My dear husband and I (and daughter) are considering relocating to Rockwall for a job opportunity. We are avid rose, daylily and vegetable gardeners. Can anyone give me guidance on what to expect? Here in Arizona we have different seasons due to the heat and often are concerned with soil and sun issues.
If we were to purchase 5 acres in Rockwall do you have the same concerns??? How is the soil??? Would I need to bring in serious dirt to get a substantial garden going??? Will summer sun fry a plant (like in Phoenix)??
Any advice would be appreciated.
Kristi
Texas Gardening Advice
I am not from Rockwall but did live in Tempe, AZ. I think you will find a wider seasonal change in Rockwall. I am sure there will still be gardening challenges tho...
I'll welcome you to the TX gardening forum and hope you will find the answers you need. Best wishes... pod
We've become rose addicts. Candidly one of the reasons we'd move to Rockwall is to get buy some land and plant many many roses..... and daylilies....
Well come on down and join us in Texas for sure
I am becoming a rose addict myself having moved here from Illinois just this last August and Tyler is the Short Stem rose capital and we have a number of places to get Roses and in Sept the wholesalers have them out for sale and you can get them for as little as $3
I had 4 when we moved in already here and am up to 17 now
I have day lilies that are not blooming yet that were already here and have already started my veggie garden only having added some compost to it.
But there are places that you can get large amounts of Compost or soil to amend yours making it much better for growing in I have just not gotten to doing that yet.
I'm still learning my way around Texas so I'm not sure ion the area you are asking about but I do know Everyone here in the Texas forums has been GREAT at helping me learn the Texas gardening ways .
I live some 30 miles from Rockwall, still in Dallas County. We are primarily caliche with clay soil. In it's history Rockwall was a farming community and did quite well. I feel certain you will have great success with roses. Daylillies are no problem either. Everyone in North Central Texas amends their beds every year. It is just a given. We have our fair share of winter but snow and ice is an event that closes everything down. Heat is another thing all together. While AZ has extreme temps, it is rather dry there. We have the temps but humidity to go with it so AC runs about 9 months out of the year. I am currently on a tropical kick and it remains to be seen just how successful that will be. Gardening is always a challenge but if you have just the slightest experience with roses, you've got it made. My biggest problem with mine is black spot. They are not my main interest so I don't work really hard to prevent it. They ignore me and bloom anyway.
I say "WELCOME TO TEXAS'! Very friendly people always eager and willing to bring another into the fold. Lived in Dallas my entire long life. Don't know how to imagine living anywhere else.
Tyler Texas is just down I20 from Rockwall and is a rose capital, having many rose festivals a year. Then a little further down I20 is Shreveport on the Texas/Louisiana state line. Just inside Texas is the American Rose Growers (or something like that).
Rockwall is within 100 miles of Tyler and Shreveport about, oh I'd say around another 75-100 miles.
Pack your bags. Your coming to Texas! yay!
Christi
Rockwall is typical Blackland Prairie soil. That means thick black clay soil. When wet, it's sticky and heavy and when dry it's hard as a rock. And 5 acres would probably be old farm land so you may have to hope its not over worked. Your best bet will probably be to have a few loads of compost delivered and mix that in and if you can swing it, a few bags of expanded shale. It's expensive but you don't need a whole lot.
Roses and daylilies do great here. They are my favorites too. :) I have 16 rose bushes and over 30 daylilies. You will probably have to go with different varieties of Roses due to the humidity here, but any daylilies you have there should transplant wonderfully. To get an idea of the best Rose's for growing around here, just google "Earthkind Roses".
As far as the sun and heat, it's worse here than much of the US, but I think you will find it less harsh than Phoenix. But you do have a winter here. Including freezing temperatures, occasionally dipping into the teens, ice and snow.
The folks on DG are the best and this is just another example. Thank you all so very much. Great info and if anyone else would like to share please do so. My DH is retired Army and always has commented that he never met a person from Texas he didn't like. Thanks again, and I can see I must visit this forum regularly.
Don and Kristi
Thanks for adding,Sweezel. Actually, not necessary to go very far to find entirely different conditions. Often very close together will different soil. You won't need to amend the entire 5 acres but the beds would be wise. Nothing very extravagant. I believe the days of making the bed and then just plopping down the plant is long gone. Even the plants are specialized these days.
FYI, McKinney is about 60 miles north of DeSoto. They may have snow and we don't have anything. Kind of on a cusp of the weather map.
Christi
Great another Kristi, Christi. podster is also Kristi. Now that has got to be some sort of "sign". hahahahaha
Christi
Very true about the weather difference. This year sure proved it. We had two measurable snows up here in McKinney, and I think you guys just got a dusting?
Never totally covered anything.
Don & Kristi, you may find this site helpful
http://www.soilsurvey.org/survey/texas.asp
Hi, Kristi. I live just off I-30, right across the lake from Rockwall. Have you ever visited there? It's a lovely community.
bettydee, that's a interesting link. I will have to save it. What stinks is that Rockwall County is not in the list. It's a tiny little county though. Kristi, you can look up Dallas County, Collin County or Hunt County, as those counties surround it.
Christi ~ Knolan is Kristi too... bet there are a few more of us out there! I think we all have the gardening gene... LOL
Kristi (dwr857) ~ the only thing that may be of concern is water. The past few dry years have tapped the water sources severely putting restrictions on many areas. As water will be critical for future generations, you may also improve the beds to retain some moisture ( I suspect that will be a fine line with roses ) or consider some source of rainwater harvesting for your plants.
Kristi, Texas is very diverse, So while roses grow famously around Tyler you are unlikely to find commercial growing of roses in Rockwall. If are able to relocate just a little to the east you can find optimal rose growing conditions. This map
http://cnrit.tamu.edu/cgrm/whatzhot/maps/new-3.gif
shows the regions of texas. Rockwall county is fully in area 4 the blackland prairies. I like many on this forum live in this area and roses can grow here. But if you can relocate a little east to areas 3 or 1 your roses will grow famously. I've grown roses in blackland soil and East Texas soil, The East Texas soil is so,so much better and easier. Go southeast from Rockwall to the middle of Van Zandt county and there are many rose growing operations.
Hi Kristi - I'm another Kristi, chiming in (Thank you for counting me in with the Kristi's, Podster).
Nice to meet you. I'm gulf coast gardening so I can't help with many questions but these wonderful folks seem to be doing a great job. Hope to see you on the Tx forum a lot! Welcome!
Awww thanks everyone and both links provide so much data. We are in the process of planning a trip to TX in the near future and you sure have provided much to think about. Maybe one day soon we can become viable members of your great forum.... I know I speak for the two of us when I say thank you!
Kristi
The attached picture was just taken tonight. Its a hybrid tea called Secret!
I see you are another night owl Kristi! Not this one... LOL Pretty Secret you have there.