best water protecting mulch for pots, and my old grass clippings too, the plants stay moist and cool thus far, where they were getting very dry prior to it.
Water crystals ~ no. I've read about them but never used them. Now, mulching to retain moisture yes. We have lots of pinestraw and I use that. It allows water to get thru but slows evaporation. For most plants in pots, I use a peat based soil from Canada. The peat seems to retain moisture better.
Please let me know on the lemon oregano. I haven't take the time to look yet. I love anything lemon scented. Lemon grass, lemon balm, lemon basil, lemon catnip. I lost my favorite, a lemon verbena last summer and haven't replaced it yet. If it's lemon, I'm baited! LOL
I always thought of lemon as a color, in re: to names of plants. hmmm/
Oh my bad it was golden oregano "aureum". Sorry to get ya all excited about it. Looks pretty and the book said indispensable in sunny and hot gardens. Looks pretty. You probably have it.
Golden oregano, I don't think so... I'll check it out. Thx pod
ok there is a picture of it in container garden magazine, this month on news stands presently.
Been out of pocket here... I need to find a newstand that handles that mag. Thanks ~ pod
I don't see it in many stores either.
Hi podster,
I'm in Atlanta, so depending on the zone map I'm either in your zone--8a--or in 7b. In either case, its similar, and I can appreciate the heat and humidity and dryness you're dealing with! I garden for fragrance myself, so I thought I might be able to offer some suggestions. I don't know how your garden is situated, but my two are positioned such that one gets only morning sun, and the other gets full-blast afternoon-to-sunset sun with no shade. In that garden, I have roses (which, once their taproots are down, are a little too happy in that location, as I find myself cutting off 10 feet of branches at a time--I thought mine had exploded the first year I planted it!), nicotiana (which I've already cut back twice this year and it keeps coming back--that one, I can smell from my driveway), tuberose, oregano, acidanthera, Thalia daffodils, monarda 'petite wonder', pineapple mint, four o'clocks and a corkscrew vine (vigna caracalla), all of which are fragrant. You might also consider moonflower vines and roman chamomile, though the roman chamomile, like the pineapple mint, has a tendency to be somewhat invasive. I have my moonflower vines in the morning sun garden, as the leaves wilt in the midday heat, but nothing beats their fragrance at night!