Thanks to Josephine, I am now hooked on native plants. I also love any wildflowers or just drought tolerant plants.
First and my personal favorite: Gailardia
Let's see your Natives and Wildflowers
I didn't know there were so many faces on mexican hat flowers. This one looks like it has a wreath on top.
Would you believe that I have other Mexican hats as well that I just haven't photographed yet? I do!
Here is Monarda Citradora or Horsemint. This grew on me slowly. Now I love it as it is attractive to butterflies, bees and hummers.
Another favorite. I saw this growing in a patch and nearly died until I could turn around and go back for it. It was on an old farm to market road with no traffic thank goodness! I just got one flower with a root. There were only two growing there and one was really branched out and the one I got was a new seedling I suppose. That was last year. This photo is this year and mine is all branched out and only one root. I want to take cuttings, but I am afraid to "hurt" it. I am thinking I will try layering it.
This phlox stands out as pretty as a rose bush with it's never ending red blooms. So far it has just added more and more blooms and none have fallen off. It is quite impressive and my DH says if I don't quit saying so he is ready to ........who knows what he is ready for? LOL I just can't help expressing my excitement over getting one little flower and this is the return.
Now this Verbena is quite a beauty. I have four different kinds of wild purple verbena. This is one that you only want to put in a place that you don't mind rhisomes taking off and ruling the place. It comes out between the cracks of the bed I have it (contained?) in. It is quite a site though when it heats up outside and everything else wilts from the heat and a hard drought. This keeps on blooming and blooming and is a vibrant dark purple mass of blooms.
Great topic for a thread! May I just sit in and admire your garden?
Lily, ya'll just come on down. We'll sit and sip tea and listen to the birds and watch the butterflies and hummers.
Charlene
Lily_love, yes they are natives! At least some of them are...
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PAIN6
Charlene, I am thrilled with you wildflowers, and I am very happy to see that I have inspired you to appreciate them, you are putting me to shame, you are doing so well,
I think that red phlox is Drummond Phlox
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PHDR
Josephine.
Carlo the Yellow flower is Jerusalem sage, not a Texas native but very beautiful.
Josephine.
Well, the Jerusalem sage is growing in the middle of a field in Blanco county, so it's an introduced, but "ferral" wildflower. Thanks for ID'ing it.
I love them all, they are all so beautiful. The Verbena halei is really neat too.
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=VEHA
It's funny because one person I know said, "that's not a verbena, it's a vervain. It's related to the verbena." Heheh.
Ok, I hope this is a native. It's definitely a wildflower, even if introduced. Again, from last week's visit to my grandmother's place. It's a huge cup-shaped yellow flower. I'd call it a buttercup, except we called everything shaped like this a "buttercup," including pink evening primroses (Oenothera rosea). Anyway, this bloom was bigger than most I see, a little bigger than a baseball.
O.K. the first one Missouri Primrose a Texas native
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=OEMA
the second Skeleton-plant another native,
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=LYTE
This is great, I wish I had more time, but I have to leave for church, see you guys later.
Josephine.
Charlene, the red phlox is a Drummond Phlox. I love those! I winter sowed some seeds I've had for at least 8 years. One germinated and I'm nursing it along. Can't wait ti it's as big as yours!
Stephanie, I can't wait until the Drumondi phlox makes seeds. I want a whole bed full of them.
I have one more verbena, but I can't seem to find a photo of it.
The moss verbena roots faster than any plant I have ever seen. It only takes a tiny pinch of it with the fern like leaves on it and stick it into your rooting soil and bwalah! You can take one stem and make a dozen plants from it quickly.
It is the best one I have found for hanging baskets. When it grows it is like a spoke only with more of the spokes than a wheel. It just has a center point and it sends out stems and it blooms all summer long. All of the verbenas I have are drought tolerant once established.
The fourth verbena looks almost just like the moss one. It grows upwards though and the flowers start at the top and flowers further down the stem than the other verbenas with just top flowers. It is also very fragrant.
Charlene
I have two kinds of Turk's caps now. One is still too small to bloom. It was a gift from a DG'er in Houston. She sent me a load of cuttings and boy did they root.
I rescued the small Turk's caps which I have nine of growing alongside my driveway. I didn't even know what they were when I got them. They were in a bucket and had grown through the bucket into the ground beneath them. They were on a lot that my DH's brother owned. It had been a homestead, but was just a vacant lot now (except for all the wonderful flowerific finds there). When I had an RU at my house the plants were just starting to bloom. Josephine told me what they were. Of course I love them as well as all my other goodies. They aren't blooming yet, but here is a photo of a bloom from last year.
I have one lantana, but it was bought at the big box home improvement store. I don't know if I've ever seen them in the wild.
