We are thoroughly enchanted by a little-known Southeast native ornamental grass, Schizachyrium divergens, and in particular, a ZZ-Top like, super hairy version, named Schizachyrium divergens ‘The Fuzz’. We say little-known, because it was formerly dumped into the widespread Schizachyrium scoparium, which seems an unconscionable taxonomic stretch. Some taxonomists now consider it a Texas endemic, while
Looking absolutely dazzling in early August is our plant of Leucophyllum frutescens ‘Silver Spirit’. For decades we tried to grow this Southwestern US (Utah, Arizona, and Texas) native, but failed over and over again with winter survival, until Patrick McMillan shared cuttings of his Uvalde, Texas collection. After five years in the ground, it’s still
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Just finishing it’s flowering for the year is our specimen of Cylindropuntia kleinii. This North American native to the Chihuahuan desert regions of Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, forms a 5′ tall, gnarly specimen, composed of long, jointed sections, that break away as they become attached to anything that tries to pass to near. Many
One of the easiest of the evergreen desert ferns we grow if the North American native, Astrolepis sinuata, better known as wavy cloak fern. This year, we’ve introduced spore grown plants of Astrolepis sinuata ‘Jeff Davis’, from our 2000 spore collection in the West Texas county by the same name. In that desolate region (population
It’s just hard to walk by our amazing specimen of Forestiera ‘Woodlanders Weeping’ without snapping a photo, but since it’s been several years since we mentioned it on-line, it’s time to share our most recent shot from this week. Forestiera angustifolia, better known as desert olive, is a Texas native from the Southern part of
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Long ago, we gave up our red plastic hummingbird feeders for a more natural way to attract hummers to the garden, and one of the best is the Southwest US native Anisacanthus wrightii. Starting for us in August, it continues to be a blaze of glory through September. Texas firecracker prefers full sun and dry
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We struggled for years to grow the commercial selections of the mostly heat-intolerant, North American native, alternate-leaf dogwood, Cornus alternifolia, which naturally ranges from Canada south to Alabama. It wasn’t until years 30 years ago when local botanist Jesse Perry provided us with seed from a local disjunct population, that we had plants to survive
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We trial quite a few sedges in the garden, some of which are a bit aggressive, while others that make fantastic garden specimens. One of our newer favorites is our selection of Carex basiantha ‘Cousin Itt’. This species is native from NC west to Texas, where it grows in average to moist forests, often over
I’ve always been fascinated with the use of contrasting textures and forms in the garden, so this combination of the Texas native, Clematis carrizoensis and Agave x protamericana at JLBG, give one idea how that’s possible in the dryer part of the garden.
One of our favorite desert/dryland ferns that grace our crevice garden is the Texas native, Pellaea ovata. The zig-zag rachis (the thing that holds the leaflets) gives it its common name of zig-zag fern. This dryland evergreen native from Central Texas south into Central America, makes a great specimen for a rock garden setting. For
