Spring Plant Run

I'm turning a large portion of the back yard into mulched areas and planting areas--basically trying to reduce the grass we have to water and mow, and put in tough, hardy, native or adapted plants that will not need a lot of water or care once they are established. So, I knew I'd have some space to play with, and that I particularly wanted some more salvia greggii and lantana, but was also open to whatever cool plants I might find at the annual spring wildflower sale at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, and a nursery not far from there called Natural Gardener, where I go every now and again to get organic soil amendments, plants, and take pictures of their butterfly garden. Here's what I got at each place, plus pics that I took (which will be noted) or from the online plant database for LJWC, along with plant info from there (if there's no pic and you want to see one, follow the link).

Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center Spring Sale

Gulf Muhly--I love this stuff! I got two gallon containers of it two years ago at our first LJWC sale and it's done great, with beautiful pink feathery flowers in Fall....well, last year I moved one and it's not looking so good, so I got a spare in case it just peters out this year; although this one is only in a 4 inch pot and will take several seasons to get as big as my others...

Inland Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolium)--This grass is also really cool looking. This was going to go in an expanded planting area behind the patio I made in the back part of the backyard, but, see, I do not have "moist, acidic loam," and thus I'm going against my above mantra a bit, so may put it in a pot that I can treat with acidifier like I do my potted azaleas!
Water Use: Medium; Light Requirement: Part Shade , Shade; Soil Moisture: Moist , Dry; Soil pH: Acidic (pH<6.8);>CaCO3 (as in Limestone) Tolerance: Low; Soil Description: Moist loamy well-drained soils. Sandy Sandy Loam Medium Loam Clay Loam Clay; Comments: Inland seaoats is a shade-tolerant grass with large graceful seed heads. The blue-green bamboo-like leaves often turn a bright yellow-gold especially in sunnier sites in fall. It will remain attractive through most of the winter but when it becomes tattered cut the seaoats back to the evergreen basal rosette. Reseeds easily. The seed stalks are attractive in flower arrangements. Inland sea oats makes a solid mat in moist loams and has been planted to help stabilize sandy dunes. Larval Host: Pepper & salt skipper butterfly, Bells road side skipper butterfly, Bronzed roadside skipper butterfly

Rose Mallow (Pavonia lasiopetala)--I just moved the one I planted last year from the LJWC and, yup, it's none too happy either, so I got two...an heir and a spare. Even if it doesn't make it, these will have a home in the new area I'm preparing in the back. It has small, bright pink hibiscus-like flowers, can take sun or part-shade, low water use, and attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.

Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium sagittiferum)--actually a member of the iris family, and require semi-shade. I've already planted the two I got under the 'Natchez' crape myrtle (white) in my front salvia bed, which had one there already from last year. They will make a cute semi-circle around the front of its trunk.

Red Columbine--This is the red and yellow columbine native to most of the eastern half of the US. Thought it would go nicely with the yellow Texas columbine I have. Takes shade, of course, and can do well in dry, thin soil.


Woolly Butterfly Bush (Buddleja marrubifolia): I currently have two buddleias in shades of purple, and they provide great opportunities to photograph butterflies. So why not one more? This one will contrast with its silvery "wooly" foliage and yellow and orange blooms. It's a large shrub like all Buddleia--3-6 feet. Water Use: Low; Light Requirement: Part Shade; Soil Moisture: Dry; Soil Description: Sandy Sandy Loam Medium Loam Clay Loam Clay Limestone-based; Comments: Woolly butterfly bush attracts a fair number of butterflies. The orange flowers and fuzzy leaves of pale gray-green are attractive. Because it is accustomed to a warmer part of Texas woolly butterfly bush needs protection from freezes." (need to mulch this baby good in winter and maybe wrap in burlap in the winter--but then Davesgarden.com says they are hardy to zone 7b, so it should certainly come back from the root, even if it dies back)


Standing Cypress (Ipomopsis rubra): The one I bought last year (seen at left) self-seeded a bit in a front bed (I just picked the seedlings out of the mulch today and transplanted them in areas where there was a gap in the landscape tarp) , but it's so awesome for butterflies and hummingbirds that I got one more plant--just in case those don't make it.

Texas Betony (Stachys Coccinea)--This kind of resembles Standing Cypress and Salvia Coccinea with it's tall spikes of small red flowers, but I'm going for the gusto with hummingbirds and butterflies, and unlike those others, does well in shade. Water Use: Medium; Light Requirement: Part Shade; Soil Moisture: Moist; Soil Description: Moist soils; Comments: Texas betony has aromatic foliage and a tremendous bloom show. The heaviest blooms are in early spring but Texas betony continues to display vivid scarlet flowers throughout the season. Makes a good groundcover for shady places.
Barbara's Buttons (Marshallia caespitosa)

Big Red Sage (Salvia Penstemonoides)--another tall perennial with red tubular flowers; this is in the mint family. Water Use: Medium; Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade; Soil Moisture: Dry; Soil Description: Medium Loam Clay Loam Clay Limestone-based Calcareous; Conditions Comments: Big red sage was once thought to be extinct. It grows easily from seed and is now a common garden plant. Robust glossy foliage looks attractive behind a border. The hummingbirds and butterflies love this summer bloomer. Cut spent flower spikes to their basal rosettes. Reseeds easily.

Small Coastal Germander (Teucrium cubenses)-- Water Use: Low; Light Requirement: Sun; Soil Moisture: Dry; Comments: This delicate herbaceous mint relative with multitudes of small white blossoms often grows adjacent to prickly pear. The old growth can be cut back in mid summer when new growth appears at the base.



Blue Shrub Sage (Salvia Ballotiflora): Deciduous 3-6 ft. shrub; Water Use: Low
Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade; Soil Moisture: Dry; Heat Tolerant: yes
Soil Description: Limestone-based Sandy Sandy Loam Medium Loam Clay Loam Clay Calcareous; Comments: Blue shrub sage is somewhat of a woody plant. Cut it back in late winter to produce bushy plants in the spring. The leaves smell great and the nectar feeds adult butterflies. Somewhat deer resistant.

Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera Semperverens)--My back-fence neighbor has this growing on her side of the fence, and I noticed that if it trails on the ground it will root. I might take advantage of that, but in the mean-time I got a small plant to start on the far end of the back fence. Hummingbirds love it! Water Use: Medium; Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade; Soil Moisture: Moist;CaCO3 Tolerance: Medium; Cold Tolerant: yes; Soil Description: Various soils. Sandy Sandy Loam Medium Loam Clay Loam Clay Caliche type; Comments: Coral honeysuckle requires light good air circulation and adequate drainage to prevent powdery mildew. Some structural assistance may be necessary to help it begin climbing. Not too aggressive. Good climber or ground cover. High-climbing twining vine 3-20 ft. long with smooth glossy paired semi-evergreen leaves and 2-4 flowered clusters of red tubular blooms followed by bright-red berries. Prune after flowering to shape and control. Flowers best when given more sun. Tolerates poor drainage.

Pearl or Green Milkweed Vine (Matelea reticulata)--I got a purple one at the sale last September, but didn't plant it quickly enough and it dried out in the pot. I kept it though and this spring it started to leaf out from the root! Then in a couple of weeks it died back again. Hmm. But I really wanted to try it and have it as a Monarch larval host, so looked for it, or the Green variety at the sale this year. Only had the green one, but I was excited as it sounds and looks from the pictures as a really pretty flowering vine (6-12'). (I'll keep watering the purple one and hope it comes back...) Water Use: Low; Light Requirement: Part Shade; Soil Moisture: Dry; Cold Tolerant: yes; Heat Tolerant: yes; Comments: Green milkweed vine is not a bold plant but the green star-shaped flowers with a pearly irridescent center are lovely and curious. Use as a novel woodland-edge garden feature. Blooms best with plenty of sun but does well in some shade also. The Large interesting seed pod open up to release silky seed threads and many seeds. Members of the Milkweed family are host to Queen and Monarch butterflies.

Barbara's Buttons (Marshallia caespitosa)-- related to Asters; 8-18" tall; Water Use: Low; Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade; Soil Moisture: Dry; Soil Description: Sandy or calcareous soils. Sandy Sandy Loam Limestone-based Medium Loam Clay Loam Clay
Comments: Barbaras-buttons is an upright perennial with solitary or several unbranched stems. Dainty balls of white fragrant flowers are borne on slender leafless stalks arising from a rosette of narrow leaves. (These would look really cute with the white flowers floating above the fuzzy white leaves of lamb's ears!)


Chocolate Daisy/Green-Eyed lyre leaf (Berlandiera lyrata): I heard someone talking

about this at the plant-sale. They said the word 'chocolate' and I went running to get one. Here's a picture of the one I bought; it has a little flower on it now, but it's green so far, while it's just a little past a bud, although apparently it should turn yellow...This phenomenon is attested in pictures at the LJWC plant database.
Size Notes: 1-2 feet. Water Use: Low; Light Requirement: Sun , Part Shade; Soil Moisture: Moist; CaCO3 (Limestone) Tolerance: High; Comments: This flower smells like chocolate! On warm days it will fill the air with fragranceLyre-leaf greeneyes or chocolate flower is a velvety-leaved 1-2 ft. perennial. Its mounded coarse gray-green foliage has a chocolate aroma. A leafy plant often with many short branches at base and longer leaning branches ending in leafless stalks topped by flower heads with yellow rays surrounding a maroon central disk. The numerous daisy-like blossoms are 2 in. across with yellow rays and a maroon center. These flowers open in the morning and droop in the heat of day. The cup-like seedheads which follow are also attractive.

Woolly Stemodia (Stenodia lanata)--Light Requirement--Part Shade; Soil Moisture: Dry; Soil Description: Deep sandy soils of plains brushlands slopes dunes and beaches. Comments: Woolly stemodia is a white plant that is great for the foliage alone....and then it blooms! Tiny flowers are most visible at close range. Quite suitable and attractive for trailing over the edge of a pot or wall. (Will likely plant this at the back of the yard around the patio where I already have lambs ears, making sure it's near the rock wall to spill over; both will probably like a little sand and amendments to lighten the soil.

Natural Gardener:

Yarrow Achillea 'Paprika'--Really pretty brick-red color. The one I got has lots of buds on it and I hope to be able to dry some blooms--they retain color well. Yarrow is supposed to do well in poor, dry soil, so great for out back.

Salvia Greggii--unnamed but the flowers are a mix of pale yellow and pale pink so they look a soft peach color. It is lighter than the varietal 'Coral'. Salvia

Salvia Greggii 'Sunset'
Lantana 'Bandana Cherry'--mix of bright pink and yellow" 2'x2' (upright)

Lantana 'Silver Mound'--silvery foliage and pale yellow flowers. 18"x36" (trailing)

Geranium 'Pelargonium Sidoides': this is a South African species geranium with small, fuzzy silvery l

eaves and tiny dark plum-purple blooms. Y'know--I think it would look great in a pot with one of the Sea Oats! Which pot, I don't know yet... the pic is looking down on it. I was looking it up online and found that it is used as a medicinal plant for respiratory conditions, and as an antibacterial. Who knew?