Fall Plant Buying Spree!

So the biennial pilgrimage to Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center's native plant sale and the Natural Gardener nursery occurred on Friday. Himself took a half-day off and we sojourned down there on a really beautiful, warm but not to warm, bright and sunny day, which ended with shopping and dinner at the Whole Foods flagship store, driving home well after dark with a car stuffed with plants, wines, pumpkin ale, exotic cheeses and whatnot. Good times!

Anyhoo, here's the list:

Ladybird Johnson:

Desert Honeysuckle [Anisacanthus puberulus]--actually Himself found this and was enamored by the description or something...I have three flame acanthi around the yard and they have been magnets for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, so I thought, why not give this pink-flowered relative a try? Heat tolerant and xeric sold me.


Yellow Passionflower [passiflora lutea]

Lyre-leaf Sage [Salvie lyrata]--I had a couple of these in front, then I moved them before that hot dry summer spell and one died--so, replacing! These self-seed too; it can make a ground-cover and resembles ajuga.

White Avens [Geum canadense]--a shade perennial in the rose family--foliage like strawberry plants, and way-cool, delicate white flowers.

Wooly Ironweed [Vernonia lindheimeri]--cool story behind this one:

Woolly ironweed is a 10-30 in. high clump of gray-woolly stems and leaves. Flowers lack petals, but numerous lavender to purple disk flowers are arranged in showy, terminal clusters. Not a rampant colonizer like some other members of this genus. Well behaved species.

This species is named after Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer (1801-1879) who is often called the Father of Texas Botany because of his work as the first permanent-resident plant collector in Texas. In 1834 Lindheimer immigrated to the United States as a political refugee. He spent from 1843-1852 collecting specimens in Texas. In 1844 he settled in New Braunfels, Texas, and was granted land on the banks of the Comal River, where he continued his plant collecting and attempted to establish a botanical garden. He shared his findings with many others who shared his interest in botany, including Ferdinand von Roemer and Adolph Scheele. Lindheimer is credited with the discovery of several hundred plant species. In addition his name is used to designate forty-eight species and subspecies of plants. He is buried in New Braunfels. His house, on Comal Street in New Braunfels, is now a museum.

Giant Coneflower [Rudbeckia maxima]--'Tis the season after all for "brown-eyed Susans"!
Note to self: It should be cut back to the base after blooming to keep tidy and be planted in mass for best effect in landscapes; moist; sun-part shade (so plant in front where it can be watered)