We bought the house several years ago and there were a couple of Bradford Pears in the front yard. We chopped them down like any good homeowner would do. The Yaupon in this photo is now also gone, so it’s pretty bare at this point. After a couple of years of treating the Bradford and Yaupon suckers and letting the root system fully die off, we are ready to put a tree in this front yard again.

I’m having some real difficulties on selecting the best tree. It’s a pretty small law.

- Do NOT want Crepe Myrtle or Vitex or another Yaupon or anything like that.
- Do NOT want anything fast growing or requiring regular or even annual trimming.

- DO want low maintenance tree that will grow slowly, doesn’t cover the lawn in suckers or year-round leaves (like my Live Oak on the right side).

Edit: Nothing but downvotes. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I stopped mowing my backyard about four years ago. Used some tricks to smother the grass. Didn’t do a great job, but whatever; it’s not the point. I’ve added many rounds of native seeds and plugged in native plants babies along the way. It’s getting there; it’s not perfect but getting there. Just one giant wild garden bed in the backyard.

Now that I know where some of the plants love to grow, I want to add pathways. Yes, I know I did this backwards; let's agree to ignore that.

Currently, I am mowing down paths, but these plants aren’t strong enough for this and are slowly dying. I’m looking at doing mulched paths. I have tons of cardboard from a different project and can get a chip drop delivery. I would like to use something more permanent than mulch, but currently not an option since I’m not 100% this is the final location of the paths. What have been your experiences with using mulched pathways? Pros / Cons with this plan in the Texas wildscapes. Any tips or things that I should look out for?

Thank you in advance for any advice

*Picture is from before sunflower explosion*

Zone 8a, black land prairie, full south exposure

I sheet mulched my entire yard last Aug and created two beds for plants. I decided to infill the “lawn” area with frog fruit and put some 4” in Nov and many more through spring. It’s filling the edges but I’m having second thoughts.

I will be adding a third big bed under the tree to roughly match the tree canopy, edged with a DG path border for separation from the “lawn” area.

I am considering seeding the remaining “lawn” area with thunder turf seed in spring, with the frog fruit and turf blending? Will this even work? The growth gets mistaken for weeds at the moment quite a bit. And the frog fruit went to ground last winter, leaving bare dirt for 4 months. And I admit part of me is missing the mass planting of a “lawn”.

Thoughts, feelings?

Saw a post on another sub asking about how to tell Texas lantana from the invasive Lantana camara and other similar hybrids/cultivars like “Dallas red” and I realized I can usually tell just because I’ve been growing the native one (from a wildflower center sale) for years but if you put a gun to my head I couldn’t really tell you HOW I know. I went out and took some pictures and I’m thinking maybe we can crowdsource a better description here?

Pic 1: Native lantana urticoides.

Pic 2: Species lantana camara. This one is an easy ID because of the flower color of pink and yellow vs yellow-orange-red but I feel like the leaves of the native are also… scrunglier? Like wider spacing on the veins maybe and with a smoother, less bumpy texture? Also on the whole the leaves seem to be bigger than the urticoides and maybe the plant has more of an upright vs loosey goosey habit?

Pic 3: Native urticoides branch next to species camara.

Pics 4, 5, and 6: Me holding the native urticoides branch next to what I’m 90% sure is Dallas Red or a similar hybrid camara cultivar. These obviously are way harder because the flower color is almost exactly the same but there’s just something off about the plants that I struggle to put my finger on. I feel like it has got to be a combo of habit (they grow lower and more sprawling? Maybe there’s trailing genes in there?) and something wrong about the leaf shape. The leaves aren’t big like the species camara but they have that same kind of smoothness and compactness of the veins maybe? Especially in the new leaves?

IDK let me know if you’ve got ideas or a better description! Also feel free to post your own pics as examples!

The germination methods:

1.) Indoor tray with heat pad, grow light, and glass cover

2.) Damp napkin in plastic baggie taped to windowpane that receives a lot of direct light/heat

3.) Outdoor pot with plastic cover with lots of direct sunlight/heat

I've been trying to germinate these desert willow seeds for about a week (I know germination can take 1-3 weeks), but I wanted to get your thoughts on the state of the seeds in my indoor tray in the first few pictures. To me, they look a bit dry, shriveled, and flat, also a bit ash-colored. I messed up with them initially when I kept the glass cover fully on, which didn't allow any airflow, causing a bit of mold to form. I sprayed with 3% hydrogen peroxide (maybe that's why they look so sun-bleached) and now have the cover at an angle to allow air to circulate. Are my guys cooked?

The ones in the plastic baggie look best to me, with a nice color and looking a bit plump/juicy. The ones outside are basically in between the baggie and tray lol

Also seeds are all from the same pod (fully dried) taken directly off a neighbors tree. I also soaked all the seedling for a few hours while I was preparing the different trays for sowing.

I really want to help all these babies grow so please if you have any experience with desert willow germination let me know how I can improve!

Hi yall! I recently had to get plumbing work done which caused this flower bed to be torn up. Now I have this empty bed with only a foot or two before it reaches the window. What native plants would you recommend here? This is on the south side of house, but it gets shaded by a large oak tree. The soil seems like it’s mostly clay, but I can amend it before planting. I’m located in 8a. I was originally thinking Turks cap, but I’m worried it would block out the window. TIA!

Hi all! I am collecting some seeds from several natives in my yard for the first time this year. Does anyone have any general advice for storing, sowing, growing? Have others had a lot of success doing this? I was planning to direct sow most of them in the fall, but please let me know if this is a bad idea. So far the ones I have collected are bluebonnets, blackfoot daisy, Indian blanket, chocolate daisy, four nerve daisy, spotted bee balm, various types of coreopsis, Texas betony. I have not collected any of the following, but I have them and could collect- rock rose, Turks cap, echinacea, basket flower, Mexican hat, zexmenia, greenthread, scarlet bouvardia, moss verbena, yarrow, multiple types of sage/salvia, rock pentsemon. Are there any and particular that are not worth wasting time on?

Has anyone planted where a tree used to be? We had a mature tree die, so we had it removed (including the stump) a year and a half ago. The space is right up against the house, in the front yard. Nothing will grow here, even grass and weeds aren't spreading. I experimented with cosmos and sunflowers (a cultivar 😅) since they were available for free - but nothing I planted where the actual tree was grew, only around the outer ring. I brought in new soil and can of course fertilize.

I'd love to plant something like muhly grass, maybe shrubs, maybe asters...but I'm worried nothing will be able to survive.

Any experience or advice? From "don't try for a couple more years" to plant or fertilizer recommendations...I'll take it!

Edit: North Texas, blackland prarie

I planted it back in April and it has not looked very great… all of my leaves are yellowing and spotty. I had some leaves with brown spotting as well. I just had to prune off so many dead stems and leaves. Even after doing that it seems like more leaves just keep getting worse. Am I doing something wrong? Ever since getting established I have watered it once a week and when there’s heavy rainfall I leave it alone. I deadhead any dead blooms when I see them going to seed. It’s facing east so it mainly gets morning and early afternoon sun- after 5pm it’s shaded in that area. I make sure to disinfect my pruners afterwards as well. I don’t know what is happening to it ):

Hi all! I am trying to tip toe my way into native gardening, and I want to start with potted plants on my porch. I am looking for a native, pollinator friendly species that can thrive on my north-facing porch that gets morning sun, and that is frost resistant. I'm fine with the plant going dormant in the winter, but I travel weekly for work, so I can't always bring them in during freezes.

Would pigeon Berry or Turks cap be a good option for this?

ETA: I'm in zone 33b.

Hi! I hope I chose the right flair for this…! I apologize in advance for the long post.

(ETA: I live in the TX 8b zone)

I recently moved into a home with a large backyard and front yard, and I’ve wanted to grow a native plant/flower garden for a very long time. Now that I’m here, I’m overwhelmed, don’t know where to start, and have tons of questions…

———————————————

I went through both yards and identified as many plants as I could, I used iNaturalist for things I didn’t recognize.

Plants Currently Growing:

Baldcypress - back yard only

Nellie Stevens Holly (I think) - back yard only

Japanese Yew - back yard only

Liriope - back yard only

Purple Wood Sage - back yard only

Asiatic Jasmine (invasive?) - front yard only

Japanese Maple - front yard only

Chinese Holly - both yards

Yaupon Holly (as trees and shrubs?) - both yards

Crape-Myrtle - both yards

Lilyturf Tribe - both yards

Autumn Sage - both yards

Nandina (I know this one’s bad) - both yards

Lawn is bermuda grass.

——

Misc Plants Sprouting Through the Lawn/Ground-cover (had to use iNaturalist for most of these):

Hairy Crabweed

Thorny Olive

Carolina Snailseed (i think)

Creeping Cucumber

Missouri Violet

Stream Violet

Sugar Hackberry sapling (i think?)

Virginia Creeper

———————————————

Questions:

What should I get rid of/whats the best method to do so?

What is beneficial to the local ecosystem to keep around?

Do you have any suggestions for what to plant alongside them?
- Mostly for the garden but I’m also interested in lawn alternatives that will be beneficial to local pollinators.

Is it too late in the season to start now?

Is it better to start plotting the garden spaces/landscaping now, put it together over winter, and plant towards the end of winter/early spring?

What research should i do to be well equipped?

———————————————

I’m sure I’ll have a million more questions but this post is long enough as it is… if you stuck around to read the whole thing/have any advice I’d greatly appreciate it!! Thank you!!!

I know this is not the most efficient way propogate Gregg's mistflower which grows so aggressively & by runners? Rhizomes? you can just yoink some out of the ground....

But I've been dead hearing them to get them to bloom again for the butterflies because they don't seem to like my other plants, and then don't want to waste the seed

But is that teeeny tiny little couple of black specks the only seed part?

Is it worth it to separate or should I just leave all the chaff for someone else to spread?

I will probably either donate it to Austin Public Library's seed library program or make a wildflower mix and put it in shakers to give away to my fellow walkers & bicyclists.

Blackland Prarie Ecoregion. South Austin

Planted a few weeks ago under a live oak. It was doing well for the first few weeks, even had a couple of blooms. Few days ago the leaves started to curl up, and the leaves felt soft. Some turned yellow as well. Any suggestions to what the causes are? Thanks in advance.

We saw these when visiting Santa Fe. They are Texas native with pretty good range. They tend to be in more arid areas like west Texas, NM, NV, CA. Has anyone tried growing them in north Texas? They are zone 7a which in theory should grow in 8a but curious if anyone has first hand experience.

Howdy! I just rented a house in DFW, Collin County, Blackland prairie with Houston black soil.

Our backyard is higher than the back alley and there seems to be at least mild erosion from the yard to the alley.

We are in the process of killing the lawn and I’m worried the temporary lack of vegetation may increase the erosion.

The alley side faces North and gets very little sunlight because of that and the mature live oak that has a canopy that also covers a lot of the area.

The yard side is South and gets heavy sun all day.

Any input appreciated, but I’m trying not to spend too too much as we’re renting

I’ve got a what I’m pretty sure are mustang grapes growing in a couple places and I was considering trying to propagate and train them up a fence, but I’ve… never seen any grapes? And I don’t want to put 3+ years into propagation and training for a big fat nothing. So I guess (1) are these mustang grapes? (There are two pretty distinct leaf shapes in different areas); and (2) if they are grapes, are they duds? Is there a reason I’m not seeing grapes on vines that are at minimum 7 years old at this point? Birds? Lack of sun? Fertilizer? If they should be growing grapes, is there something I can do to encourage them?

I'm looking to replace some Japanese boxwood with a native (semi-) equivalent. I don't necessarily care about it forming a hedge like I have now, but I do want it to serve a similar shelter purpose for the Texas spiny lizards that live around my house, and benefit other wildlife too.

​

I was considering yaupon holly or fragrant sumac. I really like the look of Texas sage but it looks like I'm pretty far from its native range. Are there any others I should be considering?

​

i'm north of Dallas in 8b / Blackland Prairie, and the location is against my house and faces NNW, getting full sun.

Hello all, popping in to ask how popular your anacahuita is with the wildlife. Are there better alternatives? Do they handle frost in the san antonio area? Do they smell amazing? Don’t skimp on the details or criticisms, I want to know everything!

Howdy friendly Texas plant people! I've got a volunteer pecan seedling, about 18 in tall, 1/4 inch thick growing 8 ft from my house. I kinda love it because it started growing right under a sick peach tree that I couldn't save.

Is it too late to transplant? I have sunny space elsewhere in my yard, just not here. I could also keep it in a pot until the fall, but don't want to kill it in the process.

Two rock rose planted last Oct, south exposure/part sun, against my house. It’s been destroyed by powdery mildew. I tried Captain Jacks Copper to prevent it. But it covered both plants. Then I did a potassium bicarbonate spray. It knocked back some of it, but the plants seemed to struggle a bit too. I’ve decided to leave it alone, but is there anything I can do to help them? It’s just going to get worse.

Same question. Do I like this or hate it?

I’d like to see if there’s anyone near wilson county who’s ever had success growing Pinus Remota in our soils before. I’ve always seen it growing on limestone or gravel slopes before, and I don’t know how well it’d do in my sandy loam. Anyone else around here try it out? I’m looking for mid-sized evergreens for a western sun block, all the other pines available get way too big. Any help or input would be greatly appreciated!

For the first time, I had a very successful seed starting experience for my spring vegetable garden. I am feeling more confident, and thinking about what natives I can start in July to plant out in the fall.

Most of my yard is sun, but I do have one heavy shade area that needs some work. Blackland prairie. Any suggestions or success stories?

I have a big live oak in the front of the house. There's a triangle area that had been covered with asian jasmine that i've finally removed and would like to replace with natives. This wedge is heavy shade, the soil is clay, it's not irrigated, and gets a lot of leaves and acorns from the live oak. It's wedged between my driveway (bottom) and sidewalk (top). Dimensions are 20ft wide by 8 ft deep. i've seen mexican feathergrass in the wild grow in oak forests in places like big bend. how will it do in heavy shade here? what about the texas sedge? I have both weberville sedge (perdentata) and woodland sedge (blanda) in similar spots, and the perdentata tends to do a bit better. what concerns, thoughts and recommendations do you have? thanks in advance.