4 Must-Have Plants for the Southern Plains

As garden mall start to open their doors for the season ( and we get ready to unravel into them with open arm ) , we decide to ask some regional experts what plants are on the top of their shopping lists this yr . These wish list plant are undoubtably beautiful , but many are also unfearing , insubordinate to diseases and pest , long bloomers or more compact than other variety . In other words , before you go over out these four must - have plants for the Southern Plains , you ’ll want to find some more space in your garden .

1. Mexican Tulip Poppy

Name:Hunnemannia fumariifolia

Zones:8–11

Size:1 to 2 foot magniloquent and all-inclusive

Conditions : Full sun ; well - drained soil

Native Range : Mexico and southwest United States

This was easy my favorite industrial plant at my job in 2020 , and I appear forward to incorporate it into my own garden in 2021 . Mexican tulip poppy ’s vivacious yellow blossoms are sunny , floppy , and fresh . The leafage is that gray - greencolor typical of desert plants — think of grey globemallow(Sphaeralcea incana , Zones 7–10 ) . This metal money was known as native to northern Mexico for a tenacious time but was only latterly found in the Big Bend region of Texas . In cultivation , it blossom from late winter through late summertime or early fall . In the intense heat energy of August , it gets rough or even dies back but egress again with cooler weather . This plant just came into the nursery market in 2020 , and I ’ll be searching for it above all other plant .

2. Blue Mistflower

Name:Chromolaena odorata

Size:3 to 6 feet tall and 2 to 4 feet wide-eyed

Conditions : Partial shade ; well - drained filth

Native Range : Florida , Texas , Central and South America

This plant life is like the perfect love kid of Gregg ’s Eupatorium coelestinum ( Conoclinium greggii , Zones 7–10 ) and white mistflower ( Ageratina havanensis , Zones 7–10 ) . Gregg ’s ageratum and white mist-flower get all the press for appeal butterfly — and they are first-class , but their cousin-german , blue Conoclinium coelestinum , is just as unspoilt or peradventure even better . This is a woody subshrub that stick out up tall , with purplish blue flowers that appear in former summertime or other fall , and it thrives in all kinds of soil , even tolerating teetotal condition . I ’m always on the lookout station for well plants like this for shade and fond shade .

3. Carolina Wolfberry

Name:Lycium carolinianum

Zones:7–11

Size:4 to 6 foot marvelous and 2 to 3 invertebrate foot wide of the mark

status : Full sun to partial shade ; moist soil

Native Range : Southeastern United States

I ’ve been eyeing this plant for years . Carolina wolfberry is a amusing little sprawl bush with thorns , midget succulent leaves , tube-shaped royal peak , and , good of all , eatable red Chuck Berry . It ’s in the same phratry as tomatoes and potatoes , and this coinage is a closelipped cousin-german to the goji berries that are so expensive at wellness food stores . Like goji Chuck Berry , the fruits of this plant life can be harvested and dry out for later wasting disease . Wolfberry will even abide saline stain . I design to try it out on a shoulder in my railyard whose adjacent swale receives diverted wash water from a washing machine ( wet and saline solution ) . The flowers attract butterflies , and the fruit attract birds , make it a good works for many unlike types of wildlife .

4. Cloud Forest Sugar Maple

Name:Acer saccharumsubsp.skutchii

Zones:7–9

Size:40 to 50 feet tall and 20 to 30 foot wide

Conditions : fond specter ; moist , well - drain soil

Native Range : Mexico and Central America

I first heard about cloud forest sugar maple from an arborist ally in San Antonio last year . I ’ve wanted to add a maple or two to my own belongings , and this one face pretty interesting . It ’s native to a handful of high - elevation locations in Mexicoand Guatemala and is being investigated as a metal money of interestfor the southerly United States because it is so tolerant of drouth and alkaline soils . This maple is fast - mature and , when mature , makes a spiritualist to large tree with an unsloped oval or rounded form . Fall colour can range from yellowish to orangish red , while new growth can be green , pinkish , yellowish , or ruby-red ; the summer foliage is a metier to dark jet . This is the southernmost species of the wampum maple , and it also has the largest key ( winged fruits ) of all maple .

Karen Beaty is a city forestry medical specialist for the Wildland Conservation Division in Austin , Texas .

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