Native Texas Plants for landscaping

[Lovestoteach]

Can anyone recommend some good native Texas plants for landscaping??

[Spartan]

I hear that Omah's is the expert in this area.

[CenTexDave]

If you live where you have a herd of deer, make sure they are "deer resistant" or you'll just be feeding them whatever you plant.

[Ricky]

Can anyone recommend some good native Texas plants for landscaping??

This may help ...

[Lovestoteach]

Thanks!

[birdfriend]

You can also find information here.
http://texassuperstar.com/plants/index.html

[Night Owl]

Thanks

[Imagine]

Sentimental person that I am, I would love to get a gardenia bush growing here. My parents used to own a house in Killeen with an incredibly huge gardenia bush in front of the house. The aroma of gardenias was so strong we sometimes had to close the kitchen window. In Louisiana, the house my family lived in in New Llano had a hedge of gardenias along the front of the house. Those two places are the happiest times of my life. I've tried to get a gardenia growing in my yard for about the past ten years and have had no success. Anyone anywhere in Bell County area have any help for me?

[Spartan]

I, too love the smell of Gardenia. However, one has to accept that some things are mission impossible. Gardenia come from warm humid tropical areas. They demands high humidity, something I don’t believe you can find in Central Texas for more than 10 percent of the time. While we do have bright sun, without a lot of amendment we cannot provide the acidic soils with good drainage Gardenia demand. Our soil is naturally alkaline and cliché does not drain well. Gardenia like daytime temperatures in the mid 70s and nighttime in the low 60s; do you see any chance of that happening here during the growing season? At best you might be able to get a G. jasminoides to grow indoors.

[Imagine]

Thanks, Spartan, I've pretty much accepted that gardenias and Killeen don't match. But hey, stranger things have happened, ...who would have thought we'd have 4" of snow on a late Easter in 2007? So I'll keep trying, and just enjoy a greenhouse gardenia every once in a while until I add it to my compost pile. :)

[stormy]

I have a gardenia plant in my landscaping. When it flooded in 2007, I thought all the rain had killed it. I think it took 2 years for it to bloom again. It was doing fine until it got crowded with ground cover I had planted and all that rain, but it's slowly coming back. It only blooms about 5 or 6 flowers, but it doesn't seem to mind the sun and it definitely did not like all that water.

Last year, the freeze nearly killed my huge wisteria bush/shrub. It slowly made a comeback, but then this winter hit it hard again. :(

[rube]

Here's a cool article about a local landscaper and G W Bush's Crawford tree ranch.

Special meeting with George W. Bush for CenTex Landscapers (http://www.centraltexasnow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14317850)

[SamBrown]

I live in Harker Heights and have a Gardenia in front of my house. It took a good two years to get it established, but it is doing great now. I planted it in the shade of one of our oaks and I hardly ever water it other than during the summer heat. Don't give up; try different places in your yard ... you will find a spot for a Gardenia eventually.
As for native plants, I have lots of different sages; Copper Canyon daisies, pink scull caps; Mexican oregano, Mexican mint marigold, heart-leaf scull caps, turks caps, blue indigo, flame acantha, rock rose. Any of these will do great.

[finalbowser]

I planted two gardenias two years ago. They were doing great during the summer, but the first winter killed off one and the second winter killed off the other. :(

[moore254]

I'm so happy for this thread! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've been wanting more trees!

[JoAnn Purser]

I planted two gardenias two years ago. They were doing great during the summer, but the first winter killed off one and the second winter killed off the other. :(

I have five small from last year and I only lost one from the hard freeze. Last week they were blooming and were blissfully wonderful. Hydrangeas do well on the North side of my home too. Blooming right now.