Moving to East Texas From West Oregon via Baja Mexico. Help!

From fir trees (Springfield. OR), flame trees in southern Baja Mexico, to pine (Quitman, TX) trees, from almost constant rain, to no rain, to four seasons. Gardening will be different in the plants that I will be able to grow under pine trees. What will I need to learn about the plants, their care and upkeep in this neck of the woods?

First. my new home has pine trees all round the house . . no I don't know what kind yet. The house is mostly shaded as is as most of the yard. I have a Redbud tree in the front. I want easy to care for plants to soften the lines of the house and color, color and more color. Right now everything is green from the house to the trees. I will need fence cover vines that will not take over the property (no ivy!) Shrubs maybe that change leaf colors from spring to fall. Bulbs that will grow in pine soil and under pines shade. Things like that. I need ideas also.

Thank you all

wow, no help but what a change.

I don't have any suggestions either. Just wanted to say that I almost shared your dilemma. We almost ended up moving to Tyler, TX because of my husband's job. I was in a panic about how I would learn to garden there in the sandy soil with the intense summer heat and humidity.

Tyler has an azalea festival every March, and there are also a lot of commercial rose growers there. I assume both plants must do well in that climate (if you happen to have a sunny spot available). I noticed some sort of bamboo growing in Tyler, too. It was in an area with dappled shade. (Not among the pines, though.)

Wish I could help more! East Texas is certainly very pretty. I hope you'll like it there.

Welcome to Dave's Garden and to Texas! Here's a really nice webpage that lists a lot of Texas' Native plants: www.texasstar.org They have a link to a Texas native plant database, too, with even more information.

Roses will definitely grow in East Texas and there are several kinds that can tolerate some shade. Azaleas love shade, too, and are beautiful. You have tons of things to choose from... East Texas is a good place to garden! What colors are you looking for? (Hot, with lots of reds and oranges, or cool with purples and blues and pastels, or something in between?)

I agree with Marilyn - almost anything will grow in East TX. And you are very close to one of the best fishing lakes in the state - Lake Fork.

welcome to texas and check out the texas site on dave's garden --lots of help there

I want to thank you all for the links and information you have sent me. My Bookmarks "Texas Plants" is quickly filling up. It looks like I have a lot of reading and dreaming to do before I unpack the garden tools! This year I know I will be asking a lot of questions, drawing up garden plans and I can see where to get my information base. . . HERE!

Connie

Hi Connie, welcome to your new home, hope you have many happy times there, like you, I had to move about due to my husbands job, not always to places I would have chosen, but gardening always kept me sane, well if that's possible. I would suggest you keep strolling around your neighbourhood to see what grows well, go to the parks and all the shopping malls as they usually have good strong growing plants that withstand lots of traffic and car pollutants also, then there is the library/book stores for books to look through, take a note pad to write down all the names, etc, for now, I would get a soil test done too as pine trees usually mean some acidic soil and that would be your starting point, the type of soil you have will dictate the type of plants that will do best for you,
Good luck. WeeNel.