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Native PlantsWhen choosing plants for your landscape, it's best to go native. |
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Transcript: Native Plants
You know spring has arrived when the redbuds start blooming. Spring is a time when we love to get out and plant things in the landscape. And when you're investing in plants, whether they're trees, shrubs, or perinnials, it makes sense to invest in something that's going to be around a long time. Native plants have been here longer than we have and, as a result, they're very well adapted to our area.Take the redbud, for example. Here for Central Texas, we do much better when we plant our native Texas redbud or one that's closely related and does well in the southwest called Mexican redbud. These are well-adapted to our site, so when it gets hot and dry like it does every year, they know how to handle that climate.
There are many other native plants we can put in our landscape. Texas Mountain Laurel is perhaps the poster plant for natives. It's an evergreen that's absolutely beautiful as a screen plant all through the year, and then in the spring produces those large, purplish blooms that have that great bubblegum fragrance that's very distinctive.
We also have a wide variety of native Texas perennials such as Salvia greggii and many other good salvias. And Hymenoxys, a beautiful little plant that blooms with yellow blossums in the spring and on through the summer.
So when you visit your nursery this spring, ask for some Texas tough natives. You'll be glad you did because they're an excellent investment in your landscape. Looks like the natives are getting restless; I'd better go.
With your commonsense tip on Texas tough natives, I'm Skip Richter.
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Last Updated:
July 6, 2006